They set out towards the shelter.

Louie meant to kill two flies with one shot since, according to what Shira showed him, the shelter should be near Gilmers' compound.

The city continued outside the new wall, but this part of the city was even more ruined than the areas inside the wall. The buildings were fully collapsed, bits and pieces of stone and wood scattered and covered by grass and small brush that had grown over the area. The roads were cracked from the earthquakes and the tree roots that were reclaiming the ground with the help of all the mana in the air. Plants and grasses grew wildly as far as they could see, working to reclaim the area for nature.

Using stealth they slowly made their way through the abandoned streets, Louie meant to grind his but decided against it since they don't know what monsters would be out there that can sense his use of mana, they watching warily for any signs of nearby monsters.

As they moved away from the walled marketplace, the ruins of the city centre fell away and the cracked streets turned into neighbourhoods.

Louie stopped now and then to make sure there are no nearby monsters before he use to try and sense any underground structures before using to level and repair the road, where possible, and skirting around tree roots where not.

A few remaining gardens grew here and there, in what was left of some backyards, but they were no longer the tame patches of earth from before the pulse, these gardens were wild and dangerous places, there were a few plant monsters roaming around, that they could see.

Louie decided to experiment with his Analyse skill by channelling mana around his eyes as he prepared to cast on a vine that snapped at them as they went past a hedge, but as he has done before, he held the spell back, concentrating it around his eyes instead of letting it go.

He screamed as it felt like his eyes exploded, but as the pain receeded there were some new notifications.

He had to concentrate on the vine for about five seconds before the skill activated but he was surprised at the amount of information that he received.

Baba Serpent (Medium plant)

Armour Class: 2 (natural armour)

Health Points: 32

Stamina Points: 20

Travelling speed: 0m/second

Damage Vulnerabilities: fire, slashing,

Damage Resistances: piercing

Immunities: blinded, deafened, frightened.

Passive Skill:

False Appearance:

While the baba remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary plant.

Senses:

Seismic 10 metres. (blind and deaf beyond this radius),

Perception: 20-metre diameter

Languages: None

Reactions:

Lunge:

When a creature moves within reach of the baba, the baba will lunge at the creature and make a bite attack against that creature.

Bite:

Melee Weapon Attack: +3damage to hit, + 5 poison damage

Reach 1.5meters

Piercing damage plus 5 poison damage, and if the target is a smaller creature, it is grappled.

Grapple:

The target is restrained, and the baba cannot bite another target. The grapple ends when the creature dies or the baba runs out of stamina.

"Damn, I just got a shitload of information from the vine and an upgraded spell version of my Analyse skill."

Deep Analisis

This spell is a channelled spell version of the Analyse skill, although the spell will give you more information than the Analyse skill, this spell needs mana to be channelled through or around the eyes and therefore are not very popular,

Beware:

Due to Deep Analisis being a spell, some creatures with mana sensitive skills may detect it when it is targeted at them.

MP Cost: 20MP + 5MP/second being channelled.

Range: Cast

Casting Duration: 5sec

Cooldown: 1min

"That plant monster got nice perception."

He shared his BB with the rest of the team.

"Nice, when we come back I want to see if I can tame or at least harvest some seeds from them."

Louie gave Sher a strange look. "Why?"

"They would make good sentries outside the wall of the settlement or just think of one in a potted container on each caravan, nobody would be able to sneak up on them in stealth."

"Hmm, good point, we will see when we come back, I marked the location on my map.

They moved on and for the next fifteen minutes, everything was quiet.

They had just crossed one of the heavily damaged bridges that crossed the Bergriver when he saw Shira stop and crouched down, and held up a closed fist, signalling everybody to stop, and prepare to be attacked.

"What's wrong?" Sher softly asked.

"I don't know, something's not right, and look at Khan." Sher saw that Shira was closely studying her companion as she crouched in a ready to attack position with her blades in her hands.

He slowly moved up till he was next to Shira.

"You travelled this path often?"

"Yes, but I only travelled at night. You know that the sunlight isn't good for my eyes, even with the shades that you made for me."

"I'm not putting any blame on you, I just wanted to know if you know of anything that should be dangerous here because my perception is telling me that something is off here."

Shira shook her head, "sorry, it's the first time I'm travelling through here during the day, maybe you and Khan are sensing some creatures that are only active during the daytime."

He looked around and then he spotted the odd thing out. There was a trash can on the pavement, a perfectly intact trash can. In the compound where they had cleared the section to build the mini forts, the trash cans were all destroyed by monsters trying to scavenge the foodstuff inside, there were also a couple of appliances strewn across the street. There was even what looked like a big coffee machine, the kind that you only see in Mugg & Bean, sitting on the pavement, it looked to be in perfect condition.

'Why is the street littered with undamaged home appliances?'

Louie warned the others about his suspicion before he cast on the nearest item, the trash can, stretching the spell to cover the whole can… nothing happened.

Next, he cast stretching it to cover the whole can again… all hell broke loose.

He fired a quick at the trash can that suddenly turned into a strange monster.

Octo-Puss

Health Points: 82 HP

Stamina points: 257 SP

This cat hybrid is the perfect ambush predator, it has no bones in its body which allows it to mould its body into any shape to better camouflage itself.

The Octo-Puss rocketed across the street and as it shot past a damaged lamp post it stretched one of its tentacles out to grab the post and slingshot around it to head straight at Louie.

He dove to the side and shouted a warning as he rolled out of the reach of the tentacles as the creature shot over his head and into the ruins.

As soon as it hit a pile of rubble it disappeared.

Everybody had rushed towards Louie and now stood back to each other in a circle, nervously looking outwards into the ruins.

"What the fuck was that?" Trok, the leader of the adventurer's party screamed. "It looked like a cat with too many legs or whatever those were."

Louie shared the BB with them.

"A bloody cat octopus hybrid, how the hell did that happen?"

"Don't know, but we gotta kill it."

The party mage, Frank, lifted his hand and pointed it towards the heap of rubble, releasing a stream of water.

"Hey numbnuts, it's immune to water attacks." Clodia, the medic said, as Frank glared at her.

"I know, Ben, use your spell on the water."

The other member of the party, dressed like a Ten Rand store ninja, stepped up to the water trail leading to the drenched heap of rubble and cast his spell as he plunged his hands into the water.

The monster shrieked as it exploded from the rubble and shot toward Ben only to impact Troks' shield as he smoothly inserted himself between the monster and its target.

Louie used and to plunge his fiery blade through the rubber-Like skin of the monster's back as Trok staggered past him under the weight of the monster that was stuck to his shield and trying to use the suckers on its tentacles to get past the obstacle in its way.

The backstab together with the fire and electric attacks were enough to kill the Octo-Puss.

Louie was impressed with the adventurer parties' teamwork and told them so.

He looked down the street and shuddered as he counted twenty items strewn around the area.

The items lay just far enough away from each other that they didn't fall under the other's agro range.

"Damn, looks like they each claimed their own territory."

Louie told them to be ready as he used his new spell on the closest item.

A slight ripple ran over the coffee machine before it settled down again.

Octo-Puss

Armour Class: 5 (tough hide, natural armour)

Health Points: 82 HP

Stamina points: 257 SP

Travelling speed: 3m/second.

Damage Vulnerabilities: fire, vacuum, lightning.

Damage Resistances: piercing, slashing.

Immunities: blinded, deafened, frightened, water-based attacks.

The Octo-Puss has an advantage in agility while moving and in Stealth when motionless, it relies on its ambush abilities.

Camouflage:

The Octo-Puss has a natural ability to Camouflage itself.

Water Breathing:

The Octo-Puss can breathe Underwater.

Actions

Tentacles:

Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 2 metres Hit with bludgeoning damage, and the target is Grappled.

Grapple:

Until this grapple ends, the Octo-Puss can't use its tentacles on another target. During this action, the Octa-Puss will employ its main attack power. Leach.

Leach: Drain its enemy of 5 HP and 5 SP per second to heal itself while paralysing its prey.

Ink Cloud:

A 3-metre-radius cloud of ink extends all around the Octo-Puss. The area is heavily obscured for 2 minutes, although a significant air attack can disperse the ink Cloud. After releasing the ink cloud, the Octo-Puss can use a Dash action to escape its enemies.

Cooldown: 15minutes

Sher shuddered as she read through the BB of the boneless cat-like creature, "we will have to pull each away from the closest neighbour before we accidentally agro the whole bunch or herd or whatever a bunch of nightmare creatures like that are called."

"I think it's called a pod, but I might be wrong." Shira volunteered.

"Well whatever it's called, we don't want to attract all their attention. If that happens, then Shira since you are the fastest and with the most agility, will kite the creatures around the ruins and we will take them down one at a time, but that is only in an emergency."

They looted and inventoried the tentacled cat monster.

Octo-Puss Loot

Tentacle.

Octa-puss hide.

Flask of ink cloud.

2 x Silver coins

They each got the same loot except for Trok, for some reason the System decided that since he held the creature when it was backstabbed, he received an octopus-shaped ring with his loot.

He used on the loot.

These tentacles can be stretched and worked into a ten-meter thin rope capable of taking 200kg weight before breaking, the rope has a sucker-like pad on one end that can stick to any surface.

A master leatherworker can work this hide to preserve the camouflage ability, this will make an excellent waterproof cloak for somebody with stealth skills.

This flask is filled with a cloud of ink, it can be used as a weapon to facilitate escape or it can be used as an alchemical ingredient in crafting.

Fish Breath (Soul bound)

Hail Hydra, No, this ring is not linked to Hydra, but it will grant the wearer the water breathing ability that will last for one hour between breaths of fresh air.

Claudia nearly broke herself laughing when the description of the ring was read.

It turned out that Trok has a deep fear of any body of water bigger than a birdbath, he hates baths and prefers to shower when and where possible.

They got ready and slowly moved to the closest Octo-Puss, but things did not exactly work as they thought it would.

Louie cast again and concentrated on locking the spell to the monster but to his shock the spell broke the moment the Octo-Puss moved, which should not have happened.

Even though the unexpected happened they were ready and Trok intercepted the monster, locking it down, as they unleashed their spells on it, killing it easily.

"Ok they are not so tough, this is going to be easy, we can do this." Said Clodia.

There was an audible groan from her teammates, "you did not just say that." Replied Ben.

"What? they are pussies, we can kill them all easily."

Before Louie could stop her she kicked the dead monster, which let out a loud fart as gas and black ink were expelled from the dead monster.

"Shit! You just had to go and jinx us."

Louie looted the monster as three of the nearest items, a microwave, a Tv, not a plasma screen, and the coffee machine, shivered and dropped their camo revealing the Octo-Puss monsters.

Louie cast on the furthest monster and luckily the spell stuck, but as the Octo-Puss thrashed around trying to break out of the bubble that surrounded it, it strayed into the aggro range of its neighbours, who reacted instantly.

Suddenly two more Octo-Puss broke their camo and joined the fight.

Shira threw something at the creatures which upon impact drew their attention towards her and she spun around intending to lead the four monsters away.

She had barely moved ten metres when there was a loud screech behind her, as she glanced over her shoulder she stumbled to a halt as she saw BOB and Khan take out one of the creatures.

Louie, following Franks' example, cast and right after, one another.

Shira cast a spell against the wall behind her as she dove out of the way of the monster that was streaking toward her face. There was a wet spplash and an angry screech behind her where the Octo-Puss was stuck to the wall. She has been working on creating the spell since she saw Sher use , hers were a bit different as it was a 3 by 3-meter patch of sticky glue.

Flytrap

This spell will conjure a patch of stinking clinging glue bursting from the surface upon which it's cast, to bind and hold your foes. Increases the suction power and size of the trap with higher levels.

Mana cost: 25 MP

Duration: 10 min

Cast Range: 20 metre

AOE: 2 Metre Diameter

Cooldown: 15 minutes.

She equipt her bow, "let us see how resistant you are to piercing attacks."

She started pinning the cat monster to the wall.

Sher and the adventurers, with Trok being the tank, finished off the last Octo-Puss.

Sher let the party to loot their Octo-Puss and turned to Louie where he was squatting, studying the body of one of the Octo-Puss, "you okay?"

"Yea, I think I just discovered a weakness to my spell."

"Yea? And what's that?"

"Somehow the spell is linked to the image of the target, and the moment that the targets' appearance changes, the spell breaks or gets dispelled."

"So isn't a good spell to use against a polymorph?"

"No, … I will have to experiment and see if the spell breaks with small changes, like equipping a mask or cloak, or must it be a whole-body change."

*sigh* "well not something that you do in the middle of a fight." He looted and stored the body before standing up and looking at the other ambush monsters that were still in camo.

"Let's do this."