We hunt monsters 14, p.32
We Hunt Monsters 14, page 32
Current Rewards: 100,000 XP, 15 large gold bars, Information
+245,000 XP
+122,500 Bonys XP
50 large gold bars & 3 Legendary+ Potions have been added to your inventory
Quest Update: In the Shadows
I think it’s safe to say you’ve discovered the final Spirit in cahoots with War and Bitter Cold. Jokeer, the Spirit of Chaos, is in with the others. What they want is still unknown, but know that each of them has marked you for death. Neither War nor Chaos can pin the death of Tenor on you, but they do suspect something. Obviously not enough, as you were just summoned near the location of Neander’s Origin!
It won’t take them long. You should probably do something about it before anyone else finds out…
Difficulty: World
Current Objective: Pending upon the completion of Spiritual Grudge Match
Current Rewards: Pending upon the completion of Spiritual Grudge Match
Failure: Be discovered as the culprit who killed a Spirit
Penalties: Everyone in the world will try to kill you on sight
+250,000 XP
+125,000 Bonus XP
You have learned the Special Skill: Imminent Domain.
Imminent Domain – Special Skill
Level: Master - I
Access to a spectacular and very special skill only available to Spirits.
Cost: N/A
Effects: Imminent Domain allows you to spread your own aura over a space, locking everything but a specific target in time. This will, in effect, shut you off from the rest of the world, while both empowering your own skills and repelling any attempts at interfering with their activation.
This skill does not cost anything to activate, but it does have a timer, and once it runs out, a non-ignorable cooldown of 72 hours will come into effect.
Duration: 15 minutes
Cooldown: 72 hours
*This is a Special Skill and cannot be taught to others.
“Wow,” Tac said as Keith closed out the skill, ignoring the sounds of screaming or the smell of tar and fire that now permeated the air. “Talk about an overpowered skill!”
Keith wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. It was clear what this was meant to be, memories of his meetings with other Spirits coming to mind almost instantly. He could remember the way the world had changed color and time itself seemed to freeze. He could also remember how imposing they’d felt, their auras radiating like living things. If this was the skill responsible and he didn’t yet have the strongest version of it, he could scarcely imagine how powerful it could become. Honestly, it felt a bit too powerful, which told him that it was going to be necessary for what came next.
That, more than anything, was what made him nervous.
He turned, seeing three elves dressed in weird robes trying to slip beneath the monster’s belly, faces twisted in hatred and eyes burning with manic zeal. They didn’t care if they died so long as they hurt him. Keith had to wonder how the Spirit of Bitter Cold had managed to gain such a rabid following despite the obvious decline in power.
As he saw it, Neander should be grateful to him for freeing him of his servitude to the Primordial. Then again, Spirits were funny like that. They always thought themselves above everyone else and were so tied up in their believed indestructibility that they became careless.
Keith distractedly blocked a sword blow on his gauntleted arm – only noticing that his Monstros equipment was gone when the blow jarred a bit more than it should – then threw his arm wide and slammed a fist into the man’s face, knocking him out cold.
“That should do for questioning,” Tac said as Keith used Armageddon Spear, hitting the remaining two at the same time and spearing them clean through their hearts and killing them instantly.
He patted the thick leg next to him.
“Kill them all,” he said. “And make it quick.”
The answering roar rattled in his chest as he crouched, binding the unconscious elf’s hands and feet, then kicking him onto his back and waiting for the fight to end. He tried to reach out to Merry but found his connection blocked.
“Probably that Avatar of Chaos,” Tac replied. “Man, I hated fighting that guy!”
“You and me both,” Keith said, scanning his surroundings.
Tac pointed out a trail that would lead back to the cave where the Origin was located. Keith already suspected what was going to happen next and didn’t relish what was to come. He wasn’t ready and had already been in combat twice today. He wasn’t at his best, even if his health was recovering quickly. Things like fatigue would always play a role, and in this case, fatigue would be the worst possible thing to have. It was one of the reasons he’d summoned this monster to do the work for him.
Worse, his suspicions about his new skill – and the specific wording of said skill – meant that this would be a solo battle. There would be no calling in any orcish backup or summoning monsters from the great beyond. He would be doing this all on his own.
“Is it over yet?” Bob asked, peering out from beneath his cloak.
Even after all this time, Keith sometimes forgot Bob was around.
“Afraid not,” he said grimly as he reached into his inventory and removed a glowing vial.
He popped the cork and swallowed it in one go. The healing potion began working on restoring his health and Stamina.
“Only fifteen of the would-be attackers left,” Tac said. “And about ten seconds left on your summon.”
That meant he was going to have to finish the job himself.
“Can you get them all into one place?” he asked, patting the thick leg once again.
He still wasn’t sure if the monsters he summoned could understand him, let alone take orders, but he found that most times they reacted to his intent. When fighting other monsters, they tended to go a bit rogue and do whatever they wanted, so long as it meant they got to fight the monster in question.
There was a rumbling growl in response as the Land-Dragon moved, shifting its head and swiping into the air, attacking with another spell at the same time. Tac highlighted all the targets – it was nice to fight opponents he could sense – and Keith readied himself, pulling into a fighting stance as he waited.
Tac counted the time down in his mind as Keith breathed, bringing himself to a sharp focus as he concentrated on his Judgment skill. It wasn’t a proper meditation, as that would take a minimum of three minutes, but he did feel the slightest bit sharper as his monster’s body disintegrated into motes of shining light, leaving his opponents in his sights. They all hesitated, the target of their ire suddenly missing. It was in that moment that Keith struck, combining Extender with Doomfire Fury.
The entire mountainside lit up in an explosion of black fire, and all his opponents vanished within the inferno. They didn’t have time to scream before their bodies were utterly obliterated, wiped from existence in the blink of an eye. Keith stepped back, watching the last of the flames flicker out and leaving a bare patch on the side of the mountain. Nothing was left except stone. There were no trees, no snow. Nothing at all.
“Talk about overkill,” Tac whistled.
“No, he did a good job,” Bob said, standing up for the overkill for once. “He needed to be quick with that one, especially if what we’re all suspecting is about to happen.”
“Only one way to find out,” Keith said, then turned to the unconscious form of the bound elf at his feet.
47
“You will get nothing from me, vile demon!” the elf screeched as Keith kicked him awake. “I would sooner die and go to eternal damnation than give you even a shred of information on the most noble Spirit of Bitter Cold!”
“I mean, did you ever get official confirmation from any of these guys that that was who they were working for?” Tac asked.
“No, but it was heavily implied, and the System basically gave it to us,” Keith replied, though he saw what Tac was getting at.
He remained silent, crossed his arms, and stared at the man.
“Oh, great Spirit Neander, come save your faithful follower. Give me the strength to smite this villain!” the elf cried, wiggling ineffectually on the ground.
Keith just continued to stare.
“Vile filth!” the elf screeched, spitting at him. “You cannot stand against the full might of the Spirit and his Avatar. Yes, the plan is working well. Avatars will soon be flocking to this location from all over, brought by the Avatars of Chaos and Neander. Once they hear of your villainous ways from the Spirit himself, your fate will be sealed! Even if I were to perish here and now, I will live with the satisfaction of knowing that…”
“Well, that about does it,” Keith sighed. “Looks like that Spirit needs to die here and now.”
“I mean, we already knew that was going to have to happen,” Tac replied. “This just confirms it.”
Keith crouched, snagging the elf by the collar and hoisting him into the air. He began squirming and kicking almost immediately, gnashing his teeth and trying to bite his hand.
“Do you even know why you’re here?” Keith asked, remaining calm.
“To kill you, of course!” the elf sneered.
“What did I do to deserve your hatred exactly?”
“You desecrated the sanctity of our most holy Avatar!”
“You mean The Terror? The one who’d enslaved the majority of the continent?”
The elf’s face scrunched in confusion for a moment before the mask of hatred was back in place.
“The King of Lies is what they call you. I can see why now.”
“Do you have any idea what this nutjob is talking about?” Keith asked.
“His brain’s a bit of a mush, but from what I can piece together, someone’s been spreading some nasty rumors about you…By someone, I mean the Spirit of Bitter Cold to his newly reawakened followers. You know, the ones who can’t remember how they got turned. It’s easy to just make a bunch of stuff up, especially if a Spirit found them wandering around the mountains having no idea how they got there.”
“Yes, I’m evil, I get it,” Keith sighed, addressing the squirming elf. “But why are all these Avatars coming here? What great truth could the Spirit possibly be telling them to make them travel in the first place?”
The elf glared at him for a moment, then turned his nose up.
“Like I would tell you anything,” he snarled, like he hadn’t already revealed just about everything there was to know about the situation.
“He doesn’t know,” Tac said. “All he knows are his orders. That if you show up, it’s their job to keep you here until the other Avatars show up, at which point their glorious Spirit will make an appearance via his own Avatar and reveal some grand truth.”
“Can you tell if the Spirit of Chaos knows this truth as well?”
“He doesn’t know,” Tac replied with a mental shrug. “All he has are his marching orders.”
Keith sighed, then walked out toward the edge of the cliff.
“Hey! Don’t ignore me, villain! I’ll have my recompense. Untie me so I can kill you—ahhhh!”
The elf’s cries of anger turned into ones of terror as Keith dropped him over the edge of the cliff, making sure to watch as he fell.
He watched the elf’s body bounce off the rocks a few times before it landed in a bloody, tangled mess in some trees below. He was in several pieces. The notification confirmed he was dead, and only then did Keith turn away from the edge of the cliff. Sure enough, the moment he did, the notification appeared.
Congratulations! You have completed the Quest: Spiritual Grudge Match.
+100,000 XP
+50,000 Bonus XP
15 large gold bars have been added to your inventory
Quest Available: Neander-Fall
See what I did there? The Spirit’s name is Neander, and I’m suggesting that he’s an idiot and calling him a neanderthal by using a play on words. Pretty clever, if I do say so myself. Anyway, it seems the Spirit of Bitter Cold may know something you really don’t want getting out. Avatars are on their way, and life will become very, very hard if it becomes common knowledge that you killed a Spirit. Does he know? Does he not know? At this point, it doesn’t matter. He needs to die – and fast.
Difficulty: World
Objective: Kill Neander, Spirit of Bitter Cold, and escape before the timer runs out
Rewards: 4,000,000 XP, 100 large gold bricks, 1 Ancient potion, World Item
Time Remaining: 20 minutes
Failure: Fail to complete the quest in the allotted time, Allow Neander to escape, Die
Penalties: Automatic Failure of In the Shadows. Everyone in the world will try to kill you on sight.
Quest Update: In the Shadows
Judging by the information you just received, it seems that Neander, the Spirit of Bitter Cold, may indeed know your dirty little secret. Only one real way to find out, and that’s by tackling the big boy himself.
Difficulty: World
Current Objective: Complete the Quest, Neander-Fall
Current Rewards: Two Pieces of War’s Spiritual Armor
Failure: Be discovered as the culprit who killed a Spirit
Penalties: Everyone in the world will try to kill you on sight
The moment the final notification disappeared, a timer flickered into being in the corner of his vision in red lettering, already down to 19 minutes, 20 seconds.
It was almost like the System wanted him to fail this quest. Keith took off running, launching himself into the air and flashing down the mountainside. He ignored everything in his path, not trying to avoid any obstacles. He instead crashed straight through them, using an application of Stone Chucker to move any heavier obstacles out of his way as he flashed by. He could see the highlighted space waiting for him up ahead.
It was much worse than he’d thought, which was saying a lot. Lucky for him, he was prepared for the worst. Even as he flew, he slotted his Field Leveler onto his hands, drawing and sliding War’s Hammer across his back, and mentally prepared Primordial’s Folly and The Mountainous Frost.
If there was ever a time to burn through a supply of World Items, now was it. Luckily for Keith, he still had a single charge left of The Mountainous Frost on this continent, while the others were reusable. He wasn’t sure if he was going to have to turn back time to win this fight, but he was going to be ready for it just in case.
The World Titan’s Meteor was clutched in his other hand. The hammer still had one charge remaining today, and he was planning on using it the instant the fight began. He wasn’t going to take any time feeling the Spirit out or bantering. Tac would snag the information right at the start and feed it to him as they went along.
“How are we doing?” Keith asked, mentally pulling up his status to see where he was holding after that last fight.
Status (Abbreviated)
Name: Keith the Unconquerable Hunter
Race: Avatar Primordial Hunter
Class: Primordial Soul Hunter
Level: 91
XP: 3,112,900/11,700,000 (Reduced from 13,000,000)
HP: 1,389,300/1,389,300
STA: 260,790/260,790
Strength - 23,735 (Base 5,840)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
Vitality - 138,930 (Boosted 3,675 + (Base 45,085 X3)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
Endurance - 26,079 (Base 11,914)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
Agility - 18,141 (Base 4,876)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
Wisdom - 5,520 (Base 1,845)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
Luck - 8,372 (Base 2,737)(+250 Class, +100 Racial)
His Strength stat had suffered thanks to the removal of his gauntlet, but that was to be expected. Everything else had grown, since he’d taken a bunch of damage during the battle against the Avatars, and his armor gave him extra stat points for that. He also got a small boost from each defeated follower of Bitter Cold, though it wasn’t much.
Closing his status, he dove back into his skills, weapons and items, running through what he had left on that final item on the list. He still had a few spell scrolls, though he doubted they would do much against Neander. He also had plenty of potions, though he doubted he’d get the chance to drink any during the battle. He also had a couple of Elixirs, though nothing that would give him a real edge in a fight. He’d been so focused on getting through Monstros and keeping things running smoothly that he hadn’t given his crafting much time, a fact that he now cursed himself for.
“Dead ahead,” Tac said as the blazing beacon came into view.
Keith didn’t bother slowing down, remembering how on the way in last time, he’d had to weave through on foot, as the trees were too tightly packed for flight, and he hadn’t wanted to show any signs of his passage. Now, he barreled straight to the center, uprooting trees and smashing through when they refused to get out of his way fast enough.
The rising chunk of stone became visible, Stone Chucker ripping the sealed entrance from its moorings and hurling it away as Keith dove inside, landing and coming to a skidding halt inside the icy cavern. It wasn’t very large, just as he remembered, ice and snow hanging off every surface.
It was bitterly cold inside, but Keith ignored it, his gaze fixed on the Origin of Neander’s existence. The first drop of water ever to freeze was suspended between two gigantic icicles, one hanging from above and the other rising from below. He imagined he could see the small sliver of missing ice, where he’d had to carve a bit away before going to confront the Primordial. Now, he wasn’t going to be so careful.
He dashed up to the center, ignoring the rising cold. The timer was now down to 17 minutes, 14 seconds. He didn’t have a moment to lose. War’s hammer flew from his back, clutched in his right hand. It swung across with tremendous power, amplifying his Strength by a factor of five. The Origin wasn’t so much destroyed as it was obliterated, shattered into a billion tiny fragments so small they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.
The icicles that had been supporting it shattered as well, sending chunks of it spinning through the cavern. The icy glow that had permeated the space vanished in an instant, and a loud rumbling began shaking the cavern apart.
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Bob said, trembling beneath the cloak.
