Ank

We ended up so tired the other day, that we needed to take a rest, else we would be risking getting some exhaustion debuff. It was only time to re-start our journey through the 2nd layer of the jungle after cleaning ourselves from the mud, blood and sweat in a close stream, chew on the remaining gums that Taffy gave us; because there was no fucking way either of us would go hunting after all of that fighting; and dream with a life where I was some kind of noble whose job was only to exist and had everything easy.

This time to resume our traverse through the jungle came too son, really…

First, my sister and I dealt with the level up: our overall [Attributes] didn’t change drastically with only 10 more points, and after we invested our new skill/spell point, our [Classes] names went from stupid to idiotic, so nothing new there.

The new spell I unlocked, however, was essential: I spent quite some time checking my [Class] tree for something like [Summon: Poison], but I couldn’t find anything along these lines. So, I went for the second-best thing I could think to deal with an enemy covered in armor, and moving my [Beast Branch] laterally (all of the branches could do it, basically, indefinitely; but to be able to summon 1 million [level: 1] creatures wasn’t the smartest thing to do, as anyone can guess), and unlocked [Summon: Mussurana], a slightly poisonous sneak… And then, a pop up warned me that I became able to inflict venom damage with my summoned darts.

Hunah thought just as hard as me, and ultimately decided to increase her spear damage by 10%, and sharpened a stick to use as a new weapon, as the stone mace was about to break.

We then followed the rest of the trail left by the [Glyptodon] that was going back to its lair.

And saw an entire bunch of its kind entering and leaving a dirty cave; about 6 of the monsters to be more specific.

“No”, I said before Hunah could even open her mouth. “It’s too much work for too little reward”, there was no way I could bother killing all of those damage sponges just for her liking.

“Yeah, we leveled up just once after 2 straight hours of fight…”, Hunah rested her hand on my shoulder and sighed. “It was really tiresome. But, hey? We were level 20 then, you should have expected that to level up from then onward would be harder.”

“Hunha, we won’t spend 12 straight hours fighting just for a chance of you finding some trashy item”, I cut her crap.

“Come on~ we’re still using the loot from [level: 5 Chullachakis], just imagine how much better would be the items of [level: 20-something] monsters.”

It was true, but…

“Besides, that monster from yesterday was a summon, right? So there must be something like a spellbook, or staff producing them inside the cave, right? I mean, you’re into these things, right? When we were kids you was always asking about monsters and stuff.”

It was more likely that some powerful hermit that didn’t want to be bothered lived there, but… But the chance that I could learn how to summon such a powerful creature…!

“…Let’s do this”, I agreed, closing my hand into a fist, full of determination.

Six [Glyptodons]. Six thousand [Health Points] that needed to be drained to zero.

There was no way we could do it all at once, so the strategy was simple: we waited for the monsters to get away from their companions, to collect their trash, and then gang up on the creatures individually.

It wasn’t like the battle would be easy, or as if we would be able to finish that before the sunset, but things would be a little different this time when compared to when we fought our first [Glyptodon], however:

“Fuck yes, critical plus stealth bonus”, Hunah commemorated as she retreated her improvised spear from deep inside the… bottom of the [Glyptodon]; with her new weapon my sister being able to aim precisely for the openings in the bony armor of the monster.

“[Summon: Mussuranas]”, I burned 21 slithering venom bags that found their way under the heavy armor of my opponent with ease, and there they dug their fangs and inflicted [debuff: Venom].

Now, even if the monster was being repeatedly pierced, and injected with venom, not only my serpents were [level: 1] summons, my sister’s “spear” was just a literal pointy stick, so it wasn’t like we were inflicting overwhelming damage on our enemy; even if we were depleting the [Glyptodon]’s HP way quicker than previously, we still had a long fight ahead of us…

We killed the monster, and soon the corpse started to vanish.

And, hey: it really ended up not being as bad as before, our new power shortening the fight by a full half an hour. Which means we still had to fight for 1:30 hours straight.

“Please… Remember me why am I doing this…” I asked between deep breaths, seating over the stump of a fallen tree.

“For… the items…”, Hunah replied, about as tired as me.

“I’m giving up then.”

“I mean… for the monster pet… or something”, she waved a hand, dismissively.

There was a minute of silence, as we observed our stamina points regenerating, and stared at the wide blue skies. The moment for the next hunt came too soon, but I convinced myself the summon I would learn would be worth it.

Six monsters and nine hours later, my sister and I had cleared the entrance for the cave.

We kinda took a day to rest before finally entering the hole, kinda slumped down on the ground like a potato bag, and fainted for all the consecutive effort after the defeat of the last enemy, but, finally, we were walking to the entrance of the cave.

Our only comforts up to that point were 2 new levels (whose points we didn’t even found time to invest yet), and the promise of reward inside the den of the monsters.

Slowly, we entered the dirt ring; that was free of, really, anything; in the immediate surroundings of the cave. Hunah and I exchanged a glance, nodding and confirming that we were prepared in case things went south.

We stepped ahead, staring straight into the dark, steep hole that went deeper and deeper inside the earth. The creatures we spent so much time killing were indeed bringing random stuff back into their nest, so Hunah’s ideas were not completely insane, and as I imagined the powerful magic book that could be laying down there, or wild magical item that summoned those monsters, or even the sage that did so, my heart started to beat faster. I wouldn’t be able to immediately summon those [Glyptodons], but to have such a resistant summon, that also had an incredibly powerful attack, had obvious advantages. I could see Hunah excited too, for sure imagining her own reality just like I was doing.

Then, things went south.