บท 23: That Time You Too Focused Playing The Sidequest
A decayed forest. They were flying above them, trying their best to avoid the bizarre unknown monster infesting between the roots of the trees below, and not too high above as blocking their peripheral.
More to caution, as the sea of green, turned into dead grey as were walking through a haunted graveyard. Mist stood firmly above the ground, like the chattering of critters and the sound of unnatural hooves and cry of beast resonating deep even above.
"Hermes, you didn't tell us to literally fly above a sea of an unknown monster!" Cried his goddess, grimacing as her sight set below, looking at a certain clearing where dozens of monsters appeared to follow the rest of them.
"I don't know either, Hestia." He shook his head. "This isn't happening when I departed with the rest of my Familia." His tone was a grim one, even with all of his playfulness, he still reeled the fact that he just leaves a large portion of his Familia to monitor the temple activity."
"Lord Hermes…"
"I know Asfi… I think we should double the pace."
Everyone knew the implication. They've previously engaged the monster below. Some resemble a scorpion, some other a flying goblin that spews fireball to them, and the other was a quick and nimble bipedal reptile. They were weak to pointed tips of metal, but the problem was that they've gathered in quite numbers. Even there are a few large shadows observing them, and based on Asfi recon that the monster quietly resembles a walking alligator and should not be messed up with unless a level 2 with top parameter. Even then, it's just mere conjecture.
"I agree with Lord Hermes, I fear they will reach their limit if we just hovered above them."
Said Lyu, having joined their expedition outside when they were about to save a girl and his mother who escaped after their village destroyed because of the monster.
He could only hope that they will be alright after this.
"We never encounter these monsters before, even inside the temple, there's nothing such as these monsters," Athena said, gripping the hem of his shirt tightly.
"Do you think they're a newly discovered species? And judging by their strength looks like they sill has yet suffered monster grade degradation like any other monster that lives outside the dungeon."
It's common knowledge that all of the monster outsides are weaker than their counterparts in the dungeon. They live long enough to breed, and for each generation, the quality of the monster core inside will degrade further, and consequently, that will weaken the monster each generation.
"Are you implying that they're freshly born, Welf?"
"I don't know shorty, but won't you think that monster only born in the dungeon. Then, what about these monsters? Even for the dungeon, I think it's a bit out of mind if there's a secret entrance far in here much less the impossibility of the second dungeon."
"What do you hide from us, Hermes!" Demanded Hestia to the person in front of her.
"I'm not too sure right now, Hestia. I'm afraid I was in the dark the same as all of you right now."
"Well wild theories aside. I think we should focus on our journey or it will be dark soon, and we need a good resting place apart from all this twisted mockery of a forest."
"Bell is right, it will turn to night soon."
"Judging from the distance, hopefully, we will reach the rest of Hermes familia tomorrow."
*Break*
"Dro'zah is it just my eyes, or I just see a fire in the distance."
I lifted my head, after washing my face with the stream water. True to her words, there are numerous plumes of smoke in the distance, presumably at a few slopes of the mountainous region even far in the distance there are a few faint trails of smoke. I need to squint my eyes to confirm that is the smoke made out of fire and not some kind of false alarm.
A trace of iron wafted through the air, a linger of death, and grieves were piled in thick layer upon it.
I was certain, this wasn't caused by a farmer wanting to open more space or accidental forest fires.
We decided to investigate the nearest source just behind the valley of the mountain we currently trudged on. It was a bad signal, to be honest, the path was leading us to the northern village we will complete the last quest there.
We've long departed with Lawrance two days ago as we split our ways apart. So far, I was tempted to summon Arvak or even Durnehviir to complete the journey. Then again, I want to enjoy the woods trek as we stumble upon some of the bandit's lair, or monster's nest. Whichever, it was a good experience for us.
I noticed that the leaves began to fell apart from the branches, having turned into a deep shade of sick purple. The bark turned pale, losing the brilliance of brown coloration of healthy trees. A wave of uneasiness washed over us the moment the forest turned like some kind of infected organism.
"Prepare for combat"
I said to the Goddess. She's currently worn her usual crimson robe, with the hood raised up, and covering her face. A spark of blue and red was manifested both in her hands.
We slowly trekked forward, overviewing the burning village from above a slope.
I quickly raised my hand and stopped whatever the goddess wanted to do as I muffled her mouth with my hand.
"Ehm-emmm-ehm!"
"This is an atrocity, he knows. Best, if we do not alert them."
Her face turned into a sickly pale, upon witnessing row and row of corpses stacked together in the middle of the village. Young, women, children, elder, or the adults -All stacked haphazardly as a few aberrations threw them one by one like some kind of trash.
I saw something intricate just almost hidden by the pile of bodies. It was some kind of ritual sigil I noticed.
[Detect Life]
[Detect Dead]
Dozens of Clannfear and Imp dotted the village outskirts, having no doubt that they were on guard duty. Daedra in a solid daedric armor keeping the watch of the pile of bodies, guarding the daedric mage that invocating an intricate spell, while the archer stationed above the roof.
This should have not been possible. Then again, with Akatosh capable of dimensional travel through that message from Ouranos, I can't see why if the Daedric Princes found a way to this dimension.
And I'm afraid that they were following my trails as the Last Dragonborn. I should have not completed all the Daedric princes' quest, I thought if I would know that I will be transported to this world.
Ah, should have expected that they will be coming to snuff around.
[Planar Gate]
From the swirl of blue, my armor changed to a more durable one. It was on par of the ebony tier armor. Each piece woven with a magic enchantment that again, increase my defense and health, sustained damage and spell absorption, and an increase to shield, heavy-armor and one-handed skills.
It was fairly simple and straightforward enchantment as crafted it inside the game.
The Durandal armor was an armor mod from a game… what it's called again… Desert online something, I don't remember it well.
I grasped the strings of the Daedric bow, arrow knocked and pointed towards the still unaware mages.
Four magic circles manifested behind me, locking to the rest of the archer. The Daedra isn't many, I counted that they were only churl or grunt equivalent at best. Perhaps scouting party, and they were using the bodies to manifest an oblivion gate here.
I shifted my eyes to the goddess, signaling her to attack on my marks. Fou nodded on her shoulder as a few another magic circle manifested behind him.
"Fire"
A multitude of flames and electricity jumped out of the magic circles, as the arrow strikes true to the side chest of the dremora mages, effectively incapacitate him.
They never had even the time to look sideways, as they were too busy screaming to their burning throats, and body. I quickly notched another arrow, killing the rest of the Dremora churl that managed to get up of their shock.
A loud screech was resounded throughout the remnant of villager's houses. I forgot the imp, damn it, it's been a far too long time I played Oblivion.
Their appearances were basically a flying fantasy goblin, while feeble, they can cast basic destruction spells. On the other hand, the Clannfear was basically a bipedal triceratops that attacks with claw and nimble precision. Though our position was mean that we were safe of their claw, but leaving us vulnerable of ranged attack.
Several [Fireball] were launched towards us, though I didn't bother to use any of my defensive spells as I stood in front of the goddess and face the brunt of the attack.
With my [Pyro Contract] that grant absolute mastery over fire-based destruction magic, it substantially decreased the damage of any fire-based damage. Still, I wonder why it never mentioned in the stat sheet. I heard that most of the adventurers never got any explanation of their skills other than a few vague clues, so I think I was lucky in that department.
Not to mention, the Durandal is a high-tier magic armor. No sort of novice and journeyman level spell can break through the thick metal plating.
It was still an overkill, as the Goddess and Fou quickly launched a counter-attack, saturating the imps with the same [Fireball] but with greater ferocity and intensity.
Soon afterward, the ground revealed a pretty gruesome scorch mark, as the remaining Clannfear sniped with my arrows.
Using the detect spell once again, to make sure that no enemies are lying in wait, afterward, I jumped down after casting [Drop Zone] to eliminate the gravity impact as Ereshkigal followed suit.
"What kind of monsters that will do this?" Ereshkigal stepped mournfully to the heap of the dead villagers, their eyes were hollow devoid of any warmth or hope.
A father that desperately parried the demonic great sword that threatened his family life. A daughter with her tears clenched tightly with a never-ending tide of stream as she clutched the broken form of her father with a merciless swing of the demon that cast a shadow over her fragile body.
"The same kind as you," I said to her, tapping her shoulder. "They are no doubt the Daedric forces of my world or in short, the demon in this world legend. Judging from the armor, the inscription of the ritual suggested that they were…"
"What is it?"
I wiped the inscriptions, furthering the frown on my face.
"Molag Bal, He should've known it, the prince will be the first to plunder a new world."
"Mol… what?"
"Molag Bal, the deadric princes of scheme, enslavement, and domination. Not many call his name to invoke the benevolence of God, instead, he's infamously known as the king of rape, the progenitor of the vampires, king of strife, and many more. In our world, he has attempted several invasions to merge the mortal world with his own."
"It won't be a good sign. How do we stop this?"
I smiled at her, using both of my hand I revealed her face that was hidden by the hood.
"As brave as ever, goddess. We need to stop whatever that anchored his existence to this world."
Obviously, that won't be enough, even in Nirn, the world needs the Septim bloodline and amulet of the king to protect them from another Daedric invasion. I don't know what could be the equivalent of it in here.
Though I'm fairly sure, even if that were to happen, the divine of this world would not simply stay put. Or… they'll enjoy the spectacle and the entertainment it provides at first.
I don't know which one would be worse. I stared off far to a mountain in the north, where I saw a brief glimpse of structure and an owl carrying a letter in its claw.
*Break*
"Bell how's it in your end!"
"Welf, we need more of those magic swords."
[Firebolt!]
The camp was in chaos, as soon as they reunited with the Hermes family who was defending their selves from the endless horde of monsters. It was located just behind the Artemis temple that stood above in a hill.
They were soon rushed to aid the struggling and tired adventurers. Asfi and Ryuu jumped off the wyvern first, head diving their way to the encirclement of the monster just like what they did in the incident of the 18th floor.
The rest was following suit, with the gods hovering above in the sky to stay safe in the distance. Obviously, this not bode well with Hestia, and Artemis insisting to go with them, while Hermes only maintained a steel look and whispered a bit of good luck to the brave adventurers.
In the end, they relented with Artemis sniping whatever monsters she could find below, not the accuracy matters as the monsters were swarming next to each other in tight formation as like no space left in the forest to contain their massive numbers.
"Damnit! We'll never make it with these numbers." Cried one of the adventurers.
"Sorry bell, there's only one charge left. Lily how about yours?" Said Welf, defensively taking a posture to tackle the bipedal reptile before stabbing its stomach with his sword once the monster upturned by his shoulders.
"Two charges, but it's only your failure of a product left," Lily said over the backline, pulling another bolt to the strings.
[Firebolt!] Bell weaved his knife while holding a short sword, on the other hand, cutting each vital part of the monster with great agility. [Firebolt!] Another shot he directed towards a running Clannfear that intends to strike him from behind.
"There's no end to them!"
"How can we defeat them!?"
Asfi only silently heard all those complaints, even then her mana pool started to depleted of constant overuse of her magic. She jumped, avoiding a pincher attack from the monsters than dived down and launched a barrage of slashing attack.
There's really no end to them, she thought as looking far as her eyes can see. While on the other side, Ryuu gasped of how much she spends her stamina. Running from places to place, aiding every adventurer to her best when they show opening that could be proven be fatal when the monster exploited them. Trying to reduce the number of casualties.
Even then, the number is very overwhelming compared to her days in the dungeon. Precisely because the place is confined, it gave them the sole advantage of attrition as adventurers can switch places to rest and fight. But in an open place? They stuck between the rock and hard place. There's nothing to be hidden, as a swath of monsters rushed to them from all sides.
How many hours they've been fighting like this? Five, Six, Eight? While with Ryuu levels, if it comes to be pushed, she can last up to two days without a rest. It's out of the question to the majority of levels 2 and 1 here.
They need to stop this, but how? A passing thought came to Ryuu, she prominently shook her head. Abandoning and sacrificing is something that she couldn't tolerate, not what happened to everyone 4 years ago.
Then again, she understood it will be a necessary thing in a desperate time. They're far from Orario, reinforcement will not come for another week even with the best wyvern money could buy.
She tightened her hold of the wooden blade. Cut, bruises, and numerous wounds could be seen in her tattered clothing, blood prevalent and soaked deep in some of the white and green fabrics.
Holding her weight, she used a tree as a platform to further her jump.
"—Come, wind of winds, wandering traveler of the ages. Across the skies, through the fields, faster than any, farther than all. Light of stardust, tear my enemies asunder!"
Her eyes glowed in green matching the exact color of the robe she wore. A gentle breeze swirling around her as the forests grew quiet.
And then the vacuum exploded with magical power.
"Luminous Wind!"
Thrusting her arm then numerous green orbs were shot below, piercing each monster hide apart as the ground showered in blood. A portion of where monsters en masse now lied empty, only the grass swayed by the gentle wind that has been covered in crimson ichor.
Her step was noticeably faltering, a sign of fatigue when she landed back again to the ground.
Asfi followed suit, activating the Talaria she shot upward the skies and dropped a multitude of the red flask to the monsters. When the glass touched a surface, be it the ground or monster hide, a wave of red exploded.
Numerous explosions were resounded endlessly, as she kept bombarding the monsters with the flask.
By the time Asfi was done and dropped tirelessly to the ground, a swing of enlarged flame cut the monsters apart. Welf and lily seeing this as a chance to cut the monsters all apart when they were disoriented use their remaining magic swords.
Then again, the vacuum place was soon refilled by other waves of monster.
"Are you kidding me!? Where do they come from!?"
"Even with all of that."
Their respite was just brief. Almost all of the adventurers remaining were tired, having fought and endlessly swing their weapon. Even if some of them can continue to fight, their equipment and weapons are starting to wear out.
Bell only maintained a hard look, staring down at the monsters who charged them from the distance. Numerous magic stone was buried deep to the ground around him, whether it was due to how long their battle is or the last-ditch from Asfi.
The monsters were like laughing at their predicament. Trees were uprooted, ground upturned, it was like becoming a hell. It was different in the dungeon; they will always be regrown back after taking certain damage.
"Everyone do not falter! I'm sure there will be an end to this, just keep swinging your blade hard, even if you have to use both of your hand, claw them, bite them! I don't care!" Bell look at the source of the voice who tried to rally the rest of the party.
He was a weretiger, he didn't remember his name but surely, he was a high-ranking member of the Hermes familia. Then his sight was set to the cluster of monsters once more, "Would they care!?" Pointed him towards the monster.
"No!"
Certainly, Bell had ever heard or read more inspiring line but in this bleak situation, it was more than they needed.
"Would you let them tear our dignity, adventurers of Orario who will die outside the dungeon! What kind of farce is that! Would you let them!?"
"No!"
Cried the others. Weak and battered. Piece of armor starts to fall from the hinges, steel chipped away as do their sword.
Yet, yet, they were adventurers at their core.
The descendant of the heroes long before God gave them their blessings.
Despite their condition, they started to stand upright with a renewed vigor. Welf was grinning ear to ear, brandishing his sword once more. Lily sighed in exasperation as she fixed her bolt once again.
Lyu, bell noted, there's a faint tug upward to her lips as remembering something.
The vanguard to the front, forming an unbreachable wall while the backline notched their arrows and sharpening their craft. Eyes those of warriors, heart those of heroes, what matters was that everyone survives this onslaught.
Yet,
Just yet,
"What a nice speech, you wouldn't mind if he ruins it no?"
Came a voice that seemingly out of nowhere but a burst of blinding sunlight that cast away the cloudy skies.
A sun, they noticed, was hovering above them with a dazzling light that could rival the divine. They knew that was not the sun they accustomed every day, but something artificial.
Monsters screeching away in pain as tendrils of light lashing out of the sun and saturate the area with heavy barrage. And yet, despite the scorching pain, the monsters felt, the sun was giving them a gentle aura.
Their fatigue was lifted up, and so their mana renewed to brightest vigor.
"What is happening!?"
"Take my resolution back you piece of shit!"
Despite their initial shock, they were visibly happy at the outcome. Who can say that heroes don't need additional reinforcement?
The monsters in their blind rage only charged needlessly at them, but vehemently stopped by the sun that seems to protect them from the monster claw.
The weak was instantly burned into scorching dust, while the stronger one was writhing in pain, a perfect target to be finished off as they also wanted to do their parts. Side of them was disappointed about being denied of their glory.
Bell noticed in the corner side, approached a heavily armored knight that was accompanied by a woman in robes. If something that could describe the knight, that he was like coming out of the book story he often read with his grandfather.
From his crimson and ivory armor, and the glowing blades in the sheath.
"Peace, we were tasked by the guilds as additional forces…" He looked at the side, seemingly satisfied at the charred monster before they broke away into pieces and left a magic cure, "… of your expedition."
"Bell-Kun!!!"
Though the knight voice was cut away by the arrival of his goddess that tackled him to the grounds despite his stance as a level 2.
"We never heard much of a strong adventurer, that even doubled as a mage in Orario."
Asked Asfi as still suspicious of their timely help.
"Ah don't worry." He swatted the suspicion away with a wave of his hand, as he produces a letter from a pouch to his side. "You're lord Hermes right, here's the official order."
Hermes caught the piece of the letter as he quickly inspected the content.
"He's right, it's a seal authorized from the guild themselves."
Said the god, even without a seal they can still prove his honesty as nothing can't lie or trick the divines… except when they drunk, and desperate of course.
For a certain reason, the goddess at the knight side, forcibly stepped at her favorites metal plate eliciting a small huff from the knight.
"Well, for certain I'm sure we can use a rest." Smiled Hermes as everyone just slumped to the ground realizing that they just passed through a desperate battle, and laughed afterward for escaping death once again.
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Abbeysensei
Abbeysensei Ah... no words as of why there's no update for two weeks or was it three? I don't know but I've been rewriting this chapter for three fuckin' times as the laptop got senile and abruptly shut down in irregular intervals. If you want more chapter donate me in Ko-Fi to buy new laptop! nah, just kidding, my writing ain't worth a shit and truth to be told I've been playing terraria all this time, sorry. hehe.
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