~‌‌ ‌‌2.13 ‌‌-‌‌ Six Legged Nightmare Fuel ~‌‌

Duskgrove Prison

4th Lightday of the Full Moon

Flea logged back on, still in the bed of the prison’s cabin. Bob was already up and on the floor rearranging his leather gear. Looking around the cabin, Flea could see a couple of the occupants were still awake and chatting with one another in the back corner. One of the Dwarfs saw the duo were awake, got up, and walked over to them before Flea and Bob could leave the cabins.

“Excuse me,” the Dwarf said.

“What can I do for you,” Flea responded.

“Nothing, but Bob here can.”

“Oh,” Flea said, looking down at Bob.

“Fifteen percent tax on any item. Drugs and Alcohol will be an extra five percent,” Bob said.

The Dwarf grinned wide.

“We’ll take five barrels of that Firebreath Whiskey you got Ord.”

“5 gold.”

The Dwarf ran back to his comrades and spoke a few hushed words. Flea could see the excitement coming off the group as they all reached into their bags and passed the Dwarf their share of the money.

“Here’s 3 gold, 200 silver; thank you, Bob. Not having a drop of booze for months on end has been the worst part of being locked up here. You’ve just gained some friends in the Shale Clan tonight.”

The Dwarf practically skipped back to the others. Flea looked down at Bob, waiting for an answer.

“I concluded something like this was going to happen. There was no way Shin and Ord were going to keep their mouths shut. Figured I could put a tax on all orders if I’m going to keep doing it.”

“Smart. Did you get any more cores from the dogs while I was passed out?”

“Yep, got a hundred-forty-seven Clouded Cores from them and 1 gold, 50 silver. They said the alchemists won’t be buying any more of the Dream Leech parts, as they are overstocked on them now. Though we could start selling the Desmox parts.”

“The Desmox parts?”

“That’s what one of the alchemists called those centipedes. He also mentioned the critters create nests and start infesting an area around it.”

“Sounds good. Let’s hold off you hitting level 10. I forgot to ask Uglar for a wash bin for you to be in when you do.”

“I only need around seventy cores to reach level 10. You can have the rest. It’s been a while since you’ve upgraded anything. You should use them to level before we go deeper into the mine.”

“Alright, that sounds like a plan. When we come back up, we will ask Uglar about the washbin for you. I’m sure he doesn’t want you stinking up the cabins.”

When they got to the bottom of their shaft, Flea removed seventy-seven cores from Bob’s bag and started crushing them. Bob slowly started crushing his seventy he needed to hit level 10.

Absorbed 77 Clouded Cores

+ 521 Energy

Bob

Absorbed 70 Clouded Cores

+ 434 Energy

Flea leveled up his Strength by 1 and Dexterity by 3. Hitting accept, he looked over his Status Screen, seeing he was now level 11.

Flea

Lv. 11

31.36

Gnome

Earth

1.38

Tin I

53 Energy

12

Strength

➕ [156]

10

Constitution

➕ [110]

13

Dexterity

➕ [126]

10

Intelligence

➕ [99]

10

Wisdom

➕ [110]

22

Magic Bag 🛈

➕ [75]

Mana Gates

Shadow Meld 🛈

5/20

➕ [150]

“Alright, I’m good, Bob. We could sell the cores from the dogs tomorrow and start getting that 50 gold as fast as possible.”

They had to mine close to ten hours to get the seventy iron for today’s quota and enough to prepay for two days. The Desmox only showed up three times, and only two of the smaller variety each time. With his bow, Bob was able to take them out with ease before they even got close to them. An arrow through the center of their head was more than enough to kill one.

The two made it topside as a single bell toll came from Dustgrove’s direction. They were too late for breakfast, but the pair had been eating the Titan Turtle Pies, so neither were all that angry to have missed the slop served here each morning. Finding Uglar proved to be a bit more difficult as he wasn’t around the campfire or near the cabins. Oddly, they couldn’t find anyone around the camp at all, not even Shin or Ord, and they didn’t dare go near the barracks. It was a complete ghost town, so they sat at the campfire and waited.

“If Uglar doesn’t show up soon, then you should go into town. Ask the Adventurers Guild if they have someplace you can use to level up to 10. I know the tax money is yours, but could you pick up some healing potions? We’re going to need them when we head deeper into the mine to fight the Desmox.”

“No worries, any money I earn you can freely use, Flea.”

“Thank you. It’s your money; you can buy things you want as well, Bob.”

They waited around for a while longer, but Uglar never showed up. Flea had Bob head for town to get his errands done. Just as Flea watched Bob’s tail vanish behind the palisade wall, he caught a flash of light near the Crystal out of the corner of his eye. Turning around, he saw Shin, looking around wide-eyed, then settling on the Gnome.

“Flea! Hurry and get your ass over here!” Shin yelled.

***

I was making my way back to Dustgrove in record time. The forest seemed to be clear of the Firetails and Dream Leeches. As I got closer to the town walls, I noticed guards upon the palisade, and the gates were closed shut. I spotted the nearest guard waving and yelling something. It wasn’t till I got closer that I could hear him.

“Hurry your ass up! It’s right behind you!”

It’s behind me? I didn’t hear anything following me. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the monstrosity he was yelling about. The creature looked to be a cross between an upright bat and a spider. It had thin leathery wings to either side of its head. The creature had six long, and I mean long, legs. Below its body were six smaller appendages hanging from its torso like the tentacles of a squid, ready to grab its prey. The monster was silent as it raced towards me from behind.

I found I could run much faster now. With the hair on my back now bristling, I took off towards the wall with a renewed vigor I didn’t have before. I was easily able to jump and climb atop the palisade, reaching to where the guard was yelling at me. Turning around, I saw the town’s guards throwing massive spears at the creature. One of those spears caught the thing in its lower jaw, jerking the monster’s head to the side as the spear’s tip went through the bottom of its jaw and drove into the shoulder with a sickening thunk.

With the creature’s head pinned to its body, the monster began walking in a small circle. The town guard made short work of it after that. Looking around, I could see the guards still staring at the forest. None of them were cheering the death of the creature. I turned to the guard who had yelled to me.

“What the hell is that?!” I asked as I pointed to the dead creature.

“We’re calling them Night Snatchers. They just showed up in droves about six-hours ago. Forest is full of them. Where the hell did you come from that you weren’t snatched and killed?”

“Southeast. Decided to take a shortcut through the forest,” I lied.

“You got lucky; they make almost zero noise. Those things keep attacking the town. Once night falls, we fear they may take to the sky and fly over the wall. Dustgrove has no defenses against flying creatures. We’ve never had to deal with anything like this before.”

I thought about the prison camp being empty of anyone. Flea was still there! I hadn’t died yet, so he was fine for now. However, getting back to him may put us in more harm’s way than staying in town.

“Here comes two more!” a guard farther down the wall shouted.

Turning around, I could see the two ghostly white Night Snatchers coming from the forest and heading towards the walls. The creatures made no sounds of their own. Only the noises the tree branches made as they passed over them signaled their approach. Once in the field surrounding the town, they just threw themselves at the walls.

Again, the guards made short work of them as the creatures drew closer. This time, once the monsters were dispatched, the guards forced one of their younger brethren to drop down from the wall and collect the spent spears.

Guess they don’t have an unlimited supply of them.

Just as the young guard started to try to pull out the spear that had lodged into the jaw and shoulder of the Night Snatcher, a low hum could be heard coming from within the forest. That was more than enough for the young guard to choose that time to give up on the lodged spear and run back to the wall, where the others had a rope with a loop at the end lowered for him. The young guard ran up, putting his foot into the circle, and yelled. The others pulled and had him up in seconds to the safety on top of the wall.

The hum was now getting louder. The low frequency of it was causing my chest to vibrate. At that point a new feeling passed over me; a sense of dread. Suddenly, five of the Night Snatchers came crashing through the edge of the forest towards the town gate. But this lot looked afraid as if they were running from something that was their predator.

More of them started coming out of the forest. Seeing their dead and the town’s walls blocking their path, two of them decided to take flight. The wings on their backs spread out and started pumping. It seemed like the creatures seldomly used them, as they looked like drunken children trying to take to the skies.

Just as one of them got a hundred feet over the forest’s canopy, a long, thin, red, barbed rope-looking projectile shot from within the forest and pierced one of the Night Snatcher’s wings. The rope pulled back in a fast motion, and like that, the Night Snatcher was plucked from the sky, gone back into the forest. A moment later, the second that had taken flight was pulled from the atmosphere as well.

“Someone run and warn the Guild! Tell them we have a Dragon Eater in the forest!”

I took off yelling to them I was on it. In two minutes I crashed into the door; literally. The door barely moved as I ran into it. Picking myself up as I shook the cobwebs from my head, I slowly pushed the door open, then ran inside. Getting to the receptionist’s desk, I jumped up on the counter and started yelling.

“Get Elder Magnus. The guards are saying there is a Dragon Eater in the forest.”

The look of horror swept through all of their faces, and in an instant, a younger female Elf jumped from her seat and scrambled up the staircase. Moments later, the Goat and Elf came crashing down the same stairs.

“How far away is it?” Elder Magnus asked.

I did some quick math. The rope-like thing that had taken down the Night Snatcher was about eighteen hundred feet from the forest’s edge.

“Around twenty-three-hundred feet from the walls,” I replied.

“Send up a blue flare at once. Let’s hope either a couple of Cobalts are around or the old man is awake,” Elder Magnus said with a grimace.