《Murder the Mountains: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG》 1 - New Game The flayed man awoke in terror, gasping for breath at the bottom of a pit of skinless bodies. With his bony fingers he grasped his way out of the grimy blood-strewn hole of bared flesh and broken things. When he breached up above the corpses and pulled himself onto the stone platform overlooking the oubliette, he collapsed upon the ground and heaved in pain. He put his fingers to his breast, and inside found a crescent knife of obsidian that had splintered under his ribs, just below his heart. With great difficulty, the flayed man lifted himself onto his feet. He looked out upon a vast expanse of golden dunes and black pyramids, underneath a crimson horizon of crackling lightning and churning winds. The game''s title appeared on the lcd monitor in bold red letters: Cannibal Hymn I hadn''t done much gaming in a while, but my friends had been bugging me to pick up Cannibal Hymn. Everybody said it was a really hard game, but the best thing since sliced bread once you get into it. Normally I''m really not somebody who likes to challenge myself much with videogames. I use them to relax from all the other pressures in life or to vent my frustrations. Sometimes I''ll turn shooters onto the easiest settings just for the catharsis of blowing something away. On the other hand I''m also very interested in how some games have taken innovative approaches to storytelling, and on that front I''d been told Cannibal Hymn was brilliant. It was on the cutting edge of the seamless marriage of narrative and gameplay, telling its story through environmental details and the player''s choices rather than through cut-scenes and dry exposition. The game even looked like something from out of my teenage daydreams. Cannibal Hymn''s story, world, and aesthetic was all refreshingly strange and exotic, inspired by the ancient cultures and mythology of Central and South America, with a generous sprinkling of occult deep-cuts and Lovecraftian cosmic horror. We''d just passed the winter solstice. The nights were long, dark, and cold, and I had nothing to do for the next few months but hole up and wait to hear back from my grad school applications anyways. Well, maybe I did have something better to do. I looked down at my phone to see some more texts from The_Red_Queen. Jess 17:05:04(EST): Hey, just got off work! Still down for coffee tonight? Matt 17:07:02(EST): Yup! Still down! Can''t wait to meet you. :) Jess 17:07:55(EST): Okay, so what time are we meeting downtown? Matt 17:08:44(EST): How about 7 PM? Jess 17:09:20(EST): Perfect! Gives me some time to hop in the shower. :P ''Gives me some time to crack this thing open!'' I thought, returning my attention to the game. I hit triangle and took a look at my puny starting character stats.
LVL - 1 Blood-drops to next LVL - 673
STR - 8 VIT - 8
DEX - 8 END- 8
INT - 8 RES -8
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. From the item menu I equipped the Broken Obsidian Knife and took a look at its stats...
LVL 1 DAGGER WEIGHT - 1.5 DURABILITY - 16
PHY-DMG - 40 MAG-DMG - 0 FIR-DMG - 0 LIG-DMG - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - D INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHY-DEF - 20 MAG-DEF - 5 FIR-DEF - 15 LIG-DEF - 15
The item description read: ''This black blade failed to meet its mark, and so, by its own heartache, was split in twain.'' I couldn''t imagine a broken stone knife was going to get me very far in this brutal world... I''d need to go forward and forage for at least some basic equipment and something to wear. Before the skinless man stretched a long mudbrick bridge, suspended over the sands and leading to the walls of what appeared to be a massive temple complex. The path led out towards a long monumental building lined with a row of gargantuan columns. Atop its red thatched roof, visible from the far-side of the bridge, was a forest of spikes topped with heads and impaled corpses, laid out to curdle in the scorching desert sun. Sitting along the high and narrow path was a group of three skeletal alms-seekers, bundled in funerary sacks which they seemed to wear as cloaks. Dazed and disgruntled, they shook out their skull-top offering bowls aimlessly with a futile sense of entitlement and indignation. As the flayed man began his venturing steps across the threshold, the first of the beggars, who lay splayed on the ground, seized at my feet, holding me back from passing while the other beggars drew close and cloying. In a frantic panic, I mashed the square button and beat away at the wretches. Slashing my ensnarer once -13 dmg, twice -21 dmg, thrice -34 dmg, and four times for -42 dmg. The beggar grit his teeth and hissed the life from his lungs as he collapsed onto his stomach. Dead. I continued forward across the bridge, eliminating the other two wretches who lay along the way in three and five strikes respectively. If it already took this many attacks, just to get rid of these scrubs at this early a level, I knew the game wasn''t going to let me frolic around on easy. Still, it certainly didn''t feel like it was going to be as hard as everybody said it was. Now facing the entrance of the great temple, the flayed man warily pried open the immense wooden doors of the gargantuan sanctuary and walked inside. Location Discovered: "Memorial for the Dessicated" The sanctuary was almost pitch black, its interior coated in the long shadows which draped down from the massive pillars, decorated in murals of dancing skeletons. The only illumination throughout the long hall was an opening in the ceiling from which spilled white hot sunlight. As the flayed man stumbled through the darkness, the echo of his steps were interrupted by the growls and snarls of some frightful thing. I could see a large shape looming out beneath the shadows. As it grew closer I saw it was a some kind of big cat, like a tiger or a lion. By the time it had come into full view it was too late to run. An HP bar loomed over the screen next to the boss''s name. "Lunar Rak" The massive black-and-white spotted jaguar lunged at me, its thick and heavy claws outstretched in one heaving swipe. Still unfamiliar with the controls, I tried to dive away too late as the lunar beast tore a sizable chunk from the flayed man¡¯s chest, splattering blood and wrenching his exposed rib cage. Its fatal strike mauled me for a devastating -375 dmg. My health plunged down to 10%. The attack had been just short of a one-hit kill. I desperately jabbed at the right stick as the flayed man, in a display of pitiable futility, attempted to hobble past the blood-crazed predator. My character''s movement, already stunted, had now slowed to a crawl after taking so much damage. I lost control of the game¡¯s camera, as the great beast took hold of the flayed man and crushed his skull between its long sabre-teeth. ¡°ALL IS LOST¡± bled onto the screen in cruel red letters. Holy shit. This thing does not fuck around. 2 - If at first you dont succeed... Jess 17:15:22(EST): So what do you want out of this? Whatever we¡¯re doing. Matt 17:19:02(EST): I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t really have any expectations. Let¡¯s just get together and see how we vibe. Jess 17:19:44(EST): Yeah! Okay. That sounds chill. :) One loading screen later I had spawned again along the bridge overlooking the vast swirling wastes. I quickly dispatched the wretched beggars that writhed along the brick path and entered the great sanctuary. This time I knew that the boss lurked within. I did my best to creep past him, but still the lunar beast barreled out of the darkness towards me from across the length of the temple, and a long HP bar invaded the top of my screen. I didn''t bother pretending to put up a fight. I scrambled away from the lunar rak, running around the room in circles and panicking like an idiot! I rushed across the columned hall, the wild-cat¡¯s snarls short on my tail, when I noticed a particularly wide shaft of shining daylight peeking in from one of the cracked walls. Then the lunar beast again wrent the flesh from my skinless hide, sinking into my back and tearing out a devastating chunk of -350 dmg. I staggered forward, barely eluding the predator baying behind me, and stumbled towards the hole in the wall. The flayed man shuffled into the crevice, struggling to side-step through the temple wall and out into the sunlight beyond the reach of my ferocious pursuer. Now, outside and on the other end of the temple, I could still hear the wild jaguar behind the walls, hissing its fury at my unpunished trespass. A new text flashed across the screen - Location Discovered: Path of the Serene Stony Ones Looking out over the same desolate horizon, the path which led from out of the temple now sloped down the length of an enormous curving dune, flanked to its left by a long row of gleaming white skeletons dressed in black ponchos, who rested in lotus position, drooping in the sun. Some sat devoid of skulls or limbs. Some even sat collapsing in on themselves, their faces planted into the sand in a pose that resembled a priest''s most fanatical supplication. Snaking my way down the sandy ramp, up ahead in the sky I saw a ring of vultures circling around one of the far off seated bodies that lay along the path. On its limestone platform, the mummy sat out, exposed to dry and erode in the sun, yet its headless sillohette, suspended in a straight-shouldered meditative poise, seemed to impart a sense of peace that defies our impermanence. Within this relic of tranquility something glimmered. Embedded in the body''s spine, cradled in its arms, and still shimmering gold beneath the cloud darkened sky, rested a substantial round buckler shield. Its isignia was a criss-cross of sharp spears, maces, and arrows laid beneath a circle shield bearing a wheel of flower petals at its center. With a disgraceful clamor and enthusiasm, like a kid tearing open his presents on Christmas morning, the flayed man wrenched the shield out from the mummy''s ribcage, shattering the skeleton and sending bones flying. Sorry dude. + Item Gained - Venator''s Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.0 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR BON - D DEX BON - NA INT BON - NA FAI BON -NA
PHS DEF - 75 MAG DEF - 55 FIR DEF - 10 LIG DEF 40
The item description read - ''The one who bares the weight of such a shield, no matter how lowly or cast down, has risen as a hunter-of-men. Rise or fall, they have joined the College of Predators.''A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. The Flayed Man strapped the shield to his weak wrist and continued down the row of the dead. The path across the spine of the great dune curved into a shaft, jutting down into the foundation of the great temple. The shaft seemed to lead towards a burrow, out from the mouth of which gleamed the twinkle of another item. To either side of the hole leading deeper into the structure sat two more mummies, dressed in rusted bronze armor, armed with long bronze war-clubs, and wooden buckler shields that bore the same weapon insignia as mine. Atop their helms were ornamental crescents that reminded me of the horns of stag beetles. I made the mistake of assuming they were set pieces, like the ones outside, and I strolled straight into their aggro range, compelling the undead sentries to their feet and to arms. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had jerked the light attack button and knicked the right one in his side with the broken crescent dagger. And it did -1 damage. "Fuck." The mummified guard to the left took up his club and wound up to strike me. I was quick to tap the left trigger and block him with my shield, but now the one I had struck approached me, striding forward to punish my impudence. Before he could strike at me I dodged, somersaulting straight past the two warriors and bolted towards the shaft entrance. I was clearly not going to win this fight with what little I had on me. Once I had passed through the narrow shaft and emerged onto the threshold into the sanctuary''s basement, the skeletal guards paused in their pursuit and quickly faded from view. I wasn''t going to get anywhere without a weapon that could at least take on these grunts. Location Discovered: Cella of the Oracle Looming over me, in the center of the tall subterranean room around which spiraled a stone staircase, stood a throne hewn from basalt and adorned in a totem-pole of stacked skulls. On the seat was a little woven sack of olive-green wool with a wide-eyed and circle-mouthed face in pink and yellow that stared out at me in a kind of... vacant alarm. Leaning cradled by the little bundle''s side was a long item that I picked up when I approached the central platform. + Item Gained - Puku-Man''s Cane
LVL 1 STAFF WEIGHT - 3.0 DURABILITY - 30
PHS ATK - 65 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR BON - C DEX BON - NA INT BON - NA FAI BON -NA
PHS DEF - 45 MAG DEF - 10 FIR DEF - 30 LIG DEF - 30
The item description read: ''A trusty palm-wood cane for wily old tricksters and precocious little cubs, but, in matters war, only a plaything at best.'' I equipped the weapon. Hey, weak as the stats looked, I figured the reach of a walking stick beats a chipped nub of stone. From the oracle''s throne I descended the staircase leading below. As I strolled down the steps I broke some handled vases littering the stairs which contained... + Item gained - Koka Leaves X2 The effects of the Koka leaves read: "Adds +1 buffs to STR and RES. Increases CRIT chance by 3%." I read the item description: "The sacred leaf chewed by the bulging cheeks of tireless warriors. Lifts the mind, strengthens the body, and numbs pain." + Item gained - Pebble The item description of the pebble read: "On the other side of the world this pebble might make you a king! Too bad you''re stuck in this dump." At the shadowy bottom of the staircase was a very unusual dead end. Before me stood a pitch black wall that was covered in wide yellow eyes. Some blinked at me in surprise, while others narrowed upon me with incredulity. I withdrew my newly acquired club and struck the wall. My controller shook. ''Maybe this is some kind of secret door I need to open...'' *Hoo Hoo... Hoo Hooooo...* the owl-wall chanted in indifference. 3 - The law of the fishes I doubled back and wound up the tall stone staircase, passing back around the oracle¡¯s little mummy bundle seated on its throne. Ascending above the cella and reaching the domed brick ceiling, I saw a hole borne into the vault which I managed to climb into.Inside was a narrow, dark room fenced in by massive wooden beams, layered crossing into one another in a triangular arch. Wood of such thickness must have been exceedingly ancient, and given the temple¡¯s parched surroundings, must have demanded a great deal of influence and labor to transport here. Leading up from the room was a wooden ladder that led to a hole of sky that hovered above the dark shaft. The flayed man carefully climbed the steps and emerged onto the roof of the long temple. To either side I could see the paths I had walked around the sanctuary, and in the distance were titanic mountains, their tips glowing hot orange, that spanned across the horizon before me. As I looked out from the roof upon the barren desert stretching around me, the game¡¯s mirage effect seemed to swirl together the deep gold of the dunes, and the vast expanse of the aquamarine sky, like the brush strokes of an impressionistic painting. Location Disovered: The Forest of Trophies Across the roof itself was a grim colonade of strung up corpses and heads on spikes that looked out at me with petrified expressions of contrasting terror-filled eyes and cruel rictus grins. Some men were crucified, their flesh warped and shrunken as their bodies had dried out to little more than husks. Others had been impaled like meat on spits, reduced to mutilated torsos, their exposed heads and limbs having long since withered or been torn off by scavengers. Up ahead, on the far side of the temple, there stood a hanging body, above which circled a flock of vultures with wide wings which cast a ring long dark shadows across the roof. I assumed this meant the body was an item drop or some event trigger, like the last mummy along the path outside, and drew closer. As I approached, rather than flying off into the sky, three of the enormous black buzzards descended and gaggled towards me in a jerky advance, sallying forth with their talons to defend their quarry. However low level my character was, I wasn''t going to be intimidated by big-ass birds. I arrogantly tapped quick attack four times in quick successsion and with the Puku-Man¡¯s cane, whittling each of the birds down by -45. With each ventured blow, I was careful to avoid the monstrous birds¡¯ heavily telegraphed beak jabs and the lunge of their claws. The last even hurried to flee, but my finger on the R1 trigger was quicker than its stubby scaled feet. + Item Gained - Pebble Now with the carrion-feeders fought off, I came upon the man that hung impaled at the center of a grove of upstanding lances, languishing in the hot sun. His intestines had leaked out from his stomach and were wrapped around and tied into knots between the jutting spears that surrounded him. I noticed the body begin to move and turn towards me, apparently he was deeply misfortunate enough to still be alive. The man started to speak in a slow, monotonous groan. "Looks like the jig is up, comrade. We lost the war, ergo this land outgrows us. It''s naught but the law of the fishes out there now. Big fish eats little fish. Bigger fish eats big fish. Me? I''m just trying to accept my depreciated status with a bit of grace. But if you''ve got any ambition towards stomping and roaring again, you''ll need something to wet your whistle." + Item Gained - Venator''s Sacremental Chalice A counter appeared in the corner to the bottom right of the screen. "Drink of your prey. Consume their confluence. Let your veins surge like rapids. Anyways, I wouldn''t keep Old Man Murrup waiting up ahead. The Stony Lord seldom shows a hint of favoritism. Now kindly leave me here to digest in peace." Opening the item menu I took a look at the use effects for the chalice: ''Allows for the collection of blood drops.'' The lore description read: ''A venator''s sacred goblet, cast in silver by the ladies of Moro themselves.''The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Before I left, I paced back around and slapped the NPC with the cane, just for fun. The guy whose guts were a shibari exhibition sighed and lamented. "Things can always get worse I suppose." After that, I felt like a jerk, so I continued onward, dropping off the roof of the temple and onto the bridge where I had initially spawned at the start of the game, and standing before the gates to the temple wherein lurked the area''s boss. Now that I had familiarized myself with combat and amassed a meagre arsenal, I felt ready to face the jaguar boss in the temple again. I looked through my inventory to see how I could prepare going into the fight. I chewed some koka leaves for a buff +1 to my weapon''s output via DEX, a boost in DEF, and a meagre crit bonus. Thinking about how the beast had lunged at me the moment it heard my footsteps, I had an idea. I opened the double door and walked into the sanctuary. Before stepping any further, I equipped the pebble and threw it into the far side of the room. Just as I had hoped, the white Jaguar roared, lunging out towards where I had hurled the stone and exposing its flank. Again now, the boss''s HP meter lit up again across the top of the screen. I brandished my wooden cane and my buckler and rushed in, slashing and wailing at the Lunar Rak''s tail, sneaking in four quick strikes with the wooden cane for -47, -55, -45, and -59 damage, dropping the lunar beast''s health down by more than a fifth of its HP. In little time the beast had managed to whip around, now reaching at me with its massive paws. I caught the first clawed swipe with the shield, but the impact diminshed my stamina to nothing, and the beast''s counter-slash raked me for -134 damage, a quarter of my HP. My actions having seized up with the decline of my stamina, I turned around and fled, the Lunar Rak continuing to charge after me. With only a half-second of grace I dove past the jaguar''s pounce, and spun around in circles, nimbly side-stepping as my stamina bar returned to full. The Lunar Rak again dove towards me and missed, knocking into the temple wall, and then I took the opening to roll back into the fray. I wailed on the big cat with two heavy attacks on its tail for -109 and -117 damage, driving the boss down again to a third of its full HP. This time, when the ferocious cat turned around to wrend down on me, I didn''t bother to try to deflect it with my shield, but kept diving and somersaulting around it For a little while I thought my plan worked, but with the fight down to the wire, the wild cat changed its tactics. The beast took me by surprise by leaping up into the air and tackled me down before I had anticipated where its assault would come from. The jaguar bore down on the flayed man''s throat with its jaw, sinking its teeth into my neck. It lifted me up off the ground and flung me face first into one of the hall''s great pillars for -225 damage. My remaining HP was just a hair''s breadth. The buff offered by the koka leaves to my defense and my character''s agility at low HP was probably the only thing that had saved me. Again, I looked across the temple as the beast jumped into the air, planning to slam down straight on top of me. Right at the crucial moment, just before the furious jaguar touched ground, I dodged out of the way. Then I double-tapped dodge and rushed straight back at the monster, mashing the heavy attack with grit teeth and a cold sweat on my forehead. I smashed into it with the wooden cane for -111 and -122 damage. The Lunar Rak froze for a moment and recoiled. Then it let out a spine-chilling shriek of hatred and agony as its HP bar drained to zero and it collapsed onto the stone floor, burying its head in its paws. The sound of a gravel shifting and crumbling echoed throughout the hall, and after that the sound of wind chimes rustled through my speakers as the blood drop counter increased. Sacrifice Devoured + Blood Drops gained - 1350 + Item Gained - Head of Lunar Rak I checked the item description: "A rare kind of pygmy rak found in the valleys before The Great Salt Sea. They are circulated as pets and beasts of war by only the most feared and prestigious of lords." Oh? So what the hell was it doing here? The answer to that mystery was seemingly impossible to grasp for the moment, so I tried to figure out... well... what was I gonna do now? I looked out over the floor of the sanctuary to see that a hole had fallen through in the center of the room. I thought for a moment and remembered there was one loose end in the path on my way here. I dropped down the hole and walked down the spiral stone staircase past the oracle''s throne once more, and then down below the cella itself. Finally, I stood before the peering door, seemingly filled with owls. A cutscene took over, and the flayed man poured the blood out from the lunar rak''s severed head and into the sacred silver goblet. The flayed man walked towards the door of eyes and presented the blood-filled chalice, offering it to the strange doorway. The door''s multitude of yellow eyes widened in alarm and then closed, parting and opening up passage into a great burrow which seemed to dig deep into the ground underneath the temple. The flayed man dissapeared into the black earthen tunnel and another loading screen began. I checked my phone''s clock. 6:20. ''Shit. Gotta get ready to go meet Jess.'' 4 - Thats hardcore. I ended up at The Black Sheep Cafe around 7:15. I was in a rushed panic. I was mortified I might have wasted Jess¡¯s time and made a terrible impression, but to my relief, she texted me back to say she¡¯d be running 25 minutes late herself. I had some time to pour myself the ultra dark roast and bought an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie to pick away at while I waited. I looked out onto the snowy street. We were deep in the bowels of winter now. From 3 PM on the sky was pitch black and choked by clouds. These were the times when our ancestors would hole up and pray with bated breath for the sun god to triumph over the demons seeking to smother him. A few minutes later I saw Jess when she came up to the counter to order and waved at her. She waved back. I sipped my coffee and took a moment to look her over. She had long, curly, unnaturally brilliant red hair. She wore these cute black square-rim glasses and a deep purple jacket. And she was thicc. I was into it. She came over with a cup of mocha to plop down into the chair in front of me and collapse into a heavy sigh. ¡°Busy day?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah dude. I¡¯ve just been running around with work stuff since 7 AM.¡° she explained. ¡°Oh, yikes. You must be really tired.¡± Jess laughed. ¡°Yeah kinda, but I have the next four days off. It¡¯s a pretty good gig that way. What about you, what have you been doing today?¡± Crying. Masturbating. Playing videogames. Eating cereal. ¡°Oh, you know... It was a pretty slow day on my end.¡± ¡°Yeah, so what are you up to usually?¡± She asked. I hesitated. ¡°Eh, well, I¡¯m kind of in a weird limbo place at the moment. I don¡¯t really have a job, I just moved back here in the middle of November since I finished my undergrad fieldwork and was late on figuring out where to go next, so I just sent out a bunch of PhD program applications and soon I¡¯ll be finding out... like, where in the world I¡¯m even going for the next few-ish years.¡± ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re like, trying to be a professor?¡± Jess asked. ¡°Yeah, I study archaeology and anthropology. Like, ancient civilizations and hieroglyphs and stuff. I was training to be an assyriologist, like, someone who studies ancient Mesopotamia and reads Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform.¡± I said. ¡°Oh hell yeah dude, that sounds awesome!¡± I shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s pretty cool I guess, but it¡¯s like anything else in the academic these days. I love the subject, but It¡¯s all really cutthroat within the actual academic departments, and I¡¯m just trying to gear myself up for that kind of professional conflict entering my life again.¡± "Oh yeah. Well, most professors are full of shit! You deserve to make it there because you actually seem to care about it!" She said. I smiled. "What about you? What''s been going on in your life?" ¡°Well, right now I work shifts as a cook at the dining halls at the university. Like it¡¯s kind of crappy dealing with the students, but I really like the team that I work with and I like cooking. I like having some structure to my life. I¡¯m planning to train to be a chef. Other that that I make a lot of art is my thing. I do paintings.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Oh, that rules! What¡¯s your art like?¡± ¡°Well like... I paint... mostly I was just trying to like, draw this pattern that I saw one time when I was doing shrooms, this... it looked like a grid of rainbows. It was like, all these colors that don¡¯t really work together, but if they don¡¯t match with each other in just the right way, they make something even more harmonious and brilliant. I don¡¯¡¯t know if that makes any sense.¡± ¡°I can kinda see it.¡± ¡°Right, so I tried to draw that and I ended up, just, totally finding myself, and getting really into like, fractal paintings and psychedelic art stuff. I do stuff with markers that show up under blacklights. One of my friends actually just commissioned me for a hundred bucks to do a piece for her!¡± ¡°Oh rad... so are you like... into psychedelics?" I asked with feigned timidity. "I was really into Terence McKenna and the ethnography of shamanism and stuff when I was in school. I''ve only had shrooms once though. I spent an hour thinking I was an alien insect creature riding around in a mammal''s body." ¡°Haha, yeeeah. Stuff like that happens sometimes... I spent last weekend just plowing through Cannibal Hymn while dropping acid and listening to drum and bass. There were just just colors everywhere, I felt like I was in a different world!¡± ¡°Oh you¡¯re playing it too? Is it really that much fun to play while high? I think it¡¯s actually pretty hard, and from what I¡¯ve done so far it just seemed really dreary...¡± ¡°Oh, dude, I¡¯m obsessed! Where are you right now?¡± ¡°Uhhh, I just beat the first boss. Like, this albino tiger thing.¡± ¡°Wow! Okay, so you¡¯re still like waaaaaaay at the beginning.¡± ¡°I guess. Does my character ever look like he¡¯s not the centerfold in an anatomy textbook?¡± ¡°Oh yeah. God. You¡¯re really early in the game, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah. I got it on sale. Just started it up for the first time this afternoon. " "Okay, well, yeah, your skin got stolen, and you''ve got to go kick the ass of the guy who stole it and take it back." "Is that when you do character creation? I still haven''t really picked a class..." ¡°Oh. Yeah, there aren¡¯t really classes, per se. There are builds you can make with the stats, but basically you can put points in any stat and do any skill if it''s high enough.¡± ¡°Guess I need to be figuring out what I''m good at." "You can, like, you do need to specialize eventually because you can''t be good at everything, but you can always reallocate the stat points later. You should just be experimenting right now and seeing what works for you. Plus you''ll probably end up changing your strategy once you''re in the PVP areas anyways." "Is there a build in particular you reccomend?" "Eh, I play a DEX build who does melee with like, staves and spears and stuff. Really any strategy or weapon is viable as long as you''re smart about it. The game is like, hella balanced." "So like, what makes the game so good? Why do you keep playing?" "There''s just so much imagination in it. It''s really immersive! Like I''ve never played something so alien but also so detailed in terms of the lore and the graphics and stuff." "Yeah, I already knew I''d dig it just by the name! The Cannibal Hymn is a passage from the Egyptian Old Kingdom funerary spells where the soul of the pharaoh in the netherworld is eating all the gods to become one of the gods. Pretty cool premise for an RPG to be honest!" "Oh yeah, I read about that! There''s lots of Egyptian stuff in the game." "Ehh, well, having played it myself, I see a lot less Egyptian stuff and a lot more Mayan and Aztec stuff. Which is cool, since I''ve never seen anybody really do anything with those settings." "Like, you know the story of the guys who made it right?" "Nope." "So Hajime Miura, the director, like, Cannibal Hymn was going to be his magnum opus. He''d been working on the whole game world since he was a kid, and he''d been working his way up in the company so that he and his team would have complete creative control and he''d get to make exactly the game he''d always imagined. Anyways, they''d finished the whole series and all the DLC, and they were going to spend a weekend crunching to do final tweaks before release. Apparently somebody showed up at the office on Monday and found all the lead designers with bullets in their heads and the conference room on fire." "Holy shit. That''s hardcore." "Yeah, there are all these rumors that he was killed by the government or the yakuza or something, but nobody knows." "And after that the publisher just... released it and started selling it?" "Hey, that''s capitalism!" "Fuck me!" Jess laughed. I smiled. "Hey, do you wanna hang out and play games at my place?" "Hell yeah! Let''s go!" 5 - Rise and Grind I woke up the next morning in Jess'' basement apartment. I got up just after dawn to use the bathroom, and decided to stay up to make some coffee and hang out on the couch, since I didn''t know when she would get up on days she wasn''t working. Jess had a little year old black kitten named Furio, who strutted up to me, mewing and rubbing up against my legs in a desperate ploy for breakfast and attention. I wasn''t going to give the little devil any treats, but I conceded some scritches behind his ears. I sat thinking about what last night had meant. I was happy to have made a new friend and for there to be some eros in my life now, between all the boredom and existential dread, but everything about the future felt so uncertain. A few minutes later, Jess herself emerged, naked and groggy, from the bedroom. "Morning!" I chirped holding my coffee. "Uuugh..." she groaned, taking a seat next to me on the couch. "Morning." I handed Jess a mug of hot black coffee. "I was just playing around on the console, since I didn''t know when you wake up." "Mmmmm..." she hummed. "Do you mind if I fool around in Cannibal Hymn?" I asked. Jess'' eyes lit up. "Actually... do you wanna see what it''s like late into the game?" she asked. "Uh, sure." "Hand me the controller." She commanded as she stretched her pale body across the couch. Jess navigated around the character selection screen and chose a female avatar with goofy bright pink hair and teal tattoos along its body. Seternis
LVL - 46 Blood-drops to level up - 8932
HP - 878 STA - 115
VIT - 23 ATT - 8
END - 22 STR - 20
DEX - 25 RES - 11
INT - 10 FAI - 0
She was loading a save in an area called ''Sechuran Mountains''. Jess rose up on her knees and kissed me. "I''m like, maybe a little more than halfway through the game. There are these mountains up on the very northernmost edge of the worldmap, and I''m in these caves trying to kill this spider-god-thing. I¡¯ve been working at this boss all week, and today I¡¯m feeling lucky." The game loaded up and Seternis stood in the center of a vast torchlit cavern, clad in a white silk gown wrapped over skirted silver armor. In her left hand she held a chalky white shield with the insignia of a mint green luna moth with the heads of serpents for its antennas. Jess pulled up the item menu and equipped a weapon that appeared to be a long serated-head spear which resembled a long fireplace poker. Pascuan War Harpoon
LVL - 6 SPEAR WEIGHT - 6.0 DURABILITY - 200
PHS ATK - 299 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR BON - D DEX BON - C INT BON - NA FAI BON - NA
PHS DEF - 40 MAG DEF - 10 FIR DEF - 30 LIG DEF - 30
The item description read: ''These weapons were first made with palm-wood shafts and chert blades in prehistoric times by the Quingnam fisherpeople for whaling and spearing fish. Over the centuries, Pascuan pirates and raiding parties improved upon the design for man-to-man combat through casting the barbed tip in metal alloys.'' "So this is the weapon I''m using right now. These things kick ass because they''re really fast and have so much reach." Seternis marched through the great chamber, past its surface of pockmarked stone and carved friezes of warriors engaged in mythic battles with monsters which gleamed an eerie lime green in the caverns'' strange torchlight. Then, from up ahead in the darkness came a scratching noise, like steel dragging on gravel. As Seternis approached, two figures closed in on her from either side, both brass-armored warriors, their mouths obscured beneath large crescent shaped septum-rings, brandished gleaming hand-saws and round shields bearing the insignia of a black spider.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The first of the warriors lunged at Seternis, who gracefully dodged before piercing the attacker¡¯s side with a heaving jab of her harpoon for -254 damage, driving its HP bar down to half of its starting vitality. Seternis'' counter-strike had left her back exposed to the second warrior. He slashed at Seternis¡¯ right shoulder, drawing -240 damage and inflicting a modest dent on her health. Jess growled. Seternis launched a volley of three quick attacks, killing the first warrior with a slash of -259, and wounding the warrior attacking on her left for -233 damage, but he was quick to raise his shield and block her second strike. The two combatants circled each other around the narrow passage of the cave, their shields raised. Then, to my surprise, Jess simply dropped her guard, and started walking slowly towards her enemy with an impressive confidence. For a moment the warrior hesitated and kept his shield held high, but as she grew nearer, and the opening to deliver a crushing blow ripened, the attacker couldn''t resist. He drew down his shield and swung his ragged-toothed saw down on her shoulder. Just at the last split second, Seternis raised her shield, meeting the enemy''s saw-blade and careening the warrior''s attacking arm off course, and pulling him off-balance. Her enemy''s side exposed in front of her, Seternis grasped the harpoon in her fist and drove it down with severe force, puncturing through the warrior''s neck for a fatal -267 damage, and driving him down to collapse dying on his knees, and then falling flat face-first onto the cave floor in a pool of blood. "HAH! GET FUCKED ASSHOLE!" she shouted. I looked at Jess. "What?" I rolled my eyes. + 2100 Blood-Drops Collected! The next area opened out onto a subterranean expanse of cobwebs, strung into a vast metropolis of towers and spirals. Area Discovered - Hive of the Great Loom As Seternis strode through the tangled streets and alleways between the silky structures, she was beset by a crowd of giant spider after giant spider, who descended down from and leapt out at her from up ahead. I could tell that Jess had perfected the quickest way to cross this part of the level as, like a running back carrying a football across the field, she deftly sidestepped and dodged her way through every ambush, trapdoor, and ensnaring thread that lay across the web-city''s chaotic thoroughfares. Jess breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she had made it to a tall wooden doorway painted in stark zig-zags of red and black, having outpaced her arachnid pursuers. Seternis pressed open the immense double-door gate and emerged into a high domed chamber, from which hung irridescent spiderwebs woven into mesmerizing patterns and mandalas. It was as she ran into the center of the arena, slinging her shield over her back and taking the harpoon in both hands, that I noticed the gleaming texture of the torchlit floor to be a carpet of skulls, ribs, and femurs. A loud screech pierced the room and something seemed to whoosh down from the ceiling. A long HP bar appeared at the top of the screen: Iyanchek, Lord of Weavers Seternis strafed the side of the room as the massive black mass touched down softly in the center, dangling down its many needle-like limbs, an hour-glass bleeding out from the underbelly of its black carapace. The massive creeping thing made the Lunar Rak look like a kitten. Just as the boss was about to charge, Jess opened her inventory and selected an item: Crushed Fire Ants I took a quick glance at the effects description that read: "Smear this across the edge of a weapon to enhance strikes with fire damage for a period of sixty seconds." Seternis doused the weapon in the crackling orange dust and rushed at Iyanchek. Jess leapt across the arena and slashed at Ianchaek¡¯s eyes with searing long slashes. -340!, -348!, -361!, The boss squeeled in pain and recoiled as half its HP disappeared in the first half a minute of the fight. The spider god wailed a shrill and faintly feminine cry of pain, projecting a wide sonic attack that knocked Seternis down onto her back as the arachnid lurched forward onto her as she struggled to rise up, snipping and snapping and baring its tittering mandibles. ¡°Fuck!¡± Jess grunted as she repeatedly smashed the dodge button to no avail. The lord of weavers pounced upon Seternis and tore at her back for -236 damage. It took her up in its sharp spindly arms and bore down on her neck with its bared fangs, draining Seternis for a -575, leaving her with only a sliver of health and chucking her across the room like an empty bottle after drinking her veins dry. ¡°Fuck fuck fuck¡± Jess rasped, slapping back and forth between the dodge and the quick attack button. Seternis got up and danced back and forth, rolling into range, quickly slashing, and rolling back out of Iyanchek''s clutches. She managed to pull off these hit-and-runs four times. -347, -339, -352, -354! Then, right in arm''s length of the creeping boss, Seternis froze. Her stamina had been completely exhausted. Iyanchek''s dark and hairy body began to shudder. Its limbs recoiled, and its countless eyes gleamed. It was about to unleash the full force of a special attack. Jess just straight up screamed at the TV. As Iyanchek lunged across the length of its lair, mercilessly spearing the ground with its legs before it with every inch it advanced, Jess'' stamina bar just barely recovered, enough so that she managed to hurl herself away from the war-path of the spider, who marauded forward all across its lair until hitting the cavern wall at the far end of the arena. ¡°Fuck You!¡± Jess shouted as Seternis double dove back into the breech, driving her harpoon down from on high into the spider¡¯s thorax. ¡°Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YES¡± she cried as the boss reeled in damage. -276!, -268!, -281! The sound of the bronze spike perforating through the tarantula-god¡¯s chitinous armor and drilling through to its gooey underbelly echoed across the room. It¡¯s exploding abdomen cast a satisfying splatter that echoed across the hall. SACRIFICE DEVOURED + 40000 Blood-Drops Collected! Jess threw down the controller and flung herself onto me in victory, starting to kiss me deeply. Her lips parted with mine and she whispered ¡°So yeah, you should play too. We could team up.¡± ¡°Sounds good, uhhh... Does it ever get less frustrating?" I asked. "Not really." She sighed. "But it''s kinda linear in the begninning. A lot of stuff opens up once you leave the Land of the Dead and make it to the first town. Just keep going until then!" 6. (â—Ž?â—Ž) I left Jess'' place about an hour later. I wasted most of the morning and the early afternoon running errands. I was still trying my best to winterize and insulate my parent''s cottage in the woods at the edge of town. The weather had been calm so far, but we were already do for some heavy snowstorms starting over the weekend. I picked up some big shovels for clearing out the driveway, some anti-freeze to keep the toilet bowl from breaking if we lost heat, some candles in case the power went out, and a twelve pack of Wendigo IPA. By the time I made it back to the cabin it was already starting to get dark, and it wasn''t even 5 PM. It was so cold all I could think of was the comfort of flipping on the electric heater, throwing myself on the couch, and booting up another session of Cannibal Hymn. When the game had loaded, the flayed man now stood at the other end of the large burrow, and was looking out from the foot of the sandy mound atop which I had started the game. Before me stretched a narrow valley that lay between the red mountains I had seen in the distance from the vantage of the temple. Up ahead, hewn into the rockface of the mountain was the monumental and towering face of a columned fortress, before which stretched thick fields of crops and a sparse grove of trees. At the end of the dusty path which sloped down from the burrow exit into the lush valley stood a strange tree. It was short and stout, no taller than a modest apple tree. Its dark and prickly bark bore bloated deformities and cracks that betrayed the stunted tree''s antiquity. Peering out from every one of the many nooks and crannies blemishing the tree''s trunk was a parliament of little yellow-eyed owls, who hooted softly in its shade. From the tree''s blade-leafed branches hung strange bulbous fruit, the hue of their filmy peels ranging between ripe olive, pallid cream, and a spoiled ashen grey. Between the odd fruit, in the tree''s branches, I noticed, to my displeasure, three human-shaped skins which dangled in the slow orchard breeze. Before the tree was laid an array of offerings which I could pick up as items. + Item Gained - Bundle of Koka Leaves Replenishing my stores. Fine. + Item Gained - Squash-Skin Lamp The lore read - ''A simple lamp made using the dried out husk of a gourd and sea-lion oil. Used for utility and devotion. Flickering in the darkness draws moths.'' The item description read- ''Light before waqas to call a visitor'' + Item Gained - Jar of Achepeng Chicha The item description read- ''-2 DEX and puts the character in a drunken state'' The lore read - ''A modestly potent and sweet-tasting corn beer fermented in the brewer''s villages north along the Sheketepek river. Used as recreation, libation, and deliriant in equal measure.'' So the digital alcohol is just going to reduce your stats and make your screen blurry? That sucks. Why would anyone bother with that? + Item Gained - Owl Chonta Staff The item description read - "+1 INT; Increases the likelihood of item drops." The lore read - "A rod carved of sacred wood from the Great Sea of Trees past the Thunder Lands. These staves are used by Yunka shamans and spirits as energetic lightning rods. Bearing the figure of an owl, this staff whispers secrets in hidden places." There was also a complete armor set laid out amidst the tree''s tangled roots: + Item Gained - Puku''s Turban It was an orange cotton headscarf with an embroidered owl stitched in a deep navy blue fabric. + Item Gained - Puku''s Breastplate It was an unrefined leather curiass, from the shoulder of which hung a tattered grey-brown cloak speckled in white polka-dots. + Item Gained - Puku''s Gauntlet It was a fingerless leather gauntlet. + Item Gained - Puku''s Leggings It was a black cotton kilt, from which hung a leather backflap. + Item Gained - Puku''s Boots It was a pair of Roman-style sandals with two small white bird''s wings protruding from the each of the heels. + Item Gained - Puku''s Shield It was another circle shield. On its front marked in blue were the stark outlines of enormous peering eyes with a tiny triangle beak. The lore for all the armor read: "Not so much armor as a costume used by the Puku-Man in festival plays and games. Still, it usually keeps little ones from getting into too much trouble." In the tree''s shadow stood a short elderly man who teetered on his cane. His head was wrapped in a deep maroon headscarf and his face was the face of a barn owl. He wore a long tunic dyed in spiral swirls of black, purple, and thin threads of gold. The man with the head of an owl spoke in giddy whispers: "Puukuu Puukuuuuu~ Worry Not, Little One, You who bear the nudge of Murrup''s scaly thumb! Beneath the shade of this ancient grove, You may rest your weary roots! All across this land are the Waqas: Sacred stones, plants, and waters. They are the old gods! The many children of Ghis and Ni all scattered about the country! The Waqas come in many forms, But you can''t miss one when you see it! If not by their ostentation, then by their devotions.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Before their shrine you may sprinkle the venator''s sacrement, and they will surely reward your prowess with power. Look up upon the bough of this waqa! In the canopy¡¯s shade you will find refreshments!" +Item Gained - Uyuchu Fruit X 3 The description read: "Eating this magical fruit restores health." The lore read: "Uyuchu fruit is considered sacred to all who toil under the yoke of The College of Predators, and healers praise its miraculous properties to increase bloodflow and circulation. The petals are often mixed into a hunter-of-man''s chalice to keep collected vital fluids from coagulating over many months or even years." "This tree bears the sacred Uyuchu fruit, the food of the wise and the ruthless alike! The fruit that eases the batterer''s bruise and the scraper''s sting and which makes the hunter savour the chase all the sweeter. Before you go, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll want to snatch back your own hide, and feel the sun on your skin once more. Well, your uncle Puku bequests to you a temporary solution! A new skin of your own, on loan, of three you may choose from!" The game then gave me three items and a stat chart for each: The first skin was covered in red tattoos of wild animals. I could see wolves, eagles, and jaguars. + Item Gained - Skin of a Hunter
LVL 4
STR 13 DEX 13
VIT 11 END 12
INT 9 MAG 9
ATT 8 RES 11
The second skin was covered in green tattoos of different plants. I could see trees, flowers, and cacti. + Item Gained - Skin of a Shaman
LVL 3
STR 9 DEX 11
VIT 8 END 8
INT 15 MAG 8
ATT 15 RES 8
The third skin was covered in blue tattoos of stars and the crescent moon. + Item Gained - Skin of a Pilgrim
LVL 2
STR 12 DEX 8
VIT 11 END 9
INT 8 MAG 14
ATT 11 RES 11
"Remember, this is only a rental! It''s your responsibility to dry-clean before return! The charnel house lies just across these fields, Beyond the peak of those hags and scavengers, You¡¯ll need to be careful, If the flayed lord¡¯s hands-within-hands should grasp you, All is lost! But¡­ If you¡¯re just clever enough¡­ careful enough... Maybe you can outwit the Prince of Skinwalkers¡± Take care, Little One! Make your weapons clamor! Puukuu! Puukuuuuu!~" I brought up my loadout menu so I could fill up the open equipment slots. Right-hand: Puku''s Cane
LVL 1 STAFF WEIGHT - 3.0 DURABILITY - 12/30
PHS ATK - 65 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - C DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
Left-hand: Puku''s Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60
Skin: Skin of a Hunter I decided on the hunter''s skin, since Jess had reccomended playing with the melee mechanics until I had a feel for combat. Head: Puku''s Turban
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 9 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 10
THRS-PROT: 9 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 8 CUR-RES: 0
Body: Puku''s Breastplate
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 23 STRK-PROT: 25 SLSH-PROT: 23
THRS-PROT: 21 MAG-PROT: 20 FIR-PROT: 13 LIG-PROT: 17
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 20 BLD-RES: 20 CUR-RES: 0
Arms: Puku''s Gauntlet
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 15 SLSH-PROT: 14
THRS-PROT: 13 MAG-PROT: 12 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 10
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 12 BLD-RES: 12 CUR-RES: 0
Legs: Puku''s Leggings
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 8 SLSH-PROT: 7
THRS-PROT: 7 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
Feet: Puku''s Boots
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 7 SLSH-PROT: 7
THRS-PROT: 7 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
Trinket: Owl Chonta Staff (+1 INT; Increases the likelihood of item drops.) Trophy: Head of Lunar Rak Finally I decided to invest the blood-drops I had gained defeating that last jaguar boss in leveling up. I spent 1465 blood-drops to level up twice and put +2 points into my STR stat to up my damage a little bit. A short cutscene played in which the flayed man poured out part of the venator''s chalice before the Uyuchu tree and then drunk deeply from it, removing the silver goblet from his lips to reveal a bold red smear running down his chin. Now my stats looked like...
LVL - 6 Blood-drops to LVL UP - 35/758 HP - 594 STAMINA - 95
STR - 15 DEX - 13 VIT - 11 END - 12
INT - 10 MAG - 9 ATT - 8 RES - 11
PHYS DEF - 169.3 VS STRK - 183.8 VS SLSH - 169.3 VS THRS - 154.7
MAG DEF - 145.8 FIR DEF -106.4 LIG DEF - 126 LOAD - 11.4/52.0
POISE - 0 BLD RES - 120.8 TOX RES - 108.8 CRS RES - 30
Matt: Hey, what''s the deal with the owl guy? Jess: thats the puku man! Jess: hes one of the gods Jess: he shows up sometimes and gives you stuff Jess: (£Þ£ö£Þ) puukuu puukuuuuu~ Matt: good to know. ... Matt: so where''d he get the human skins? Jess: uuulllll seeeeeeeee Matt: : / Jess: (¡ò?¡ò) 7. How many licks does it take? Now that I was all statted and decked out in my swanky speckled owl armor, I walked past the tree and hopped over a shoddy wooden fence that seperated the save-waqa from the rest of the area. Location Discovered - The Torturers'' Orchard When I crossed over the fence I immediately came upon a dusty ditch that dipped before the cornfields up ahead. In this dry depression was a pack of three mangy-looking grey dogs, their heads topped by a strip of thick, white hair which resembled a mohawk. The three of them growled and tore at a long femur bone, baring their fangs at one another in a teetering tug-of-war. As I approached they halted their bitter struggle, and once I came into their agro range they each peeled off from one another and rushed to surround me. I sprinted up to bash the closest one I saw and bore down on its skull with the cane-staff for -95 damage. The dog''s HP shrunk to a sliver, and, side-strafing to manueveur myself around its encroaching collaborators, I light-attacked the hound''s side and dropped it down another -93 damage. The hound keeled over on its side, dead. The next hound came at me, baying and drooling, and just as I was about to bash it back with another jab of the old owl-man''s cane, the third dog leapt up on my shoulders and knocked me down to the ground. My attacker began to bear down on my limbs. -96! -99! Then the other oncoming dog charged in to maul me as I sputtered around on the ground, ripping its teeth into my arm and drawing another -107 damage. I had only begun the area and already I had lost more than a third of my HP! I mashed the dodge button, waiting seemingly endless seconds for some opening in the animation to roll back on my feet. After I had eventually leapt up and found my bearings, I knew I had to be quick to meet their next attack. I had not expected to have my ass handed to me this early into the game. The second dog again barreled towards me, but I managed to deck it in the face with my quick slash at exactly the perfect moment, dealing -101 damage, which I followed up with another two slashes in a fast combo. -94! -92! The viringo collapsed into the dirt. While I had taken the time to dispatch my second attacker, the final hound managed to rip a chunk out of my heel, hitting me for -103 damage. I grunted in indignation as I slapped down a chain of light attacks for -91, -89, -95, and -101 damage, vanquishing the last of the dogs.Stolen novel; please report. + 195 Blood-Drops Gained +Item Gained - "Gnawed Bone"
LVL - 1 MACE WEIGHT - 3.5 DURABILITY - 45
PHS ATK - 80 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - C DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
The lore read: ''This cast-aside bone looks suspiciously large for it to have come from a human... but it''s long and thick enough to hit some back walls.'' It dealt a little more damage than the Puku-man''s cane, but I equipped it and swung it around a bit, and felt like it was too slow. I''d have been toast against those dogs if I''d tried to bat them away with something this cumbersome. I was down to 189 out of 594 HP, so I took bit into some of the Uyuchu fruit to restore my health to full. I knew I needed to be careful. I hadn''t taken the first encounter seriously enough. This game doesn''t fuck around. I began to walk towards the next stretch of the path which led through the tall green cornfields I had seen in the distance. Looming over the entrance into the stretch of maize was a slouching black scarecrow made of straw and flax, hung up on a high wooden post. I looked up into the scarecrow''s vacant, sewn eyes. Like everything else in this game, it was creepy and macabre almost to the point of self-parody. What was the deal with the characters in the game? Is my character dead or what? I entered the lush cornfield, noticing two more scarecrows perched above the field to either side of me. I took my time to appreciate the exceptional detail that the developers had put into the stalks. The leaves crunched and folded in exactly the right way that they would in real life. The stalks swayed subtly in the breeze and I marvelled at the long shadows by every individual strand of foliage. Then I looked up again and noticed something was different... the straw figures... no longer hung over their scaffolding, and from my left I heard an inhuman shrieking that made my heart skip. I drew out my weapon and prepared for attack. Then the scarecrow I had walked past when I entered the field came up behind me and stabbed me straight in the back while I hadn''t been looking, knocking the wind out of me for massive -345 damage. The two scarecrows from my right and my left approached, sinking their daggers into my head for -200 and -230 damage each. ''All is Lost'' bled out over the blackening screen. Fuck. Don''t know how I didn''t see that one coming. 8. Oh, Come On! I began the path again. This time I swiftly outmatched the dogs with a great deal of dodge-button sommersaulting and a flurry of light attack chains. In a moment of carelessness, one managed to strike me with a quick bite for -102 damage, but I easily dispatched the rest of them nonetheless. + 190 Blood Drops Gained As I came up upon the first scarecrow sentry who had betrayed my trust, I thrust my cane straight into its drooping center for -118 damage. The scarecrow writhed and struggled to wrench itself up from its perch and launch its secondary attack, but I had already had time to wind up another strike, and the moment the deceitful spirit had made it onto its feet, ready to pounce upon me, I struck it with another heavy attack, drawing down another -125 damage and followed with a quick strike for -98 that beat down the lurker in wait. I knew the other two would be trickier. There was no way I could creep up on them and eliminate them before they went aggro, but at least I had evened the odds slightly as I sallied forth to face their inevitable ambush. I stepped out into the field slowly, focusing my attention on the two scarecrow stakes. Once I had made it halfway through the field I clearly watched as both figures hopped down from their posts, disappearing into the high foliage. I rushed out towards the thatch-and-flax attacker coming from my left and managed to lunge upon it from the side as it charged towards me, smacking it with a light attack for -91 damage. It reeled and hobbled back on its feet only to be bashed flat into the field by my critical -135 hard attack. Then I turned back to meet the rightward attacker and blocked his frontward stab easily with my buckler shield. The attacker knocked off balance from my parry, I drove my staff straight into the enchanted straw menace, slamming him with a riposte attack for a critical hit of -420 damage. + 225 Blood Drops Gained + Item Gained - Skull Fragment The lore description read: ''Just some old bones. You can hardly cast a stone across the sands of this country without turning up a burial.'' + Item Gained - Scarecrow''s Sack
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 23 STRK-PROT: 25 SLSH-PROT: 25
THRS-PROT: 23 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 9
+Item Gained - Scarecrow''s HatThe narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 6 STRK-PROT: 8 SLSH-PROT: 6
THRS-PROT: 6 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 9
The lore for both ratty accoutrements said: "This flax effigy''s rags were enchanted by a sorceror using a dark kind of sympathetic magic. By embedding the remains of defeated warriors in these bundles of fabric, their souls were ritually bound beyond death to serve as unwilling guards and scare off all sorts of nosy crows." The wide-brimmed black straw hat was pretty swanky, but I didn''t feel like going back to messing with my look again just yet. After I passed across the edge of the first corn field, I came upon a dusty clearing with a pair of tall, bulbous clay-molded structures that looked like kilns or a termite nests. On the ground, next to a dormant campfire set out between these two maize storage silos, sat a man. He was a single warrior, dressed in dim brass metal armor, his helm covered in the fur of some dead animal, and his breastplate decorated with the motif of a bushy-tailed and angular snouted orange fox. He held a long wooden mace with a smooth tapered handle and a thin spiked bottom which stretched underneath a bulbous UFO-saucer-shaped macehead. In his left hand he held a buckler, the same kind as mine, which was painted with the face of a grinning, snaggle-toothed, wild-eyed fox. At my approach he rose to his feet and lunged at me with the war-club, smashing into my exposed side for a whopping -313 damage. It took me by surprise when he went aggro since he looked more like a dialogue NPC than an enemy. He lunged at me again, but this time I managed to bat off his attack with my shield. I wound up for a quick attack with my staff, but I had miscalculated the tempo of his assault, and again the man in armor struck me in my side for -110 damage. My HP bar plunged a hair away from death. Fuck! And it got worse! Too late, my counterstrike thrust out towards the attacking fox-knight, only for the Puku-man''s staff to split in half, flying off into the thick of the cornstalks, the edge of the cane shattering on impact with the surface of his shield! ''WEAPON BROKEN'' strobed on the screen. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! In a frantic jostle of janky steps and changed directions I managed to maneuver around the assailing knight with my shield drawn up to fend off his blows. I decided, with the tips of a waqa''s branches just in view beyond the next field, to turn tail and make a break for it past the rest of the area and any of the further enemies awaiting me. I cautiously walked backwards into the maize stalks, retreating from my advancing opponent, and with enough distance I spun around and tried to run past through the crops. I managed to limp out about halfway out through the cornfield, the crunch of the pursuing warrior''s steps following along behind me. Then the ground beneath me gave way. I fell into a sinkhole, at the bottom of which lay a great swampy puddle that bubbled beneath the rows of crops. Even as I sunk into the waist-deep muck, I still struggled to escape my pursuer. My feet became stuck in the mud, and my movement had slowed to a crawl as I waded through the inky morass. From beside me came a shrill hissing sound. I stopped in my tracks. Just beside me, to my horror, was an enormous crocodile laying a stone''s throw away from me in the sinkhole. It was as big as a school-bus with a needle-nosed snout and an open maw of seemingly endless, gleaming barbed teeth. There was no time to dodge, or even more pitifully, to raise my shield, before the beastly reptile snapped down on me, grasping my torso in its jaws and bearing down to slice my legs from my waist and pop off my head. I was utterly eviscerated for a cruel joke of -622 damage. ''All is Lost'' again bellowed the screen in a jeer of crimson mockery. I grit my teeth and hissed a sigh of frustrated awe. 9. Guess being a coward pays off sometimes... I restarted the level in dismay. There was no way I could beat that thing even as maxxed out as I could get. I didn''t even see how I could get past that crocodile-thing without hours of grinding. The Puku-man''s Cane was totally useless, broken and unequippable. I needed something else. I equipped the Gnawed Bone. It was really too heavy to be effective in close-combat, but it still had some heft as far as damage went. I''d have to keep my distance and there would be no room for mistakes, but what else was I supposed to do? Chip away at these scrubs with the broken obsidian knife? Out of a sense of hopeless resignation I again ventured out into the fields. I downed the dogs, rolling and sommersaulting all over out of their way, beating them back with their favorite bone until they had each been whittled down. + Blood-Drops Gained - 175 Then, I smashed the scarecrows, careful to keep my back covered as I circled around their ambush and smashed out their straw-stuffed insides. + Blood-Drops Gained - 185 Again I came up against the armored fox knight. This time I knew that I was facing a formidable opponent with an effective stance. I approached slowly, watching my enemy rise and charge towards me. I blocked the initial strike of his war-club and continued to strafe around him, my shield drawn, blocking his flurry of blows. I made only one lash of my quick-attack, just as an experiment, only to be blocked by his shield. I drew up my own shield to stop another barrage of the knight''s attacks. I couldn''t get behind him or slide quick enough to his side to stab him, I didn''t see how I was going to find an opening. Then I remembered how I had watched Jess play the game... In a leap of faith, I dropped my shield and relaxed my stance. I began to walk slowly towards my attacker, my unpoised arms drooping to my sides. I looked at the fox knight. He didn''t step back or advance forward, he just stood there with a compromised stance that seemed to betray his sense of uncertainty. I knew he couldn''t resist. In a split second I watched as he stretched his shoulder back to wind-up a killing blow. Right at the moment his macehead flew towards my head I batted his arm away with my shield and smashed his ribcage and guts with a riposte attack that dealt 480- damage. + Blood-Drops Gained - 200 The fox-knight moaned in anguish and keeled over on his side, but in an instant whatever man, living or dead, had been inside the suit fell away to reveal only hollow insides. The empty armor pieces rolling downhill from one another in a gust of wind. + Gained Item - Venator''s Wooden War-Club
LVL - 1 MACE WEIGHT - 4.0 DURABILITY - 45
PHS-ATK - 91 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - B DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
Okay, now we''re talking. The war-club had an excellent reach and a quick swing. Its stats weren''t spectacular, but it packed a fair punch compared to my previous options. Its surface, carved from a dark hardwood, was smooth and shiny, and around the edges of the mace-head were engraved a chain of angled geometric designs of wide-bodied creatures reminiscent of skates or stingrays. The lore read: ''The war-club is the weapon par excellence for the hunters-of-men of the College of Predators. To wield this weapon is to take up the cause of a knight: eat or be eaten.'' + Gained Item - Fox-Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60
+ Gained Item - Fox Helm
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 16
THRS-PROT: 14 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 9 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 8 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Fox Cuirass
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 37 STRK-PROT: 35 SLSH-PROT: 43
THRS-PROT: 36 MAG-PROT: 22 FIR-PROT: 25 LIG-PROT: 13
POIS-RES: 20 TOX-RES: 23 BLD-RES: 16 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Fox Gauntlet
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 26.5 STRK-PROT: 25.2 SLSH-PROT: 33.8
THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. + Gained Item - Fox Kilt
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 11 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Fox Boots
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
The lore for the armor-set read: "A modest set of brass and leather venator''s armor. Passed down by the Sejuquelle family of the Charcape estate in Pakatmayu, whose heraldry is the Red Fox. It must have been a great shame for the Foxes of Charcape to lose such a precious heirloom." Now I looked on towards the thick foliage of the muddy field where I knew the great caiman lurked. Since I was dreading another frustrating setback... I decided to try something new, something more chickenshit. Slowly and carefully I walked out onto the black silt field until I heard the soft hiss of the soil shifting beneath my boots. Then I mashed a double-tap of the dodge button backward, and rose to my feet, having somersaulted back onto the shoulder of the slope, looking down into the swampy pit that had revealed itself below. For all its hissing and snapping, I was able to simply strafe around the edge of the reptile''s subterranean lair and this time avoid the fatal encounter altogether. Guess being a coward pays off sometimes... I emerged on the other end of the muddy field, the save tree now clearly in view past this corridor of sand, where sat another seated and waiting warrior, this time donning a headscarf of mottled feathers, a shimmering copper-mail shirt, and the insignia of a squawking seagull on his circular shield. The gull knight rose to his feet, striking me, not with a spear, but with some kind of a morningstar. I didn''t catch his first strike and ended up taking the spiky stone macehead to the face for -350 damage. As he wailed at me with his chained wrecking ball, I rolled around with the dodge button. I kept my distance, observing his stance. His attacks had a long reach, but had a sluggish wind-up that left half his body exposed. These were the opposite tactics of the fox knight. This seagull was vulnerable to speed and mobility, not head-to-head confrontation and careful feints. So I timed my assault perfectly, so just as he hurled me with the morningstar, I dove to the right of his strike, his unshielded shoulder exposed. With my new war-club I dove in for the kill and hammered the seagull with a hail of blows from my new war-club. -133, -136, -141 damage! The weapon was light and fast, but every strike made a deeply satisfying crunch with each impact. Even if the damage output was low, the weapon *felt* perfect. A black bile sputtered seeped out from the gull knight''s mouth as he dropped to his knees and collapsed, the empty armor pieces dissipating into a heap. + Gained Item - Star of the Mountain-Wanderer
LVL - 1 MACE WEIGHT - 4.0 DURABILITY - 45
PHS-ATK - 91 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - B DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
The lore read: ''This ranged blunt weapon was first used by the Thunder-people in the western mountains, as its reach lends itself well to battles on the slopes. Since its popularity has spread through the Yunka coast, it has been a favorite weapon of the champions of countless Flowery Wars.'' + Gained Item - Seagull Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60
+ Gained Item - Seagull Headscarf
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 16
THRS-PROT: 14 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 9 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 8 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Seagull Chest-Mail
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 37 STRK-PROT: 35 SLSH-PROT: 43
THRS-PROT: 36 MAG-PROT: 22 FIR-PROT: 25 LIG-PROT: 13
POIS-RES: 20 TOX-RES: 23 BLD-RES: 16 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Seagull Gauntlet
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 26.5 STRK-PROT: 25.2 SLSH-PROT: 33.8
THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Seagull Leggings
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 11 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Seagull Boots
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
The lore description read: "A modest set of brass and leather venator''s armor. Passed down by the Sizneros family of the Pacanga estate in Chepeng, whose heraldry is the Grey Seagull. It must have been a great shame for the Gulls of Pacanga to lose such a precious heirloom." So I guess the armor is setting up some kind of delivery quest in the later game? Finally, I strode up to the tree after a 45 minute struggle. Something felt off. Whatever I was doing just wasn''t fast and hard enough to see me through. 10. Bridge of Sighs After the last stretch of the path I had managed to make it to safety with 800 blood-drops, just enough to gain one level. Again, I poured out the goblet onto the roots of the sacred tree and drunk deeply. I had decided that it made the most sense to invest +1 into my VIT stat, which increased my max HP to 616. The path ahead up from the new save-waqa led up towards a long, multi-storied fortress, hewn out of a cliff-face, above which towered a great and ornate spire. It had the imposing scale and the presence of a gothic cathedral, but the architecture style had a more cyclopean and earthy quality, as if molded out of the mountain or packed with wet sand, and the visible motifs on the outside were of stars, moons, and suns upon deep red walls. To make it to the great complex up ahead, I needed to cross the first of two stone bridges which led over a long, deep dry moat. As I started to cross the first bridge I looked far down to see the vast, dusty trench below littered with thousands of bones and skeletons. Were these unfortunate like-minded seekers who had failed in their quest, or were they cast-aways from the temple, discarded and disposed of once their supplication was no longer of sustenance to the divinity that dwelt therein? On the other end of the bridge huddled another gaggle of forlorn alms-seekers, just as with the first poor wretches I had encountered in the game. These undead beggars were more belligerant, hopping to their feet and barreling towards me on the narrow bridge with their stubby stone daggers. I deflected the first lunge of the knife and lashed back with two hits of -129 and -134 damage in turn, sending the first teetering off the ledge of the suspended walkway and into the great sea of failures, swelling the ranks of the broken below. The next of the ghoulish unfortuates, that had run up just behind his comrade, froze up in fear at my approach, only to be knocked off the platform with a single kick of my boot, casting him off into the dust-choked abyss below. + Blood-Drops Gained - 135 A tall plateau stood sandwiched between the two arching bridges. Atop the suspended island were the remains of a dilapidated maudle-and-daub house. Looking upon the ruin, I wondered who must have lived there and what lay inside such a curious lair. I opened the door and walked inside. The house appeared to comprise two rooms at ground level and a flight of mudbrick stairs leading to a second story. I first explored the downstairs, rummaging through the cupboards of the kitchen to find... + Item Gained - Llama Jerky Its use description read: ''Restores a modest amount of health'' Its lore read: ''Llama meat freeze-dried at high elevation, perfect sustenance for long-term rations! The weary traveler''s favorite snack!'' + Item Gained - Ripe Potato Its use description read: ''restores a small amount of health'' The lore read: ''It still looks edible... maybe...'' + Item Gained - Koka Leaf Bundle While I had been greedily trespassing I had failed to notice an ambusher had emerged behind me from a storage closet and stabbed me square in the back with a butcherknife for a whopping -500 damage.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I quickly turned round and diced my oppurtunistic attacker in a hasty chain three beatings for -143, -129, -132 damage. Luckily I still had a piece of Uyuchu fruit, which restored me back to full HP. The downstairs exhausted, I crept up to the top floor and began to investigate the various tresures I found in the past inhabitants'' living quarters. In that upper room was a sleeping mat strewn with blankets, underneath which lay a lumpy mass that was roughly the length of a man''s height. The sound of flies buzzed throughout the room. Next to the bedding rested a wooden chest in which I found... + Item Found - Hermit''s Hat It was a patchy wide-brimmed hat.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 8 STRK-PROT: 9 SLSH-PROT: 8
THRS-PROT: 8 MAG-PROT: 10 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Found - Hermit''s Gown It was a loose white cotton gown sporting patches of dark stains.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 20 STRK-PROT: 22 SLSH-PROT: 21
THRS-PROT: 20 MAG-PROT: 23 FIR-PROT: 13 LIG-PROT: 17
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 16 BLD-RES: 12 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Found - Hermit''s Arm Bandages It was a pile of ragged bandages to be wrapped around the arms.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 12 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 16 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 10
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 9 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Found - Hermit''s Leggings It was a loin garment worn underneath the gown.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 6 STRK-PROT: 7 SLSH-PROT: 7
THRS-PROT: 6 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 4 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Found - Hermit''s Foot Bandages It was a pile of ragged bandages to be wrapped around the feet to protect one''s soles and heels.
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 6 STRK-PROT: 6 SLSH-PROT: 6
THRS-PROT: 6 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 4 BLD-RES: 4 CUR-RES: 0
The lore description for the clothing read: ''The trappings of an impoverished and estranged shaman who had retreated to a lonesome dwelling. The magician''s inability to heal their clients and temper the intensity of their dreams compelled them to eke out a humble living on their own through their knowledge of the land and its vegetation.'' I looked to the dead body laying on the sleeping mat. Bummer. This time I was quiet and alert enough to hear the closet door creak open, and I lashed out my full might toward the shadow which crept toward my shoulder. I vanquished the undead attacker with two blows of -134 and -138 damage, bashing him down reeling on the floor next to the shaman the skeletal burgular had likely murdered. I crawled out a wide open window on the bedding and walked out onto the thatched roof where I found... + Item Found - Healer''s Hand Chonta Staff The use description read: "+1 VIT; Increases the effectiveness of healing items." The lore read: ''A rod carved of sacred wood from the Great Sea of Trees past the Thunder Lands. These staves are used by Yunka shamans and spirits as energetic lightning rods. Bearing the figure of a shaman''s pure hands, this staff amplifies the flow of life-giving energies.'' I dropped down from the hut and walked up the slope towards the second brige extending out to the entrance of the cliff-face fortress. Once I had made it out just about halfway over the bridge and the mass of bodies below, I heard a shrill and bloodcurdling screech pierce the windy air. I saw as the shadow of a great wingspan swept across the bridge, hurtling towards me. The enormous black condor dive-bombed me, and drew down on me with its talons. The speed and angle of the attack caught me off guard, and tore through my shoulders for -352 damage. It leapt back into the air after thrashing me forward, almost over the edge. As it circled back, preparing for a second assault, I turned round and raised up my shield in anticipation of its next attack, only to be struck by an arrow in my spine for -214 damage, sending me reeling forward just as the great condor again swept down on my face. Its razor-sharp claws sunk deep into my eye-sockets for a fatal blow of -369 damage, careening me off balance, and catapulting me off the side of the bridge, falling down into the chasm below like a dummy heaved over a cliff in a low-budget movie. ''All is Lost'' groaned the game. My jaw dropped open and hung there. Someone had been sniping me with arrows from the other end of the bridge¡­ What a buncha bullshit... 11. The Hall of Stony Patience Okay, this time I''d catch their ambush... I killed the bandits and rummaged through the house, stabbing attacks through the door where my assailants were hiding in order to avoid another knife to my back. I dropped off the roof and walked back up the chalky arched bridge. + Blood Drops Gained - 270 + Blood Drops Recovered - 285 This time I was already prepared, my shield drawn up when the great bird''s screech pierced the sky. Just as the condor fell upon me, I battered the buzzard away with my shield. The great bird of prey retreated up into the sky, but I wouldn''t fall for the same trick twice. I turned round to face the slope leading up to the cliff-side wall of the fortress and caught the two oncoming arrows with the skin of my shield. Peering over the bridge I could see my attackers were a pair of slack-jawed skeletons. Then, just in the nick of time, I turned back to meet my avian opponent''s charge with the edge of my blade. I beat the bird back for -145 damage, sending the great black vulture spasming, squawking, and wildly flapping its wings in fear and confusion. I wailed on the writihing creature with a chain of light attacks for -133, -137, -129 damage, and pounded it into a crumpled feathery lump on the ground. I trained my focus back on the cowardly snipers who fired vollies at me from the safety of their slope perch. I marched my way off the bridge with my shield drawn, deflecting two shots as I began to climb the ramp towards my chittering opponents. The first skeleton began to walk back and reload its bow in a panic as I closed in, but before he could make good on the attempt I cut him down with a heavy attack -156 and a light attack -131. As I delivered the coup-de-grace, the other archer managed to hit me in the side for -190 damage, but it wasn''t enough to save him, as I pounced across the walkway and struck him with a chain of light attacks. -132, -138, -141, and battered him down the steep cliff-side and into the oubliette below. + Blood Drops Gained - 275 The sentries defeated, I climbed up the yawning flight of stone steps that led to the entrance of the great complex. Outside it I found a chest that contained... + Item Gained - Obsidian Core The use drescription read: ''Item used for crafting obsidian weapons.'' The lore description read: ''A clouded, glassy chunk of mountain-flesh which can be worked into all manner of blades if shaped by a master knapper.'' + Area Discovered - "Hall of Stony Patience" There was only one small doorway into the great temple that led into a long, narrow gallery, flanked on each end by rows of mummies, who rested on stone platforms, sitting on their knees and wrapped in black woolen cloaks, their hollow sockets gazing out unflinchingly at my passing. Until one lunged out at me, tearing into me with its long nails and hissing at the profanity of my trespass. -171, -165, -168. I countered its attack with a barrage of frantic pummeling, -140, 138, -130, -141, -134 damage. It took a whole five attacks to smack down the vengeful spirit!If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. As I continued to cross the hallway I took careful notice to intercept any further attacks. Five rows of mummified sentries down the gallery, I noticed as one of the mummified bundles twitched ever so slightly, but by the time I was ready to meet it, the enemy had already gone aggro. It managed to tear out at me for -174, -168, but I quickly raised my shield to check its blows and retaliated with a hammering of three heavy attacks with the war-club for -179, -182, -180 damage, leaving the mummy in tatters. From that point forward I just started striking every resting body preemptively, instantenously cutting down one which lay in wait at the very end of the corridor. As I inspected each of the mummies for a would-be ambush, I saw that one of the platforms lay bare. Instead of another dead body, an empty set of clothing had been lain out over it. + Item Gained - Pilgrim''s Turban
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 9 STRK-PROT: 9.4 SLSH-PROT: 8
THRS-PROT: 8 MAG-PROT: 9 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 7
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 9 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Gained - Pilgrim''s Robe
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 22 STRK-PROT: 26 SLSH-PROT: 22
THRS-PROT: 22 MAG-PROT: 23 FIR-PROT: 14 LIG-PROT: 19
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 20 BLD-RES: 24 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Gained - Pilgrim''s Wrist Bandages
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 5 STRK-PROT: 5.9 SLSH-PROT: 5
THRS-PROT: 5 MAG-PROT: 5 FIR-PROT: 3 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 4 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Gained - Pilgrim''s Loincloth
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 8.25 SLSH-PROT: 8
THRS-PROT: 8 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 8 CUR-RES: 0
+ Item Gained - Pilgrim''s Sandals
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 8.25 SLSH-PROT: 7
THRS-PROT: 7 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 6
POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
The lore description for the full set read: ''The trappings of a wanderer who traveled far and wide across the world in dedication to some deity. Supplicants wear the same stylings and funeral rags as a mummy, in order to assume the discipline and stillness of a stony lord while they endure weeks, months, or even years of excruciating bodily ordeals that they might be deemed pure enough to approach the oracle.'' + Blood Drops Gained - 265 Coming to the end of the long hall of mummies, there was a doorway leading further into the structure. The entrance led to a great open hall with a monumental domed ceiling, from which beemed down cracks of white sunlight. All across the hall''s turbid basalt floors were littered a grizzly forest of skulls, limbs, ribs, and spines. I stepped out further into the room and heard as ragged scratching echoed across the chamber. The bones littered across the floor began to roll and draw together. Out of the mass of human detritus, a swelling heap of remains congealed against me! Boss: Will of the Yearning As the mass approached, I batted it twice for -150 and -171 damage, reducing only a minimal sliver from its visible HP bar. In seconds it overwhelmed me and smothered me down in my weary and unhealed condition, burying me in a rushing tide of corpses of -611 damage. ''All is Lost'' bellowed the screen as the flayed man disappeared under the avalanche of bone. I growled beneath my breath. 12. Will of the Yearning I started the whole path once more. With brutal determination I swept the beggars off the bridge, raided the hermit''s house, swatted down the bird and the archers, battered through the hall of lurking mummies, and stood before the threshold, behind which waited the turgid heap. Relying on my speed and the thrust of my war-club, I gave myself a buff to my mobility by chewing the Koka leaves that increased stamina regeneration. I unequipped my shield and took the staff in both hands. There was no blocking this thing. I knew if I was going to kill this thing I was going to have to be quick on my feet. I passed through the doorway and rammed straight into the tidal wave of skeletons, both hands on the stave of the hunter''s war-club. I bashed my way straight through the mass of body parts, dealing -233 damage, blasting off a not insignificant smidgen of the boss'' HP bar! In the next second I nimbly dodged two massive skeletal hands which rose up from the great corpse-pile and jutted out to smack me down. Sliding behind the heaving collective''s heel, I chipped away multiple blows, -228, -237, -230, driving the Will of Yearning''s HP down to a third of the bar. Then the squamous rubbish heap of souls grasped hold my waist and picked me up off the ground! Enclosing their bony embrace around me and crushing down on me for critical damage. -199. -197, -201 Before hurtling me down the ground for a further -312 damage! I was critically wounded, the only thing keeping my crippled body rolling was the koka-leaf stamina buff I had taken earlier. I dodged the boss''s next wave attack, and, rushing all-out in a do-or-die attack, I slashed prematurely at the bulging mass'' side for -229, -239. But in my rage and panic I had been careless, and a cascade of bleached bones now buried me underneath the bleak yawning words: ''All is Lost'' I screamed and threw the controller down on the sofa. Fuck me! I hate this fucking thing!The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I grit my teeth. Killed the beggars. Ran through the house. Clipped the bird''s wings. Unstrung the bowmen. And wrapped up the mummies. Now again I used the same weapon and stamina, but this time I wasn''t going to fuck this up. I tensed my grip and charged into the fray, again hitting him with a barrage of two-handed heavy attacks for -264, -259, -261 damage! I already anticipated the bony lump''s counterattack and double-tapped the dodge button to leap out of the way. Then I ran back to the side of the churning pile and mashed it repeatedly for -223, -229, -231, -230, but this time as the mass towered over to overwhelm me from the front, I leapt back again and side-strafed the great stone hall around it. Now, after the pile had impotently lunged at me once more, I took advantage of an exposed opening in its assault and unleashed frenzied blows, -233, -230, -233. My heart leapt as I glanced above the screen to see his HP bar was down to its last eigth of vitality! In that split-second of carelessness, the carrion lump thrashed me twice for -245 and -249 damage, driving me down to a third of my health. I roared! I am not gonna fuck up this time! I rolled to the foot of the towering mass and slammed it down with three heavy attacks for -255, -263, and -261damage. The great heap of bodies yawned and collapsed, shaking the room as if in an earthquake rumbled beneath it. SACRIFICE DEVOURED + Blood-Drops Gained - 600 + Blood-Drops Recovered - 685 Up from the trash and detritus belched up a geyser of dust particles which flooded the room and twinkled gold from the sunlight that penetrated the great circular roof. It was from one of these structural gaps that a rope-ladder dropped down, and I took hold of its rungs and ascended up through the crypt''s great expanse. I climbed up from a gap in the vault''s ceiling and rose up on a vermillion dyed tile floor resting beneath the steeples of a narrow chapel buttressed by steeples and arches. The walls were a brilliant red with the texture of wet clay. Across the altar and the side of the hall were decorated motifs of the golden sun and the shells of crabs. Area Discovered - Supplicant''s Chapel of Zhyang Beneath the altar lay a chest... + Item Gained - Crab Chonta Staff The item description read - "+1 STR; Increases the effectiveness of fire damage." The lore read - "A rod carved of sacred wood from the Great Sea of Trees past the Thunder Lands. These staves are used by Yunka shamans and spirits as energetic lightning rods. Bearing the figure of the crab, the icon of the sun-god, Zhyang, this staff channels the scorching rays of the sun." A wooden beam served as a ramp that led up over the altar. I climbed it and exited the chapel through a set of broken stained-glass windows. The next save tree was just up ahead. 13. Palisade of Shadows With the second boss eliminated, the guy who stole my skin nowhere in sight, and my blood pressure through the roof, I decided to take a break from the game. I went to the kitchen to heat up a a microwave burrito and grab another bottle of beer from the fridge. This was, of course, the breakfast of champions. While I waited beside the whirring lightbox, I looked outside into the dark and raspy branches of the winter woods. Ever since I was little I had always lived with the primeval fear that some intruder from that palisade of shadows would try to invade my cabin sanctuary. I gazed up past the tips of the branches and into the deep navy blue sky. It was already a cold, dark winter, and we hadn''t even started to get the big storms yet. The nice thing about being out here in the country was how you could see the entire Milky Way and even the most subtle stars of every constellation thanks to the lack of light pollution. I wondered how many other lonely people were out there, whittling their days away in uncertainty. Wrenching the hot pastry out of the beeping microwave, I retreated back to the living room. I plopped down on the couch and popped off the bottle''s cap, casting it deep down into the abyss beneath the couch cushions. I loaded the game up at the save waqa and fooled around a bit with my character loadout. Weapons: Right-hand - Venator''s Wooden War-Club
LVL - 1 MACE WEIGHT - 4.0 DURABILITY - 45
PHS-ATK - 91 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - B DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 45 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
Left-hand -Fox-Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60
The war-club wasn''t amazing, but it was definitely more reliable than what I''d been using before. There barely seemed to be a difference between all the different shields, so I just chose the one with the grinning cartoon fox that looked the most iconic. Equipment: Skin - Skin of a Hunter Head - Fox Helm
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 16
THRS-PROT: 14 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 9 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 8 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Body - Fox Cuirass
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 37 STRK-PROT: 35 SLSH-PROT: 43
THRS-PROT: 36 MAG-PROT: 22 FIR-PROT: 25 LIG-PROT: 13
POIS-RES: 20 TOX-RES: 23 BLD-RES: 16 CUR-RES: 0
Arms - Fox Gauntlet
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 26.5 STRK-PROT: 25.2 SLSH-PROT: 33.8
THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
Legs - Fox Kilt
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 11 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
Feet - Fox Boots
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
I decided to equip the fox armor, since it was the swankiest and had the best defensive stats. Trinket - Crab Chonta Staff (+1 STR; Increases the effects of fire damage.) I swapped out the owl wand for the crab wand. I didn''t have any fire weapons, but it was hard to resist the easy +1 to my STR damage output. Stats: After the multiple recoveries I had made going through the last area, I had 1738 blood-drops, enough to level up twice. I decided to level up by putting +1 into END and +1 into VIT. Again, the flayed man poured forth the goblet at the tree''s roots and drunk deeply. Now my stats looked like...
LVL - 9 Blood-drops to LVL UP - 112/811 HP - 633 STAMINA - 95
STR - 16 DEX - 13 VIT - 13 END - 13
INT - 9 MAG - 9 ATT - 8 RES - 11
PHYS DEF - 169.3 VS STRK - 183.8 VS SLSH - 169.3 VS THRS - 154.7
MAG DEF - 145.8 FIR DEF -106.4 LIG DEF - 126 LOAD - 11.4/52.0
POISE - 0 BLD RES - 120.8 TOX RES - 108.8 CRS RES - 30
I looked over my phone. Jess had sent me some DMs. Jess: So do you have your skin back yet? Matt: Nah, i Just reached the convent. Jess: lol dude Jess: git gud Matt: *sigh* Matt: is there something else I should be doing? I just feel like my weapons aren¡¯t hitting hard enough. Jess: Hrrrm... Jess: Oh well there¡¯s a weapon that drops up ahead that could help you out! Jess: I could jump in and show you where it is! ^^ Matt: is there a way you can actually play with me? Jess: yeah! light up a squash-lamp! I¡¯ll hop on! 14. The Convent of Shonto I loaded up Cannibal Hymn to the latest save spot and looked out over the path ahead. Area Discovered - The Convent of Shonto Stretching out before me, atop the mountain fortress below, was an enormous stone cobbled courtyard, in the corners of which stood four stubby cylinder towers made of stacked black stones. These laid stone blocks interlocked with one another at slanted, uneven angles, their massive proportions nothing short of cyclopean. Behind the towers was a great cubic vault that looked as though it was chiseled and hollowed out from one great chunk of sandstone, including a gargantuan and impressively carved doorway that towered over the plaza. Above the entire courtyard circled a slow but constant ring of vultures, their tattered black wings drifting in the blood red sky. I returned my attention to the save tree and used the squash-skin lamp from my inventory. A brief cienematic played in which the flayed man knelt to his knees and laid the little gourd candle down at the foot of the tree. Then the screen flashed... +Incoming Venator+ +Venator Seternis Appears+ "Waaaazzuuuuup!!!" shouted Jess over the voicechat as she blinked into existence next to me. "Hey! So it lets you play with me even though you''re at such a higher level?" I asked. "Yeah! It''s instanced so all my stats are scaled down to where you are." Jess explained. "Oh cool!" "Yeah, so you''re actually really close to something cool! Want me to take you to the secret weapons?" She asked, her character shaking around in either direction as she fidgeted the movement stick back and forth with her thumb. "Hell yeah!" "First we have to get a key out of each one of these towers, and they''re filled with assholes, so we gotta clear them out!" She declared. Jess and I ran inside the first of the towers. The interior was hollow, save for a spiral staircase running up along its side to the roof. In the empty center of the tower was an item... + Item Gained - Obsidian Core Then, as I was distracted by the loot, out from above pounced two female warriors, their bodies wrapped in silky white flowing cloth, they brandished crescent knives of gleaming bronze and wore black hook-beaked masks. The first of the vulture-girls leapt on my shoulder and sliced down hard for -455 damage. Jess pierced both of them with her harpoon for three stabs of -222, -217, -227 damage. "Ya got to be more cautious turning corners! Nyeeeah!" she whined. Out of her inventory Jess produced an Uyuchu fruit, which she gave to me to restore my health. Jess and I ran up around the spiral staircase to emerge at the top of the tower. The roof of the little spire was covered in lances, skewered with dead bodies and limbs, beside which stood erect chonta wands carved with figureheads of scowling buzzards and crows. The kebab-skewered dead had, of course, attracted a vast flock of black and frayed-wing carrion-feeders, two of whom flew at us. Jess poked up at the scavengers to keep them at bay, as I lit an enormous copper brazier that sat atop the tower and scared the rest of them off with the flame. + Blood-Drops Gained - 235 Jess and I dropped down the stairs and ran to the second of the towers. In the bottom center of the tower was an item... + Item Gained - Koka Leaf Bundle After I picked up the item, I panned the camera up to look at the staircase curving up along the tower walls. Instead I saw the strangest thing... Playing on the texture that comprised the, as if a film being projected on a screen, was a grainy live-video, apparently deeply compressed into a blurry mess of pixels. What was visible, lit by flickering torchlight in darkness, as if in the bowels of some deep cavern, was a group of four figures standing two-by-two in two rows. The four of them wore black cloaks and hook-beaked black masks. Out of their masks peered wide slit-pupiled, bloodshot yellow eyes, which gazed down at us unblinking and didn''t appear to belong to humans at all. The one on the top left held out the torch. The one on the bottom right held out a long pole, from the top of which hung a draped cloth standard. Its pinkish surface was covered in fine indented red lines. Stitchings. But that''s the thing... It wasn''t rendered by the game... it looked... real. Nothing about it looked CGI... Then the light of the quartet''s torch sputtered "What the fuck was that?" I snapped. "...No idea. That wasn''t in my game." Jess whispered. "...You''re fucking with me." "No! No dude. There''s a bunch of secrets still all over the game." she explained. "People find a ton of weird stuff." Since there was no point hanging around after that, we climbed the steps up to the roof and lit the brazier at the top. Jess and I lunged down the stairs and ran to the third of the towers In the bottom center of the tower was an item... + Item Gained - Spondylus ShellStolen novel; please report. It had no item use description... The lore description read: These shells are sacred offerings to the cult of the ocean goddess, Ni, whose worship has persisted for untold thousands of years through the indigenous Quingnam fisherpeople before Muchik settlers had migrated to the coast. In the Quingnam religion''s complex mythological cosmology, these shells are believed to belong to the petrified children of one of the earliest and grandest of the great races that preceded mankind in the womb of Ni. "So what am I supposed to do with this?" "Ooo, plenty of things you can do with it later! Just take it for now! We came to the top of the tower. There was the same assortment of magic wands and impaled corpses, but no birds seemed to bustle around the carnage. Suddenly a blood-curdling screech piereced the crimson sky. Jess'' character stood stoic and I watched as she slowly ran the palm of her hand down the length of the harpoon and its barb. Down from above dove the strong talons of a great scaly foot which sunk deep into my scalp for -198. Hovering over me in the air was a woman wearing a black gown, a red hook-beaked mask, and flapping the black feathered wings of a vulture. In her hands she held a long metal staff which terminated in a wide bronze crescent blade, like some kind of exotic halberd. She swung the crescent blade down on my skull for -590 HP My heart sunk as my health bar dwindled across the screen. Jess leapt up in the air, raising her harpoon mid-bound, both firsts gripped on the handle, and driving the shaft down into the vulture-woman''s chest. At Jess'' thrust, the vulture woman was consumed from the inside by a blaze that rippled out from the gash in her chest like a stone cast into a lake of fire. The carrion woman screamed in fear and agony as the fire burned through her sockets and melted her wings to cinders. "I still fucking hate those things." Jess said. "The only good part is watching them burn." "Well that was fucking metal." I said. Jess lit the big brazier on the top of the tower with a poke of her fire-ant dusted harpoon, as if roasting marshmallows. I tore off a strip of llama jerky to patch myself up. Blood-Drops Gained - 325 Jess and I ran to the final tower. In the center of the tower''s staircase sat a warrior like the ones I had seen in the orchard, this time patched in armor painted in bands of black and white, Her head was wrapped in a headscarf which covered her brow and mouth in a bar of white, leaving exposed only her hollow eye-sockets, the skin around which was painted a deep charcoal black. At our approach, she rose to her knees and drew up the silver stone-tipped spear she held in her hand, along with the tall black-and-white banded shield with a painting of a sneering beady-eyed raccoon rubbing its digits together that she carried on her other arm. I drew forward to strike, but there was no getting through that hefty shield, which the raccoon knight pressed forward. I struck once again to no avail, and in my futility she took the offensive and managed to pierce my shoulder with a determined jab of her lance for -333. She continued to bear down on me, pushing me to back-step further down the stairs with the mass of his shield, as if preparing to lunge at me any moment. Jess wasted no time swooshing past me on the steps and plunging her harpoon straight into the Raccoon-Knight''s spine, dealing a grizzly -522 damage. After thatshe wasted no time, impaling straight through the center of the raccoon''s brow for -611 and leaving the empty pieces of armor to start to roll down the stairs towards me below. "How the hell are you so good at this?" I asked. "Hahaha, dude, this is nothing!" Jess laughed. "Wait till you get to the PVP. You''ll grow eyes in the back of your head!" + Item Gained - Chert-Tipped Spear
LVL - 1 SPEAR WEIGHT - 3.5 DURABILITY - 30
PHS-ATK - 80 +100 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - C INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 40 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 30 LIG-DEF - 30
The lore description read: "A primeval weapon brought by the Muchik people after fleeing the cloud forest. Chert stone spears are relatively sharp and effective, but somewhat fragile." + Gained Item - Raccoon Shield
LVL 1 SHIELD WEIGHT - 2.5 DURABILITY - 40
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 80 MAG-DEF - 35 FIR-DEF - 60 LIG-DEF - 60
+ Gained Item - Raccoon Headscarf
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 14 STRK-PROT: 13 SLSH-PROT: 16
THRS-PROT: 14 MAG-PROT: 8 FIR-PROT: 9 LIG-PROT: 5
POIS-RES: 8 TOX-RES: 9 BLD-RES: 6 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Raccoon Cloak
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 37 STRK-PROT: 35 SLSH-PROT: 43
THRS-PROT: 36 MAG-PROT: 22 FIR-PROT: 25 LIG-PROT: 13
POIS-RES: 20 TOX-RES: 23 BLD-RES: 16 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Raccoon Bangles
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 26.5 STRK-PROT: 25.2 SLSH-PROT: 33.8
THRS-PROT: 12 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 8 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Raccoon Skirt
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 11 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
+ Gained Item - Raccoon Boots
LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 11 STRK-PROT: 10 SLSH-PROT: 13
THRS-PROT: 11 MAG-PROT: 6 FIR-PROT: 7 LIG-PROT: 4
POIS-RES: 6 TOX-RES: 7 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0
The lore description read: "A modest set of brass and leather venator''s armor. Passed down by the Majapaico family of the Saltonte estate in Hatanga, whose heraldry is the Banded Raccoon. It must have been a great shame for the Raccoons of Saltonte to lose such a precious heirloom." "What''s the deal with these guys anyway?" I asked Jess. "I already saw two of them before in the last area." "They''re knights. Well, they were. Now they''re just enchanted armor the boss left out to guard the place, ''cause they''re in the land of the dead." "This is the land of the dead?" "Well, a part of it. Yeah. You can come back here and go to different parts of it later, but this place is seperate. The whole coast opens up once you finalize your character and leave here." "So is there some reason all these Aesop''s Fable motherfuckers are dressed as animals, or is this just some fetish?" "Nah, it''s heraldry! The animals represent particular noble families in the game''s world. Ya know, like, ''The Red Fox'', ''The Green Iguana'', ''The Blue Chinchilla''. You can actually go to their estates and interact with them out in the world later. They''ll reward you if you bring them back their armor." "''Blue Chinchilla''?" "Yeah, there''s lots of them. You can get your own unique one and have it recognized by the college." Seternis held up her shield. "I''m the Green Moth, as you can see." "The college?" I asked. "The College of Predators." Jess explained. "It''s basically the leaderboards for PVP in the game, but it also handles all the noble houses and politics." "Ugh. Politics." "Hahaha, yeah, you have no idea!" "So were all the bird ladies we just killed part of the college?" "Nah, they aren''t venators. They''re nuns who worship the god, Shonto." "Shonto?" "Yoooouuu''ll seeee..." + Blood-Drops Gained - 210 At the top of the tower, standing alone in the roof''s center, was an item... + Item Gained - Vulture Chonta Staff The item description read - "+1 DEX; Increases bleed damage." The lore read -"A rod carved of sacred wood from the Great Sea of Trees past the Thunder Lands. These staves are used in ritual by Yunka shamans and spirits as energetic lightning rods. Bearing the figure of the vulture, the icon of the god of fate, Shonto, this staff sharpens the talons and invites one to swoop down and seize their fill." We lit the last of the braziers, and the great gate at the front of the stone vault cracked open with a heavy groan, as if moved by some giant''s devised mechanism. 15. The Lord of Carrion-Feeders Jess and I entered into the vault. The room was filled by an enormous vessel, like a basin or a vat of some kind. Around the wall of the chamber was curled another long spiral staircase that led across the diameter of the container and allowed the pedestrian to appraise the great mythological scene embossed on its side in frieze. It was a scene involving a crowd of figures standing together. There was a man with the head of an eagle, a man with the head of an owl, a man with the head of a jaguar, a man with the head of a lizard, and a woman, whose body was human, but who wore a silver horned crown and from whose shoulders hovered a pair of fork-tongued serpents. All the figures shared a shining gold goblet between them which they seemed to pass to each other''s lips, a subtle trickle of red. "Yo, I don''t want to spoil it," said Jess, "but the whole story of the game is kind of hidden in this picture." I looked at it some more... at least the man with the owl face and the cup itself was certainly familiar. "Go over to the side and attack the goblet." Jess directed. I went up and battered the glittering chalice along the frieze. An item appeared... + Item Gained - Obsidian Macuahuitl of the Shaveen It was the length and girth of a great sword, but with jagged black razor blades affixed to its perimeter that serated its smooth edge. Carved along its darkwood center was the image of a snarling and wild red-eyed face, baring green curled lips and jutting fangs.
LVL - 1 WAR-PADDLE WEIGHT - 4.0 DURABILITY - 45
PHS ATK - 200 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - NA DEX-BON - NA INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 50 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 35 LIG-DEF - 35
The lore description read: ''The wood that forms the body of this macuahuitl was carved from a sacred tree once worshipped as an idol in the Cloud Lands that hang resplendent above the Great Sea of Trees. An avatar of the god at the center of the old Muchik Cult of Fanged things, The Lord of the Right and the Left, its gleaming obsidian teeth are ever hungry for prey.'' "Holy shit... +200 physical attack!" "Yeah, but, like... don''t get too used to it." Jess said. "Why?" "Well like, it doesn''t scale. Basically you can upgrade every weapon to be viable through the entire late game with the right upgrades, except for that one." Jess explained. "It''s super powerful right now, but it won''t be hot for too long, so don''t get comfortable!" We walked up the stairs and through a trap door in the ceiling to ascend into a vast dark chamber. The upper floor of the vault had one wall exposed, looking out onto a mountain pass, looming above the horizon of which towered a jet black pyramid, its approach flanked by a pair of two smaller rectangular buildings. All around us in the upper chamber we heard a pitter-patter of droplets of water, as though around us it were raining. Up above us, visible only in shadow, I saw the vast and gruesome sillohettes of many men hanging upside-down from the ceiling, their arms swaying as blood trickled and leaked from their open veins into the top of the gargantuan vat which lay in the chamber below.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. "What is wrong with these people?" I muttered into the microphone. "Nyeh, eggs and omelettes!" Jess crowed. On the path up ahead were two structures. On the right was a single-story house with an open doorway decorated in walls of red and motifs of golden crabs. On the left was a complimentary building of the same size and shape painted with walls of blue and ornaments of silver crescents. "You lead the way!" I said. Jess bounded towards the house of the sun on the right. Inside it was like a great collection of shelves which stored strangely shaped jars, almost like some kind of wine-cellar. Two of the vulture women leapt out from the recesses of the workshop. Both Jess and I had gained a sizeable advance in our damage output, and I cut down my attacker for just a quick swipe of -270 damage. + Blood-Drops Gained - 210 We looked around and on a shelf along the wall found... + Item Gained - Warrior Libation Vessel The item use read: ''Consume to gain a modest quantity of blood-drops.'' The lore read: ''These finely made stirrup-spout ceramics are found in tombs all along the coast as libation vessels in funerary rites. This particular ceramic depicts a kneeling venator brandishing his shield and his war-club, the perfect stoic servant to his feudal lord.'' Then we swept through the house of the moon on the left. This house was some combination of a workshop and an ossuary, with human bones being finely worked into handles and containers. Another two vulture women attacked us, only to be cut down by a series of slashes from my macuahuitl for -322, -315 -310 damage, which diced the scavenger-witches into pieces. "This thing is so cool!!!" "Glad you dig it! You can find even better ones of those sword-things later in the game." Jess explained. + Blood-Drops Gained - 225 On the workshop table, next to macabre masterpieces of sculpted ivory, I found another item... + Item Gained - Skull Fragment Now the two of us returned to the path forward and ascended the steep steps of the black pyramid in a determined march. "Alright, so what are we doing to prepare for this boss?" I asked. "Don''t sweat it." said Jess, her character powdering the surface of the harpoon''s spearhead. "This guy''s a pushover with two people. We just have to keep attacking him on either side so one of us can make sure he''s always distracted." "Sounds like a plan." I said. When we reached the summit, looking out over colossal dark sandstorms that billowed out in the distance beneath the crimson sky. The music grew heavy and foreboding, and a boss''s HP bar came over the top of the screen. BOSS: Shonto, Lord of Carrion-Feeders Down onto the peak of the pyramid crashed the length of a great black vulture, squawking and heaving an enormous axe, the blade of which was a giant sharpened boulder and its handle sculpted of the entire trunk of an ancient hardwood tree. Jess and I rushed forward and split up, pincering Xonto around his left and right flank. I slashed furiously at the scavenger god, light attack comboing him for -279, -282, and -278 damage, which, along with Jess''s swiping, had easily reduced Shonto down to half of his health bar. The boss grabbed Jess and began to tear at her with his talons, flapping afloat on his monstrous wings. I continued to slash at the vulture boss with heavy attacks, hoping he would drop my partner: -420, -418, -427, -412. With these strikes the vulture dropped Jess and cried out a pained shriek, dropping to the ground, its HP bar vanished. Sacrifice Devoured + Blood-Drops Gained = 822 + Item Gained - Greataxe of Shonto
LVL - 1 AXE WEIGHT - 7.0 DURABILITY - 36
PHS ATK - 93 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - C INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 55 MAG-DEF - 10 FIR-DEF - 40 LIG-DEF - 40
The lore read: "The Lord of Carrion-Feeders prefers to keep his foes at arm''s length rather than face them in an all-out assault. It''s better to live on scraps than perish of one''s hubris." "Well that was... easy...?" "Haha! See! You''re doing good!" Jess said as we walked the countless steps down to the base of the pyramid where the next save-tree lay in view. "Just get through the opening of the game and we''ll hang out again later! ;) " 16. Charnel Parlour of the Skin-Takers After Jess had flickered out of my game, I knelt before the tree and levelled up once, using the remainder of my blood-drops to add another +1 in STR. I looked out from the foot of the black pyramid onto the road ahead. Sloping down at a slight decline from Shonto''s pyramid was a little hamlet of winding cobbled streets, lined with mudbrick houses and storefronts. Rising above the hill that stood at the center of the village was a great thatched roof lodge, its walls covered in vast and rainbow colored geometric murals that were in stark contrast to the earthy reds and sandy yellows of the surrounding buildings. + Area Discovered - Village of the Inkists First, after skipping down the winding streets of empty houses, silent save only for a chilling wind that made the doors and shutters'' rattle. After walking downhill for a few minutes, I found myself at an open shopfront in the middle of the town where I was met by a lumpy, tangled creature that floated around as a soggy mass of pale blue tentacles and slime. I went for a closer look, suspecting it was a friendly NPC I could talk to. At my drawing near, it flew into an irate rage and lunged at me, throttling me with its tentacles for -110 HP. I cut it down with only two slashes of -215 and -212 damage. Next to the felled watery beast, that now spasmed in a murky puddle on the floor, was a wicker basket filled with squishy lumps. + Item Gained - Squid Ink The lore read: "A bold black ink produced by one of the lesser cephalopod races that dwell within the womb of Ni. Used as black dye for clothes, tattoos, illustration, and culinary flavoring. In ancient days, the discovery of the ink''s uses among the Quingnam fisherpeople sparked a craze for the luxury good among the encroaching Muchik lords, spurring them to harvest or cull most of the producers. Now the ink secreters are reclusive, and the use of the dye ever more precious." Aw shit... This guy was just trying to get by... +Blood-Drops Gained - 280 Next I swung down the cobbled streets towards a workhouse. The actual shop was empty, but when I wandered out into the building''s courtyard, two feral monkeys, who lingered beneath a fruit tree, began pelting me with some kind of rock or hard nut that hit me twice for -110 and -108 damage. I charged towards the mischevous macaques, but the clever stone-casters leapt up into the tree, beyond the reach of my blade. They continued to chitter their victory up there, hurling down volleys at me. Just beneath the monkey''s tree, before I left, I managed to snatch a fallen... + Item Gained - Uyuchu Fruit The last stop at the end of town was an open fenced garden filled with cacti. The little colonnade of spiky plants seemed pleasant enough, until something swooped down on me from the sky, some great bird with wide wings drove its claws straight into my shoulders and dragged me straight into the side of one of the cactus plants, spiking my side for a nasty -172 damage. I looked up across the garden to see a huge bird perched atop a tall cactus. Its body was nimble, its full wingspan a cool grey, the tips of its wings and the smear of its face were marked in stark combatting bands of black and white. It looked at me in jerks of its needle-like beak that suggested a kind of amused curiosity, mocking me with its sheer indifference to my wrath. I hopped up to my feet and slashed an X down across the cactus, the obsidian blades of my Macuahuitl slicing through the plant for -209 and -204 damage, like it was paper. The cactus'' flesh exploded into pieces like a ''fuck you'' pinata, showering me in a barrage of quills for -100 damage as the shrike flew off into the sky, completely unharmed.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. What a little asshole. A few items lay on the ground. + Item Gained - Cactus Needles X3 The use description read: "Base ammunition for blow-guns. Can be combined with various other items to produce different effects." The lore read: "Cactus spines are often used as cheap epidermic needles and quills in ceremonial ordeals. Sages observe that a particular kind of desert shrike that skewers its prey on these needles was likely the inspiration for the standing wands and palisades erected at shrines by adherents to the Cult of Fanged Things." You don''t say. +Item Gained - Cactus Flesh The lore read: "A favorite sacrement of shamans across the Yunka coast. The flesh of this holy plant, which bears a bitter and acidic taste, may be eaten raw or boiled down into a beverage. Shamans stress that the sacred fruit must be harvested in complete silence, lest the spirits of power grow angry at their trespass." The use description was just a series of question marks. In other words, fuck around and find out. Now at the edge of town, I bit into an Uyuchu fruit to restore my HP to full and walked up the the long snaking steps up towards a side-door to enter into the Rainbow Temple. + Area Discovered - Charnel Parlour of the Skin-Takers I walked through the door to a grizzly sight. Across the walls of the dark hall I stood in hung the outstretched skins of what must have been hundreds of people. In the chamber''s center, illuminated by rows of flickering squash-skin lamps, sat a red and already peeled body, strapped into some horrid mechanism, like medieval stocks but fastened to drill-like blades. The man''s bold blue eyes and toothy, lipless face looked out at me with a pained pleading. Out from the sides of the room emerged two tall men, wearing their funeral shrouds for cloaks, their skin charred and brittle. As they crept towards me from across the torture chamber, I could see that they had no eyes that peered out from beneath their elaborate red turbans, the features of their faces reserved only to snoutless-nostrils and long chattering teeth, In their blood-soaked hands they gripped sharp quills and crescent blades. I charged at the two torturers starting with a strong slash of -333. One swung at me with his blade and knicked me for -132 damage, the other ran behind me and, having taken hold of my shoulder, drove a needle deep into my spine for -432 damage, knocking the wind out of me. When I rose to my feet I flew into a frenzy of quick slashes, -233, -212, -222, -219, tearing at the depraved skin-stealers in stripes of red, a geyser of blood flying across the room with every satisfying stroke of the war-paddle''s edge. When I broke from dicing my attackers into even more diminished chunks, I saw that I had managed to break most of the room, including tearing in half several of the skins that had been affixed to the walls. On a workbench next to the man strapped to the flaying contraption, I found... + New Item Gained - Skin-Taker''s Scraper
LVL 1 DAGGER WEIGHT - 3.0 DURABILITY - 17
PHS ATK - 40 MAG ATK - 0 FIR ATK - 0 LIG ATK - 0
STR-BON - D DEX-BON - D INT-BON - NA FAI-BON - NA
PHS-DEF - 20 MAG-DEF - 5 FIR-DEF - 15 LIG-DEF - 15
The lore read: "After centuries of perfecting the process, the minions of The Flayed Lord swear by their scrapers. The ghoulish taxidermists boast that with one of these bronze scrapers they can cleanly remove the skin from the flesh in shorter time than a hummingbird lingers in the petals of a flower." I looked down to the skinless man who looked up at me with poor puppy dog eyes. His pupils followed me as I staggered around the terrifying contraption, looking in vain for some button prompt that would free him from his torment. "Um... sorry?" +Blood-Drops Gained - 275 I walked deeper into the complex, into the next dark and smoke-filled room. The walls again were ornamented in a vast multitude of skins, only the hides were not mere stretched flesh, but great murals onto which intricate scenes of battles, animals in nature, and courtly banquets had been etched in a multitude of bright and brilliant colors. All throughout the room, hollow-eyed artisans wrapped in red cloaks sat hunched over, dilligently inking fine details onto freshly dried sheets of flesh. The artists took no interest in me whatsoever as I passed, and continued to elaborate their superbly composed designs. On a wooden stool sat an item nobody seemed to be using... + Item Gained - Stingray Spine The lore read: "To the cultural disparagement of the Muchik, these spines were first harvested by the Quingnam fisherpeople for use in various genital mutilation rites. Among the rest of the Yunka peoples, the sharpened spines became the premier instrument for tattooing, its fine and sturdy edge favored over cactus needles for inking fine detailed lines beneath the skin." Ew. At last I entered into the next room of the temple complex which opened upon a gargantuan balcony, as if a spectator''s nest built for giants, overlooking a vast wasteland in which billowed a red sandstorm under a black sky. Before my view, as tall as several men, stood a red-robed figure, poring over a blood-curdlingly massive outstretched fleshy tapestry that depicted a dizzying scene of men and monsters fighting. The man''s impossibly long and bony fingers traced the details of the registers. He froze as I walked behind him onto the center of the monumental balcony platform. A long HP bar bled out across the top bar of the screen... Boss: Shipe-Totek, Prince of Skin-Takers "It is only in its nature for a crab to long for its old shell, but alas, this vessel is no longer yours." The giant in the red robe hissed. 17. The Hand-Within-Hands "You know not what you do, leave now, cease your selfish pursuits and take your freedom! Return to the land of the living and whittle down your days!" The tall man just continued to stand staring at me, as if expecting me to... get up and leave. I tip-toed closer to him, but he continued to simply stare me down, unstirred. He isn''t going to fight me? What kind of boss is this? Who cares, it''s not as if I''m going to progress anywhere without eliminating this guy. With full strength I brought down my row of obsidian shards on the giant for -330 damage. A geyser of blood sprayed out across the black marble floor, and the giant roared in anger. "Have it your way, pest! I will break you and cast you down in the hole where I left you!" The giant bellowed as he lunged at me from across the room with an enormous cleaver, which sliced me down the middle for a searing 511 damage. I hissed through my teeth. He just went agro so quickly... I leapt back across the floor several times to get some distance from the prince of skin-stealers, chomping on an uyuchu fruit to rectify my first mistake. Shipe-Totek''s red shroud fell to the floor in tatters, and the giant''s hideous guise was revealed. He wore a fleshy garment of countless skins stitched together. Hands and feet flapped from the folds of his figure, hollow slits of what were once the place of eyes and mouths gaped out at me from along his shoulders and thighs, and beneath it all were crazed blue eyes gazing out of deep red flesh. "You are just a grub! A larva with no cocoon with which to reach the heavens! The great work is squandered on you!" Again he charged towards me, swiping wide and then tall with the cleaver, which I managed to dive out of the way from. Just as I stood safe, having anticipated his slashes, the skin-walker produced in his other hand, a pair of massive bronze-cast calipers, which he used to pluck me up and cast me into one of the room''s columns for a dizzying -230 damage. I managed to leap up to my feet as fast as possible, dodging another frenzy of swings he wound at the column. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.I rolled further down the floor and managed to pounce on the skin-taker''s flank, slashing into its side for -230, -234, -237 damage, gushing blood from the giant''s wounds and showering my armor in a wash of viscera. The ghoul began to flinch and jerk, preparing to hurtle towards me with its blade once more. I anticipated his strikes and managed to roll around him, again hacking away at his flank with my roaring and wailing obsidian blade for another -228, -231, -229 damage. "You fool! If you persist in this you will erase centuries of progress! You will mire us in acursed recurrence forever!" He was almost down to half his health now, and I had finally learned his attack patterns. I was growing too self-assured. Too arrogant. I hopped from side to side, ready to zig-zag my way towards Shipe-Totek and unleash another barrage of cuts. That''s when he donned the calipers, again, and snapped at me. I managed, but he crushed my bones with three great snaps of the metal pincers for -234, -230 damage. I just managed to block his final clamp with my shield! My health was beaten down to a sliver! "You think in slaughtering me that you will be liberated, nay, you damn yourself! You serve lying masters who have set you against me that they might seize the fruits of our miraculous arts!" I downed another Uyuchu fruit, which didn''t quite restore me to full, and prepared for the fleshy mass to rush me in another brutal assault. This time he ran towards me, holding the cleaver in the air to strike down at me, and I ran past his right side, managing to slash several gashes of -227, -235, and -235 into his heaving belly and hips. Shipe-Totek''s HP dwindled down to a third of its full strength. To my horror, he wailed a pained scream and wrenched at his skin-suit, tearing the off of his hide. What was revealed underneath was an enormous red giant, his bare-muscled body dripping blood and his row of large white teeth jutting from his gums. He had big blue bloodshot eyes, his hate-filled gaze fixed on me. The prince of the skin-takers beat his chests with his fists and roared: "I have stripped you bare and now I will rend you, I will leave you a torn and splintered feast for the vultures!" Shipe-Totek threw down his cleaver and his calipers and ran towards me with even more speed and ferocity, catching me off guard with his new attack and scooping me up into the palm of his hand. He crunched down, crushing me for -199, -197. -103 damage before hurling me bloodied and battered onto the ground. I struggled back onto my feet. I was barely hanging on and I was all out of Uyuchu fruit. I didn''t understand this new phase''s attack patterns, but I remembered how Jess had dealt with the spider. I walked towards the red giant, paying special attention to the flayed god''s twitches and gesticulations. Just when I noticed him finally begin to heave forward, his fingers outstretched to grasp me, and his eyes rolling back, as he lunged I dove past his outstretched arms and drove my macahuitl straight down his spine, lashing him for -233, -237, -232, -238, -241 damage! Shipe-Totek collapsed onto his knees, blood spurting from his eyes, his mouth, and his nose and cascading down his shuddering exposed body. Grunting, he struggled out his final words "Worm. Now the skin is severed, and the worlds will spread and intermingle, blood in a bowl." The flayed god fell onto his belly, bleeding out motionless across the marble. Sacrifice Devoured