*Whoosh*

A small pillar of light forms and dissipates in the middle of the group.

Baila’s finally back on. And she took a whole hour, what a long time to make her character (I only spent 20 minutes).

“YOU IDIOT”

*Kacha*

Ow

“Whoops”

…

..

.

“Whoops? WHOOPS? I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT DID TO ME?!”

*Choke*

“Damn, did I miss the tentacle p-"

*CHOKE*

-1

Ok guys, stop her!

-2

Seriously now!

-3

“Stop it Baila”

Phew, thanks Zzoid. Your perceptiveness is quite useful sometimes.

She thankfully stops choking me but continues fuming at me.

Well I do totally deserve this…

“I can’t believe you woke up that guy, you just had to stab his eye!”

“I thought it was a dirt mound that quivered slighty"

…

..

.

*Facepalms*

Everyone does so.

“Well on the bright side, we’ve found something cool, all thanks to big brother” Thank you Zzand

“Oh I really like octopus! Let’s catch it and eat it” PJ…says it lightly but I can feel the killing intent

ooze out of her

“Junior, it’s an kraken, not an octopus…But we’re killing it all the same” PinkyS adopts the same killing atmosphere

“Well actually, Kraken is just a giant octopus"

…

..

.

Zzoid, where do you get your information from?

“So can I eat it then?” PJ, stop sounding like you’re going to eat it alive

“No, WE will eat it Junior”

“Good”

“I want to rip it to shreds and feast on its corpse” Baila is getting scary

“Let’s eat some Octopus!” Zzand and Zzard pitch in, so innocently, completely missing the triple killing atmosphere coming from the ladies

“I want to eat that Octopus and hear it scream” PJ, please…its scary

“I’ve never tasted Kraken before, but I know revenge taste delicious” PinkyS, stop scaring me

“Well since it’s so large it probably will taste very b-”

“Shh, Zzoid, don’t destroy the children’s dreams” I stop his last words escaping

“Don’t want them to get ideas about cooking the thing alive or something just as horrible” I whisper to him

He thinks for a second, face paling, before agreeing to not throw oil on the fire…

Everyone starts marching out the gate…except me and Zzoid (who they all seemed to just forget about)

“Wait a second everyone!”

They all turn back with a hungry/killing look in their eyes…this Kraken annoyed the wrong people for sure.

“The thing literally murdered us all within about 3 seconds…Don’t you think we should either level up some more or enlist some help?”

“Levelling up takes time, so it would be hard to do. Enlisting help may cause inter-party conflicts”

Thanks for the view Zzoid

“So if we go for it now by ourselves, how are you all planning on killing it?”

…

..

.

“That’s a good question teacher”

Everyone starts to think deeply about what to do

“Rip it to shreds”

“Burn it to a crisp"

…

..

.

“Pinky and Baila, how about you let the others make the plan”

I spot a little sweat come down from all 3 of the lizard trio…they finally noticed then

“Ah!” PJ claps her hands in delight

“What is it junior?”

“Octopus is an aquatic animal right?”

“Yes, although it can walk on land for short distances, it more often walks along the sea bed” Zzoid

has this strange knowledge of everything

“So why don’t we get rid of the water?"

…

..

.

“Tha…t’s actually brilliant” Baila looks impressed “And then we can watch it suffocate” You seriously didn’t need to add that bit at the end there...

*Ding*

“Ooh, I just got the wisdom stat!”

…

..

.

Well I guess the system is telling us that this is a smart way of fighting…

“Ok but how are we going to do that? Will we suck it out with a straw or something?” Zzand

queries excitedly

“Well little brother, that would actually work; as long as we start the suction, it should continue until the pressure within the ‘straw’ decreases...

Zzoid knows everything…I’m calling that here and now...also when is he going to get that damned wisdom stat(I bet he's got it a long time ago).

“So we just stick a straw in the lake, suck on it and then let the water pour out?” PinkyS raises her eyebrows questioningly

“Basically, although the straw needs to be able to withstand a high pressure”

“We’ll figure that out along the way. For now we should grind some wolves back up to our level”

“Ok” Everyone agrees.

And so we all head off back into the forest to find a wolf to grind our skills on.

…

“Awoo”

“Oh shut up you”

Baila stomps the poor pile of what we used to call a wolf, doing no system damage but I swear I can see tears form where the eyes are supposedly.

“Zzard” I call over to him pitifully

He slowly walks to the wolf and bends down where its pulpous head is

He says something, but I can’t quite catch it, before he raises his fist for a last punch

“Stop” Baila grabs his hand before he delivers the final blow

Zzard stops and with what I believe was a prayer, he steps back to leave Baila towering over the pulped up wolf.

We never should have shown the girls our little grinding trick.

That poor wolf has been abused by all 7 of us for an entire 10 minutes…I will not put into specifics what happened, but what we did to Apexus…it seems like child’s play compared to what we saw…

Talking about what we did to him…I check my inventory and hehe, it’s not just limited to money.

Oddly enough, your inventory is kept; although something is dropped on death, along with all your money…I mean I think I’d go insane if I lost all my inventory…especially in later levels.

Anyways, I’m all happy, now that I know I can keep Apexus’ beautiful fur…

However, this poor wolf hasn’t been finished with it seems

“So everyone got their combat skills, except Baila right?”

“Yep” everyone shouts, while the girls rub their hands together evilly.

“I’ve got one last skill to learn” Baila says to us all making everyone raise their eyebrows at the ambiguous comment

“What is it?”

*Bite*

*Rip*

…

..

.

Did she just….

“…” No one knows what to say

She spits out the tiny, hair chunk and then notices us

“We’re going to eat this Kraken, and I want the skill to do so"

…

..

.

*Bite Bite Bite*

*Rip Rip Rip*

Both PinkyS and PJ bite and rip a tiny chunk of wolf…

This poor, poor Kraken…just what did it to to them to incur such wrath…wow maybe they did experience ‘that’…

However, no time to ponder: I taste a skill!

It also tastes decently nasty raw. But the coming skill tastes delicious!

“Well…we did say we were going to eat it…” Zzard looks with mild disgust at us

“True you did, but still…”

“Mmm, delicious” PJ smiles as she licks a bloody piece of flesh…eugh.

*BITE RIP*

Zzoid literally jumps at the wolf (who is freely pouring both blood and tears by now) and starts tearing with a frenzy…guess if his Loli says it’s good, he’ll dive in and eat it all…

“Mmm, my loli is correct”

“Ok, if brother says it’s good then it’s good?” Zzand looks a bit unconvinced as he says it.

However the two of them come and join the cannibalistic(?) feast…

They both don’t like it, but they continue eating...because PinkyS gives them a bloody smile as they do so…

I fear for my brothers in harm who were so easily convinced.

I however, was convinced through a more pure method; A SKILL!

Though I do feel a little sorry for the wolf who is slowly being eaten, but only 3 of us can do in-game damage, so it’s a very slow death…

Oh, Baila looked at me angrily. I think I stopped for too long. Back to eating this delicious skill, with tears…

…

“AWOOO” The wolf finally dies from the bleed damage, as it overcame its natural regeneration.

*Ding*

Congratulations! Through brutally killing a monster in a way that would give normal people nightmares, you have discovered a new hidden statSTAT: BrutalityPoints in Brutality will increase attack in a 2:1 ratio. It will also affect brutality related skillsDo you want to put this stat on one of your stat slots?YESNO

xp increases by 30%

Congratulations! Through repeated action you have learnt the Skill: Bite

SKILL:Bite, Intermediate [lvl1] 0% (active)When Biting:

1% bite strength increase

Strength bonus: n/a

Brutality bonus: n/aCost: None, Duration: None, Cooldown: None

xp increases by 20%

…

..

.

Everyone stands up and wipes their mouths spitting hairs and blood…smiling…I’m scared (but I’m smiling too because I leveled).

“Let us have ourselves a Kraken”

“Yeah, that wolf didn’t fill us up enough”

“mmm”

My god, I have never seen quite so strong a transformation…but they do say that revenge changes a person…

I’m scared to what’s going to happen to them once they’ve had their revenge.

Anyways, I give a last pitying look at the wolf, which is literally nothing but a pile of guts and scraps of hair…

Your death was a necessary sacrifice…but I do feel a tiny bit sick looking at the mess we made.

“Anyone want to clean the table?”

“…” They all just look at me, shaking their heads.

They turn away and walk away from the scene of the crime…

I follow them juggling this ‘hidden stat’ window.

Hmm, adding it would increase my attack by quite a bit which would make me a lot less useless…

Ok, I’m adding it!

*Ding*

STAT: Brutality has been added to your stat slots. It has used up 1 stat slot. Brutality will start at 20 due to hobgoblin race.

Due to Brutality being 10 you have gained the intimidation skill.

Due to Brutality being 20 the intimidation skill has derived into Mild Monster's Aura

SKILL:Mild Monster's Aura, Intermediate [lvl1] (Aura)You have a natural aura around you which causes mild fear to all those who see youNon-monsters within 10 metres:

11% chance to gain fear status to lower-leveled beings.

22% chance to agro onto you

Non-monster Npc's will naturally be apprehensive towards youCost: None, Duration: Permanent, Cooldown: None

xp increases by 20%

Because you gained the Monster's Aura, Intimacy with all non-monster Npc's decreased by 5, global wide.

Alert!Auras are permanent, even through death and will remain for all sub-types of the chosen race...unless specified otherwise

…

..

.

Daaaamn…

Well this is going to be great and terrible for all monster races…That’s horrifying! I mean -5 intimacy means that I’d be disliked, so for me that isn’t that bad. However what if someone had like 50 brutality and the monsters aura was stronger? They wouldn’t even be allowed into town!

Though it does suggest there are monster NPC’s…but that’ll naturally make a divide between races in this game…

When I first logged in this morning, I didn’t think that the races would have such a strong effect…

I have to be careful with the stats from now on

“WHAAA?” the lizard brothers all say simultaneously and stay glued to their window, in mild shock…guess they just got brutality too…

“What, what happened?” PJ jumps up and down at Zzoid. The other girls look confused too

“We just got a permanent skill, that continues through death” Zzoid states, not quite believing it

himself.

“WHAAAT?” Ow, so loud ladies.

“Yep, but it only stays for the monster race and gives us a global -5 intimacy with non-monster NPC’s” Zzoid continues in mild disbelief.

“WHAAAAAAAAAT?” Oww, my ears…

“So basically being a monster has its downsides” Zzoid concludes while the women look, open mouthed and bewildered.

“By the way, did you ladies get anything?"

…

..

.

“Ladies…”

“Oh, oh” PJ is the first to recover “we just got 10 points, giving us intimidation.

“Ok, being a beastman doesn’t have any demerits in this world…it seems”

“Looks like it” Baila has recovered now, but PinkyS is still in mild shock.

“But on the bright side, we’ve just had a 40 damage increase!” I grin at the others

The lizard trio get out of their shock period upon hearing that…and smile.

Having a 40 damage increase…is huge. My god! We’re as powerful as Apexus now!

I wish I could see him again.

I hear 2 more dings…so now everyone has brutality.

This Kraken is completely screwed.

We continue on our way, killing a couple of wolves…in about 3 seconds flat.

That poor wolf.

Anyways, we move on for another 30 minutes, killing wolves and picking berries (to get the herbalism skill back).

Finally, we reach the pond and it is as calm as ever…

Ok, we have about 6 in-game hours till morning, so we should have enough time to empty this pond.

“Ok, Zzoid, how are we making this straw?”

“No idea”

…

..

.

Well that’s our entire plan gone.

“Anybody have an idea?” I’m trying to save the situation here!

“Hollow out a tree?” Zzand answers with a question…

Everybody thinks about it for a moment…

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea, tell me more” Zzoid encourages him but looks a bit unconvinced himself

“Well if we hollow a thin bit of the tree then when we suck on the top we’d be able to create enough pressure and the tree will be able to withstand it easily?”

“Sounds like fun!”

“Let’s do it!” Zzoid is raring to go…now that his loli said it’s good.

We quickly find a thick tree.

“How are we going to cut it, big brother?” Zzand looks up to me as if expecting that I can just punch it down…oh right

“Just punch it till it falls”

I go up to it and punch the tree…ow! But there’s a visible dent already. Haha! Having 41 damage is great!

Zzand joins in and we hit from one side, until the *Creeeak* of the tree sounds.

We then jump out the way and hear the tree crash to the floor.

“Ok PJ, your turn” Zzoid directs her to the fallen tree

She rubs her hands in glee and begins to dig through the tree with her hands, oddly enough; the tree core is soft enough for that.

…

..

.

This might take a while.

We stop her and proceed to break a good 4 metres off the tree, and then allow her to continue.

We leave PJ to it and we all go and grind our other skills. First up; climbing, throwing and suicide.

I’m still crap at catching branches, but I caught 3…in 50.

That only took a quick 30 minutes. Relearning skills is so much easier.

By now, I’m the only one on land (not counting PJ, who is still digging). The rest have jumped into the water (after Zzoid checked it with his body. Apparently the Kraken has gone back to sleep) and are doing their swimming, herbalism and HYB skill.

Apparently everyone dropped their stack of lilies when they died. So they have to do the whole thing again.

I join them and collect my herbs too.

Another hour passes with nothing but collecting herbs.

“I’M DONE!” A very exhausted voice calls out to the air. I’m taking a breath so I luckily heard it

She’s done

I send the message to Zzoid and to my party chat.

Everyone gets out and admires the handiwork.

I must say, pretty damn good; seeing as though she only had a knife, she still got through 4 metres of bark in only an hour and a half.

This will be a perfect straw.

“Ok, everybody together now” I grab the trunk and everyone scrambles slightly to pick it up (we give PJ a rest though).

Taking it over to the lake, we place it in and hold it, decently easily (we rested it slightly on the bank).

“Who’s going to suck?” I ask the ladies…because us men are holding the trunk

“I’ll do it, my teacher says I can do it quite well” PinkyS hops towards the PJ sized hole (not very big) and sticks her head in.

…

..

.

I'm going to imagine she plays the tuba and it was her music teacher...I glance at PJ and she's gesturing a little trumpet...phew, ok, good.

The trunk vibrates slightly in my hands and I see PinkyS pop her head out of the trunk, followed by a small blast of water.

The water is slowly pressured up the trunk and thrown out into a now very soggy bank.

We all edge slightly inwards while holding the log.

After about 10 minutes, the bond has decreased in size by a whole ton. The pond itself was only about 5 metres deep I think, and now it’s only 1 metre deep.

The Kraken is decently visible; well its tentacles are anyways. Around the side of the pond are long brown lines of dirt, which are the tentacles I believe.

Ok, Kraken must be very unhappy and unable to survive with only 1 metre of water.

Taking a couple of steps back, I see the Kraken is covering about half the bed of the pond

Damn, that’s big! It should take about 5 minutes to walk a circle round that thing!

And now we wait to see it slowly cry and die.

We all rub our hands in anticipation

…

..

.

Hmm that’s odd, it’s still sleeping…

Why is it doing that? Is it the fact that lack of water doesn’t mean as much to it as it should?

*Ding*

You have relearnt Monster Identification.

Through careful observation of the enemy, you have learnt extra details on it

NAME:Pond Kraken (Mini-Boss), Night Variant [LVL???]Health:???Pond Krakens do not need as much water as a normal Kraken. Often, Pond Krakens will spend long periods of time outside the water

…

..

.

So basically; Trying to suffocate it from lack of water isn’t going to work?

“Guys…this isn’t going to work”

Everyone *Tch’s* at that

“So any ideas on how to kill it now?”

“Eat it”

“Rip it to pieces”

“Burn it”

…

..

.

“Ladies, why don’t you let us do the decisions kay?” I definitely don’t want to be jumping down there again, and those ladies scare me.

“Well how about we begin by limiting its movements” Zzoid points at the tentacles which are skimming the top of the pond.

“How are we going to do that brother, I thought Octopus’…have 8 tentacles?” Zzard looks quite perplexed

“True, so we need to limit at least 2 of them for it to have an effect”

“Zzoid, don’t forget that this Kraken has some brains too, probably”

“We just make it a barbed tree”

“I like this idea”

“Yes, I want to stab those tentacles over and over”

“Kill them, eat them”

“I wonder how much pain it will be in if I stab and thenn rip it out?”

Ladies you’re scaring me. And the other guys too.

Since the majority thinks it’s a good idea, we begin punching down trees (it hurts quite a lot actually).

After a good 30 minutes, we’ve piled up a stack of 8 trees, punched into a barbed shape. Splitting up, we take a tree over to either side of the pond.

Lifting it up, we locate a dirt covered tentacle and listen to Zzoid’s countdown

“3…2…1…Stab”

“YAAAAAGH”

*STAB*

-132

Damn that's a lot of damage, guess having 3 people stab it with brutality/strength helps

*RUUUMBLE*

Warning! You have awoken the Mini-boss monster: Pond Kraken.

You have 22% agro

The whole bed of the pond moves upwards with two angry yellow eyes, 1 sporting a tiny amount of blood…oh it’s the knife…Aha, so damage is kept for a certain period of time? Interesting, this may make boss fights very interesting…

However no time to think of that now; there’s a giant Kraken standing up in the pond. It is as large as we thought; it’d take a whole 5 minutes to walk around it and it’s at least 6 metres tall! Its eyes are literally just above the grass, a couple of inches away from us.

Due to being recognized, agro is now 100%

…

..

.

WHATT?

*Crash*

I dived out the way as a tentacle whipped into the ground where I was.

Due to being recognized? This is great for agro, but bloody terrible at the same time!

I immediately start running around the pond.

“GET THE OTHER TREES AND STAB IT NOWWWW!”

*Crash*

Eek, that was close.

I keep running around the pond at full speed with my t-shirt torn at the back. I don’t wanna die again!!!

Run run run!

Its puffed up head follows me around and his attacking tentacle switches to one in-front of me.

HIT THE DECK!

*Whoosh*

I feel it slice just overhead.

*STAB*

The next tentacle doesn’t come as the Kraken stops momentarily at having another tentacle stabbed into the ground.

Angrily, the Kraken whips round and rips out the trunk with a multitude of tentacles…along with a large gout of blood.

It doesn’t speak but it quivers whole bodily and 3 of its tentacles whip towards the group, while the other whips towards me, with the trunk…

*BOOM*

I of course am already up and running again (I wasn’t going to stay down and watch).

The trunk embeds itself in the ground behind me and its tentacle goes for a smash.

Stop!

*Whoosh*

*BANG*

The earth cracks slightly and I’m blown back by the wind, soaring a metre or so.

I glance over to the rest of the party, and it seems that all 3 lizard brothers have agroed a tentacle each and are dodging to the max.

The ladies are carrying another trunk.

*Whoosh*

Eating dirt, I dodge the slicing tentacle, and I scramble up, getting blown away by the tentacle landing just behind me.

Roll and up and running again!

The tentacle doesn’t come down and I suspect the ladies have stuck another trunk in him.

All its tentacles whip over to the new trunk, ripping it out.

They then quickly move to the other two grounded tentacles and rip those trunks out too.

In result, a huge fountain of blood pops up drenching my entire party in blood (I’m luckily on the other side of the pond).

While this goes on, everyone scrambles to grab another trunk (I take a short breather).

The Kraken raises all 8 of its arms in the air (3 holding trunks) and the entire Kraken goes red…

Oh shi-“ADD VIT”

You have added Vit to................................

.............................................................................

........................................................................

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

-40

-40

Phew! Lucky I just added Vit, seemed like I got more than 7, but I didn’t have enough time to see what I got.

Nevermind that, I’m alive…for now.

The Kraken raises its tentacles into the air once more and this time I’m more prepared; I run towards the forest.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG *

Phew, its tentacles aren’t that long.

But how the hell are we supposed to do damage to it when it’s in this rage condition?

The large spout of blood that just spurted out the tentacle might have answered my question.

GUYS, RUN TILL DIES OF BLOOD LOSS

I furiously type into party chat as I run on the outskirts of the forest towards them.

Luckily(?), I’m still in agro range so the Kraken tries to hit me but I just move a bit towards the forest, resulting in a miss.

I quickly reach the other side in just a minute to see about half the party still alive.

1 lizard brother, PJ and Baila are alive

With 6 tentacles their way, they don’t have a good time as they stand sideways narrowly escaping the tentacle horde.

They are slowly retreating towards the forest but with a constant barrage of 6, they can’t move away much.

Another minute passes (and I actively watch and dodge my tentacles) and suddenly all 8 tentacles rise up and then shoot down towards 1 person; PJ

“NOOO”

Zzoid, I now know, jumps in front and gets skewered by tentacles, along with PJ…Well that didn’t work.

“BAILA DON’T EXPECT ME TO BE SO DUMB!”

“DUMBASS!!” she screams back at me as we see the tentacles rise up, looking towards Baila…Ah I got a plan!

*SPIT*

…

..

.

It stops…turns around and looks at me with a very nasty look. Shouldn’t have done that

DUCK BEHIND A TREE!

I hear the tentacles burst through the tree above my head and stab the ground a metre or so infront of me

Roll away!

Its tentacles slice across the trees smashing them and toppling them over.

Within seconds, the forest around me has almost been decimated.

“BAILA ATTAAAAAACK!!!”

The trees come crashing down and I’m left there, ducking behind a stump, in a forest of stumps.

The Kraken looks at me with a glint in its eyes as it raises its blood red tentacles.

Well I’m screwed.

*Rustle*

"EH?"

...

..

.

"EH?" I turned round to the rustling sound and see a large Black Ape burst out of the bushes, covered in blood, his own probably. He spots me and the lack of trees

"What the Fu-"

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

-320

I’m dead 3 times over.

Though I do get a couple of satisfying words as I die: "Fuck, not again"

Well I did wish to meet him again...Whoops!

With some odd *PFFFF* sound, my world goes black.