Chapter 26: Piper

The travel was surprisingly uneventful and we’ve encountered very few plague rats on the way. Only the charred remains of rats remained scattered throughout the streets of Pasig and we’ve only killed 7 so far. Even then, we’ve been very careful killing the monsters. I advised the whole group to absolutely not to get bitten by one of them. They were named plague rats for a reason and I absolutely have no interest in finding out why.

[This way!] – Dianne

[Slow down, Dianne.] – Claire

[I think I found where he stayed for the night.] – Dianne

Dianne’s pace seemed to quicken as she found more and more of Miguel’s trail. Though it was probably a race for time, I bet Miguel was doing okay at that moment. The skies were dark since morning and a few hours later, it rained. I think it was already 5-6pm as the skies were darker than usual.

[I found something!] – Dianne

[What?] - Eric

[I think Miguel stayed in this house.] – Dianne

[How did you know?] – Eric

[Look at the doorway. I think Miguel used his magic.] - Dianne

According to Dianne, the doorway had a clue that Miguel really did stay in that house. The ground was loose and it has a small, but unusual vertical rock formation protruding on the ground. We showed it to Richard and he confirmed that it was true. He said that Miguel probably used earth magic to block the doorway to secure the building.

[Come on. Let’s go. I think we’re getting close to him.] – Dianne

[The sun will set in a few hours, Dianne. We should spend the night here.] – Claire

[But Miguel could spend days without sleeping. He’d be long gone and we’ll never catch up.] – Dianne

[I don’t think Miguel is stupid enough to venture out in the dark. He won’t risk it.] – Melissa

[Besides, it’s more dangerous to fight monsters without seeing them. I could use my fire magic to light the way, but I’ll run out of mana in case of emergency.] - Richard

[Fine.] – Dianne

As we entered the house, Richard used his earth magic to rebuild the wall on the doorway. While Miguel can do it in an instant, he spent a few seconds before he could finish the wall. No wonder how Miguel could survive alone in this place.

“We need to look for food tomorrow.” I said. “There should be at least a store we can loot on the way.”

“I’ll keep an eye on it.” Dianne said. “I wonder if Miguel’s doing okay.”

“He’s probably doing fine by himself and I don’t think he’ll starve. The only thing that worries me is that he already looted everything on his way, leaving nothing for us.” Melissa said.

“I don’t think he can carry everything in his inventory. He probably has more food than us ever since we looted that convenience store.” Eric said.

Note to self: kill Colonel Medina the next time I see him. The deal was a total rip-off. Even though we got out of Camp Aguinaldo with our lives, we would probably starve to death before the monsters could kill us. Plus, all of our money was also taken. We should’ve taken the risk of fighting those soldiers who held Melissa captive instead of surrendering.

All that was left of our food was canned sardines and junk food. All of our rice in storage was also taken by the Colonel. I instructed them to eat two cans of sardines per day and that would last for at least four days. Since they were ready-to-eat, there was no need to cook them and I also advised them to save their energy by doing less physical activities as much as possible so they wouldn’t be hungry all the time.

Unfortunately, that would also mean that I would have to stop my training temporarily until we find more food. Back in Camp Aguinaldo, I found out that I could level up my skill [Lacerating Strike] by using it repeatedly even on an inanimate object, albeit rather slowly.

Beth and Gerry volunteered to take the first watch and Eric and Melissa would take the next shift. Beth kept on rubbing her face on her shiny two handed battle axe. She bought her new weapon before we had our first mission and discarded her spear and shield. She also mentioned that she bought new skills from the market such as [Cleave] and [Axe Mastery] that goes with her weapon.

Gerry, on the other hand, finally got his own snare drum. He did buy a new skill called [Drums of War] which increases attack and defense of all party members. I remembered that he used it on our first mission and we did feel its effect.

The night was still young, so we went to do our own personal business. I took out my book about magic which Miguel traded for the necklace I gave to him. It was a rip-off, I’d tell you. Contrary to his belief, I had every intention of giving it back to him.

Though I already finished reading it, it was a good way to kill time. On the other day, I think I had an idea on how illusion spells work when I was reading this book in Camp Aguinaldo. Basically, [Charm] works like hypnotism. In my theory, you can control what kind of illusion a person would see.

For example, when you cast default [Charm], the target would perceive what he desired the most, but the problem with default setting of this spell was that it has a chance of not working. A fiercely loyal dog would find that the one they desired most is their master thus they will be harmless while a ravenous dog would find their love of meat and they would probably attack the illusion rather than being harmless. So in order to make the skill work, I have to reconfigure the illusion manually. That was just my theory.

One more theory of mine was to overload the target’s senses with illusion. That could work, but I think it would cost more mana than the default [Charm]. Anyway, all I need is a second of illusion to distract the enemy and that way, I could conserve my mana. I haven’t tried my theories yet and unfortunately, my test dummy, Miguel, wasn’t here.

“Hey, Dianne.” I called.

“What?”

“Do you mind if I test my skill [Charm] on you? I have something I wanted to test.”

“No.” Dianne shook her head as she tinkered with her potions. “I’m busy.”

It was unfair that Dianne didn’t want to return the favor of being my test dummy. I mean, back when she made her first potion, I was the one she asked to try it and I agreed. Since yesterday, her overall demeanor has changed for the worst. She became cold and it’s like she became a different person.

Maybe I was just over thinking and she was just having a bad day, obviously. Anyway, I didn’t want to force her, so I asked the others to volunteer. Eric, Richard, Beth and Gerry avoided my stare and they obviously didn’t want to volunteer. I turned to Mark, but he waved his hand and shook his head. Melissa, on the other hand, stared at me and she looked curious about it.

“So Mel, is it okay if I test [Charm] on you?”

“It’s your crowd-something skill right?” Melissa asked.

“Crowd control skill.” Eric corrected her.

“Yeah, whatever. Is it dangerous?”

“I think it’ll be safe. I just want you to tell me what you’re going to see when I use it on you.”

“Looks simple. But I don’t know.” Melissa said as she scratched her head.

“I promise you, it’s safe. I tried it on Miguel once, but it didn’t work on him. I actually never tested it on another person after that.”

“Alright, so what do I do?”

“Just look me in the eyes and tell me what you’ll see okay?”

I thought convincing her would be harder, but I guess she was curious enough to be my test dummy. As Melissa stared at me, I began to cast [Charm]. After a few seconds, her eyes opened wide and showed a happy expression.

“I do.” Melissa said.

Eric looked at her and furrowed his brow in confusion. Everyone, except for Dianne, became curious and they stopped for a moment to see what was going on.

“So what did you see?” I asked as I stopped the spell.

As Melissa snapped out of the illusion, her happy expression instantly turned into a frown.

“What did you see?”

“Uhmm…” She blushed. “It worked, alright.”

“Come on. Just tell me what you saw in details.”

“No.” She said as she looked away. “All I can tell you is that it’s like I saw the future or something.”

If I had to guess, it could be that she saw Eric. No matter. That was just the default [Charm].

“Just one more, okay? This time it will be different.” I said to her.

“Okay.”

I cast [Charm] one more time and I imagined in my mind what she was going to see. I wanted her to see something other than Eric. Melissa stretched out her hand and stroked the empty air like she was petting a dog. She also sniffed out the air and when she exhaled, the look of pleasure in her face was apparent.

“Now, what did you see?” I asked again.

“A shitzu!” She exclaimed.

“And what else?”

“There’s a – grilled steak. It looked delicious. There’s also music. It’s in German or something. It’s weird. I don’t speak German, but I can understand it.”

When I cast my spell, I imagined three things: A small cuddly dog and a juicy and delicious steak while playing Ode to Joy. I did this to confirm if I could also affect her other senses. She even saw the fine details of what I imagined.

For figuring out how illusion spells work, the SYSTEM rewarded you with the following:

Reward(s):

Perk: Illusion Affinity

Effect: Increases effectiveness of Illusion spells by 30%

It was tempting to test my second theory to overload Melissa’s senses with illusion and perhaps, I can get another reward from the SYSTEM, but that could be dangerous. It may damage her mind permanently and I should probably test it on a monster instead of a person.

“Why are you smiling?” Melissa asked.

“Oh, nothing.” I replied.

“Is that a new skill?”

“Nope, it’s the same skill, actually. I found out that I can control what a person will see while charmed.”

“Interesting.” Melissa grinned. “Can you show me that steak illusion again? I want to eat it.”

“But it’s not real. You won’t be…”

“I don’t care. It’s been a while since I ate a steak.” She said.

“Alright. It’ll level up my skill anyway.”

I cast [Charm] on Melissa and showed her an illusion of a grilled steak. As far as I can tell, she was enjoying it even if it wasn’t real. She kept on commenting on how good the taste was and even requested a second serving. In the end, she looked satisfied even if it was just an illusion.

“So how was it?” I asked.

Melissa raised her thumb up. “I’m stuffed.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

I guess it was mind over matter thing? Her brain could’ve believed that she really ate the steak and made her feel stuffed. Too bad I couldn’t cast my spell on myself. After that, we went on doing our own business. I decided to go to sleep early as we still have a long way to go.

The sun was already up, so I stood up and I found out that the others were already awake. I made a note to myself kill the habit of oversleeping. Even though all of us were starving, we decided to eat as little as possible for breakfast until we find food on the way.

After we ate breakfast, I called the others for a meeting before heading out. Dianne took out the map from her inventory and laid it on the floor for everyone to see.

“So what’s the plan?” Gerry asked.

“Obviously, we need to find food.” I said.

“I thought the plan was to follow the trail and find food on the way?” Beth asked.

“Yes, that’s the original plan, but if we just follow the trail, there’s a chance we won’t find any. Miguel could’ve already looted the place. Does anyone of you know a place we can loot?”

“I know one.” Dianne said as she pointed at the map. “I already surveyed this area along C. Raymundo Avenue. There were almost no plague rats there and I saw a bakery near the forest. We can check that out.”

“A forest?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, I scouted the area last night while you were sleeping. Though I’m not sure if there’s still any food left in that place.” Dianne answered.

I didn’t know that there was a forest in Pasig. I mean, it’s a highly urbanized city. Did a forest just grow in the middle of a city? I guess I’ll find out soon enough. Anyway, even though what Dianne did last night was stupid and dangerous, I think she did a good job of scouting the way in advance.

“What if there’s nothing there?” Richard asked.

“Then we’ll hunt something in the forest.” Dianne replied. “I’m sure we can find something there.”

“No, that’s too dangerous. I think we should avoid the forest as much as possible. If I were Miguel, I would go around the forest. But hunting monsters in the forest would be our last resort.”

“So we go to the bakery, we go around the forest? If no food, we hunt?” Eric asked.

“That’s pretty much it, yeah.” I said. “Dianne, can you try to find another option on the way?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

With that, the meeting ended and we continued on with the journey. Dianne led us to where she saw the bakery along Miguel’s trail. We fought a few remaining plague rats on the way, but they were dealt with quickly. It took us at least an hour before we reached the bakery. Dianne was right though. There really was a forest a few meters near the bakery.

We entered and searched the building and secured it first. We didn’t find any monsters inside, but we found four rotting corpses lying on the floor. As expected, the place was already sacked by other survivors and, possibly, by Miguel. Luckily for us, we found some flour hidden from sight in the kitchen and it’s possible that whoever looted the place didn’t see it. In the end, we found two sacks of flour which was already enough for all of us.

“Damn it! They even took all the baking powder!” Melissa complained.

“What else can we make with these?” Mark asked.

“Well, we can make noodles. Just plain noodles though. Maybe with some soy sauce? I don’t know.” Melissa let out a deep sigh.

“God, that sucks.” Richard said.

“It’s better than nothing.” I said to them. “Come on, let’s go.”

Melissa stored the sacks of flour in her inventory and we continued to follow the trails where it led us to a thick and lush forest. As expected, the forest has grown in the middle of concrete road and vines and other kinds of vegetation grew on the ruins of the city.

[Wait!] – Dianne

[What is it?] – Claire

[The trail. It ends here.] – Dianne

Dianne stomped her feet in frustration as she tried to find clues. The trail ends at the entrance of the forest. Since yesterday, we just followed the burnt corpses of plague rats that Miguel left.

“So what now?” Eric asked.

“I don’t know where Miguel is right now, but I don’t think he went inside the forest.” I said.

“How do you know?” Dianne asked.

“Well, first of all, he’s not stupid. There are probably more dangerous monster in that forest and he won’t risk it. Second, he needs more space for his fire magic. He’ll suffocate to death if he burns one of these trees.”

“So you think he went around the forest?”

“Yeah, he probably did. Besides, even if the trail ends here, we know where he’s going. Dianne, you know their house, right?”

Dianne nodded. “Yeah, I know where he lived. But what if-“

We were interrupted when we heard a strange sound coming from the bushes. We all drew our weapons as we prepared for the unknown creature to attack us.

Wild Mushroom Boar Lvl. 17

[A mushroom boar!] – Melissa

[A what?] – Eric

[Mushroom boars! My book said that its meat is delicious! Hurry, kill that thing!] – Melissa

As soon as the mushroom boar announced its presence to us, it lowered its head and scratched the ground with its hoof and prepared to charge at us. It was twice the size of a pig. Before it could make a move, Dianne quickly drew her bow and shot the creature.

-204 HP! Critical Hit!

Even though the arrow landed on its head, the mushroom boar flinched for a bit and charged straight forward. Even with its weight, it was surprisingly fast on its feet. Luckily for us, we managed to dodge its charge attack and it couldn’t stop its inertia easily.

Melissa drew her bow and a transparent and glowing arrow appeared in her hand. She released the arrow and shot the boar on its neck.

-167 HP!

Target Died

“FINALLY, SOME MEAT! WOOHOO!” Melissa shouted in celebration as she rushed towards the boar carcass.

We all followed and rushed towards the boar and curiously examined it. The boar has pretty orange mushrooms growing on its back. I tried to pick one, but Melissa grabbed my wrist before I could touch it.

“Don’t touch the mushroom. It’s poisonous.” She said.

“Isn’t that orange fairy mushroom?” Dianne asked.

“I think so. The book said it’s poisonous when raw, but it did say that it’s delicious if you remove its poison by boiling it in water.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat the mushroom. I just – don’t trust the color.” Mark said.

“I agree. We should just leave the mushroom and take the meat.” I said.

“Well then.” Dianne wore her gloves and took out her dagger. “I’ll take the mushrooms. I need it for my potions.”

“You mean poisons?”

“Well, it can be used for that. Actually, the orange fairy mushroom extract is the key ingredient for antidotes.”

As Dianne took the mushroom from the boar’s back, we decided to stay for a while and wait for Melissa to carve the mushroom boar for its meat. I asked Melissa if she really knew how to carve it and she said that she used to butcher their backyard grown pigs every fiesta back in Palawan as they didn’t have money to pay the slaughter house.

After a few hours, she stored the meat in her inventory. We didn’t have time to cook it on the field and we ate sardines and potato chips for lunch. It wasn’t satisfying, but at least, we’ll have a wonderful dinner in sun down.

We went around the forest instead of going in deep. There was a clearing on the west side of the forest and Dianne said that it had a very low monster density. Just harmless strange animals wandering and dining on the grass.

There was a wolf pack on the way that were as large as horses. We didn’t expect them to be aggressive like the other animals on the clearing, but, as soon as they saw our group coming, they banded together and growled at us.

Dire Wolf Lvl. 18 Dire Wolf Lvl. 18 Dire Wolf Lvl. 18 Dire Wolf Lvl. 18 Dire Wolf Lvl. 18 Dire Wolf Alpha Lvl. 22

There were only 6 wolves on the pack, but with their sheer body size, they looked more difficult to handle. Gerry took out his snare drum and cast [War Drums]. As we felt the effect of the spell, I cast [Berserker’s Howl] to prepare us for battle.

[Dianne, Melissa, take out the largest one. The rest of you, close formation.] – Claire

Mark and Eric, the ones with shields, got close to each other as they block anything that will try to attack Gerry, Richard and Melissa. Meanwhile, Beth and I took the right and left flank.

-302 HP! Sneak Attack!

Dianne shoot her arrow to the largest wolf in the middle. I half-expected for it to be killed instantly, but all it did was to make the wolves angrier. They charged all at once to our formation and one of the dire wolves pounced on me with its claw.

-120 HP!

Debuff: Bleeding

Before it could pin me down, I dodged the wolf’s attack by rolling to the side, but its claw caught my shoulder. If not for my skill [Troll’s Skin], I would’ve felt the full effect of the attack. It didn’t hurt as much as it looked. Luckily, Mark saw that I was injured and cast [Sinestra’s Blessing].

+100 HP

“HAAAAAAAAAA!!!” I shouted as loud as I could and cast [Wail of Agony].

-92 HP!

Target is Stunned!

Like the gnolls, dire wolves seemed to have sensitive hearing and the wolf that attacked me whimpered as it flinched. I dashed forward to the enemy and used [Lacerating Strike] while aiming my slash on its legs.

-151 HP!

-201 HP!

Target is Bleeding!

I left the dire wolf behind and let it bleed to death. I went to the others to help them defeat the other wolves. It seemed that they’ve already killed the largest one and the other wolf. Only three of them were left. Beth’s battle axe glowed yellow as she used her skill [Cleave]. The battle axe swept through the wolf like soft butter and decapitated the wolf in one strike.

Target Died

The two others wolves realized that they couldn’t win and tried to run. I used [Wail of Agony] once more to prevent them from running. As the wolves were left stunned by the loud sound, I charged towards the nearest wolf and pierced its torso with my sword.

Target is Stunned!

-291 HP! Critical Hit!

Target is Bleeding!

My sword was stucked as it was buried too deep in the wolf’s body. I pulled it and used my leg to push the wolf out of my sword. I finished off the wolf by stabbing it repeatedly on the ground.

Target Died

[Wait, don’t kill that last one!] – Melissa

[But why?] – Eric

[I want to test something.] – Melissa

The wolf limped and whimpered as it tried its best to get away from us. Meanwhile, Melissa ran towards it and took out a small piece of meat.

“Come here, girl.” Melissa said as she dangled the meat. “Come here. I won’t hurt you.”

“I don’t think that will work, Mel. It’s not a dog.” Eric commented. “And how the hell did you know it’s a girl?”

“Shut up. Hey, Mark. Heal her.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Mark hesitantly healed the wolf back to its health. The wolf stood up straight and whimpered as Melissa tried to give it the piece of meat. It was clear that the wolf was afraid of her.

“Come here. I won’t hurt you.”

Melissa tossed the meat on the ground. The wolf was a bit cautious and backed off. It tried to sniff the meat on the ground and looked at Melissa as it checked on her.

“Go on.”

“It won’t work, Mel. We almost killed it and we killed its friends. And that’s not a dog. It’s a wolf.” Eric said.

As if not hearing anything, Melissa slowly approached the wolf as it snatched the meat. She grabbed another piece and dangled the meat.

“Come here.”

The wolf licked its snout as it snatched the meat from Melissa’s hand. She tried to pet the wolf, but this time, the wolf didn’t seem to mind her.

“I tamed it.”

“Tamed? Just like that?” I asked.

“I have a skill, remember? [Companion: Beast]?” Melissa said as she rubbed the wolf’s belly. “From now on, I’m gonna call you, Piper!”

Piper (Companion) has joined Boston Tea Party