- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 9.1 – “On the origin of monsters”
“Why does this one look like the head is cracked?” the dark-haired Knife Fighter asked, clearly not as impressed by the previous shot as I was.
I leaned closer, seeing what he meant. The broadhead looked like it had been assembled like a puzzle out of a dozen or more smaller pieces. There were small gaps between them that did look like cracks.
“It’s a fragmentation shot,” Hassan explained, taking it back. “There’s an explosive rune inside. When you’re ready to fire, you push mana into it.”
Suddenly the cracks started glowing from within, an ominous red as if the inside of the arrow had just been pulled out of a forge. Oh shit, that looks dangerous – I can’t wait to get something like that!
He drew this one a bit more than halfway, then released. The arrow streaked through the air, burying itself completely in the sphinx’s upper rear leg. There was a muffled crack and I saw the huge corpse twitch.
“The rune detonates after impact, fragmenting the arrowhead and shredding the target from the inside.”
We followed Hassan as he walked first up to the rock. Instead of trying to pull the arrow straight out, he deliberately yanked it sideways, breaking off the shaft a couple of inches behind the head, then slid the damaged arrow into his normal quiver. A moment later, he pulled it out, and it looked brand new.
“Hmm, it did work, though it used more mana than I expected.”
“It felt like mine used a lot of mana, but I didn’t know what to expect,” I told him.
“Well, let’s see about the frag. First, let me show you the effects.”
Hassan walked around the corpse to the far side. I stopped in shock halfway. The frag arrow had sunk into the monster just like a normal arrow – assuming it was normal for an arrow to slice through thick scales like butter. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on the other side.
There was a section of scales missing that looked to be as big around as my torso, maybe bigger. Everything that had been behind those scales was now, well, outside the monster – splattered over the ground and decorating some nearby rocks. The sphinx’s blood was dark red, almost black, in the bright morning light.
“Wasted hells,” I breathed, trying to control my stomach. I had to turn away for a moment, before I gathered myself and carefully walked to where Hassan was standing, making sure not to step on any bits of the monster. From this angle, I could see into the body, not that I wanted to.
“Dead gods,” Raylan added, and I looked at him in surprise. That curse would have earned me a whupping from Sister Mercy – even though the Church taught that the System killed God, it was considered a sin to demean His death with a curse.
Hah, I can start using that one now that Hazel’s not around! I almost blurted it out right there, eager to rebel against her rules, but Raylan continued talking.
“How am I supposed to compete with that?” he asked despondently.
“With about thirty Levels,” Hassan answered in an amused tone. “You can get throwing knives with the same type of enchantment, after all.”
“Maybe the System will give you some soon!” I added, trying to cheer him up. “And I bet you would have won the training today, if Hassan had let you use Quick Step.”
“I was going to have you try that,” Hassan agreed. “Now, let’s get back to our experiment.”
Ten minutes later, we’d reached some conclusions.
“So,” I said slowly, “it seems that you can’t restore an arrow made by a person even if it’s in near-perfect condition. On the other hand, if it came from the System, you can, if it’s not totally destroyed. And it takes more mana compared to restoring a conjured arrow.”
“There’s one other important thing to note. Use Inspect on your restored shell,” Hassan ordered.
Conjured Shotshell: 1 oz rifled slug, 1500 fps
Damage: High
Penetration: Medium-high
“It says it’s a conjured shell now,” I said with surprise.
“The same thing happened with my arrows,” Hassan agreed. “What does that mean?”
I thought for a moment. “It means that I have to keep it in my gun or my bandolier or it will vanish.”
He nodded, and we went back to testing my new ammunition, this time from fifty yards. I took the two unfired slugs from my gun and carefully put them back into the box, then reloaded with the now-conjured one. I fired, this time missing by several inches. Raylan, standing to my side, snatched the ejected shell out of the air and handed it to me with a smile.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Thanks!”
This time, I checked my mana before and after I put the shell in my bandolier. It took 4 mana to restore the slug, twice as much as my 4BK and a crazy four times as much as my BB rounds. Still, by the feel of it, I was sure the first time I’d put it in the bandolier it had used a lot more.
We started walking back towards the cave, and I spotted Block and Vale finishing up some kind of drill of their own. I hadn't seen where Mason had taken Zaire and Elin or what they’d been working on. As we walked, I fully loaded my gun and refilled my bandolier with my standard ammo, keeping the lone slug in the bottom loop.
At the cave I found that everything had been cleared up, our bedrolls and camping kits neatly put back into our packs. I had better not get used to this… I made sure my canteens were full and stored my pack and jacket away in my Inventory. In a few minutes Hassan was leading the way back down to the road, and we were back on our way to East Bank.
We kept to the same formation as the day before, putting me with Elin, Zaire, and Raylan. Elin looked openly jealous when Raylan described my fight with the undead birds, and I thought I detected a similar feeling in Zaire, though he was much harder to read. She cheered up considerably about 45 minutes later, when Hassan appeared and took her with him, the pair heading out of sight to the north, while the rest of us stopped and waited.
I thought I heard something a few minutes later, a distant screeching. When they returned, Elin told us that Hassan had found some scavengers feeding on a corpse and had let her kill several of them before he finished off the rest of the pack.
I smiled at her, trying to be friendly. “That’s great, I was wondering why he didn’t have you join me when I fought those undead.”
I realized immediately from her expression that I’d somehow angered her.
“Yeah well, the fucking undead don’t feel pain, so I’m pretty useless against them right now.”
“Oh, I see,” I replied unhelpfully. She turned away with a sniff and started talking to Vale. I shrugged at Raylan’s questioning look and kept walking. I didn’t know that many girls my age in Sunland, but Elin had been acting like I’d played a prank on her before we’d even met or something. I wasn’t sure what I could do about it at this point. There was no chance to talk to her alone.
A few miles later, I heard a thud sound from up ahead.
Several minutes later, I spotted a massive, fresh corpse perhaps a hundred and fifty yards to the side of the road. It looked a bit like the tri-horns that some of the Farmers in Sunland raised, with the characteristic triple horns – one emerging from above and between its eyes, and two more sticking out to the sides from above the ears before arcing forward. This one, however, had a row of nasty-looking spikes all the way down its back. I Identified it, mindful of Mason’s orders from the day before.
Corpse: Mutated Tri-horn
Level: 15
We continued for a couple more miles before stopping for lunch – rations – which we ate sitting on some uncomfortably warm rocks near the trail. The scenery really hadn’t changed much since leaving Sunland. We were still flanked by the massive Angel’s Spine to the north and the Shadow Hills to the south.
The ground here was a bit less rocky. There were even areas that were covered in sand. Clumps of cactus and scrubs grew in spots, but the majority of the ground was just dirt. Occasionally I could see the collapsed walls of ancient buildings, abandoned for hundreds of years and covered in dirt and dust.
When I turned back around to face the group, Raylan, Elin, and Block were all drinking from identical glass bottles containing a dark liquid. My eyes widened as I spotted the wide purple band about the middle of each bottle. On it was a simple drawing of a bottle, tilted at an angle and with wings sticking out of each side like a bird.
“Somebody brought Jet Cola?! Who has it and how can I get some?!!”
I spoke so fast the words practically blurred together. I’d only had it once before, one night when I’d snuck out of the church and out to the Settlement Stone. You could buy it there, though it was incredibly expensive at three talons a bottle.
I looked at Raylan and Block with pleading eyes. I remembered the intensely sweet taste, the fizzy sensation of the bubbles trapped inside, the way it was cold as ice. Of course, I had also been wide awake all night after drinking it, but that was surely a coincidence, right?
Raylan snorted and looked at me. “You want some, you Create it yourself.”
“What?! You mean Create like Create Bread? Are you telling me there is a Cantrip for Jet Cola?!”
Vale laughed. “You mean t’ tell me that you didn’t know that?”
“No way, I never heard of it! None of the kids in Sunland know about it, I can promise you that!”
Those stupid adults, hiding this from me! How dare they!
“I would be happy to summon some for you, Gunner Az, as I do not care for the taste myself,” Zaire spoke up.
“Mage Zaire, you are truly my best friend in the whole world!”
A few seconds later, he handed me an ice cold bottle of heaven. I twisted off the metal cap and tossed it away, then took a long sip. It tasted even better than I remembered, sweetness exploding on my tongue, the chilly drink refreshing in the hot sun. I had to force myself not to guzzle down the whole thing, savoring it instead. By the time I was finished, everyone was done eating and we were getting ready to head out again.
I asked Zaire what the spellform was for the Cantrip, and he blinked his golden eyes, then pointed at the bottle I’d left sitting on the rock.
“It’s the same design, only as if it were flat on a piece of paper instead of curved around the glass.” I picked up the bottle again, and he traced the white lines with his finger, showing me the direction of the ‘brush strokes’. I did everything in my power to commit the spellform to memory, but a few minutes later, the bottle faded out of existence in my hands, just like conjured water. I realized only the drink was permanent.
I turned around to ask Vale if she would Create another bottle for me when a sudden notification popped up, just before the ground behind Vale exploded.
Squad Update:
Squad leader Mason has left the Squad. The new leader is Hassan.
Squad Update:
Squad leader Hassan has left the Squad. The new leader is Vale.
Frag Arrow
Jet Cola
OK, so I'm a teeny bit sad that no one has been calling out the Easter eggs references in my chapters so far... Please tell me someone got it this time?! How can I incentivize you to guess? Should I add a chapter somewhere that's a leaderboard of the people that have correctly identified the Easter eggs from each chapter?
I also want to post a bit about one of my albums that's already available - Just One Thing More.
Only two of the songs from this album have already been linked from
the story, but due to the arcane rules of music publishing I had to put
the whole album up at the same time. It's OK, there aren't any
spoilers. If you're a fan of country rap/bluegrass/musical
storytelling, you should check it out! Listen to the songs in order to
follow along with the album's plotline - yes, even the Wasted songs tell
their own stories ??. Just One Thing More will take you on a musical journey through the life of a man living in the Lost Angels area, struggling to realize his dream.