Episode 5: monstrum

I felt something fly past me, just missing me. My eyes darted around, trying to find the monster trying to kill me. My eyes locked onto the eel-like creature several feet In Front of me, turning around and preparing to strike. I predicted the attack and pivoted, the eel flew past me.

My reflexes had improved since I fought my first monster but it was only slightly. The only reason I could dodge its attack is the predictable nature it had. Dodging another attack I prepared to launch a counter, trying not to get hurt this time around. 

The eel turned sharply and readied its attack, but suddenly something coiled around my leg. It was the living seaweed. After killing the steel coated wolf, we ran into a seaweed Forest, a zone inhabited by living seaweed. 

‘fuck, stupid seaweed’

I leaned down and attempted to free myself. However before the eel crashed into my shoulder and bit down on it, forcing my hand to a stop. I pivoted on my trapped foot, shaking the creature off.

Unfortunately, this gave enough time for the seaweed to completely wrap around my left leg. It began to suck away my mana reserves at a slow rate, which could prove lethal to me. I was forced to hurry the fight, even if I had to be reckless.

Letting the eel crash into me one last time I let out a grunt of pain before grabbing the monster in my hand and crushing it. 

[You have killed a hatchling- piranha eel]

I immediately lowered my mana levels and the seaweed loosened in response. Unsheathing the carving knife I reached down and cut myself free. The soothing voice did not praise my accomplishments, I didn't expect it too.

I had learnt the first time we came here that the seaweed was not a creature itself but part of one. Which meant that somewhere in this Forrest a monster was reaping the benefits of my mana. “Yo kurai you okay?!” Bens familiar voice echoes from behind me.

“Yeah, I'm good!” I didn't need to ask about his safety, he was fine. A loud thump had resounded around the Forrest earlier and had attracted the piranha eel. It came from a large wooden owl that had ambushed us from above. Ben had taken care of it with two strikes though.

‘alright let's carve some meat, if this thing even has any.’

I attempted to use the carving knife to cut into the wooden flesh and it took multiple strikes to finally create a crack in it. The creature didn't have any meat,it was completely made of wood but that would do. We needed it for fires anyway.

I harvested all the wood we could carry and we decided to use some now for a small fire. I took the chance to check the system. The runes appeared In Front of me.

[Echo of pure darkness: 0/100]

‘still nothing huh.’

I still had no idea how to increase the numbers but I was more interested in the index. Focusing on the runes they suddenly changed.

[Index]

[Piranha eel (hatchling)]

[Oak owl]

[Steel coated wolf]

[Life consuming parasite.]

The system seemed to rank monsters in terms of strength on the index. The life consuming parasite was the creature that controlled the seaweed, it seems to be stronger than even the steel coated wolf that Ben had struggled with. I didn't want to run into it.

I focused on the runes for the oak owl and the description and weaknesses appeared.

[Description: creatures that sleep at night and search for food in the daytime, they don't sleep. Long ago they became cursed by the gods and their bodies became one with nature.]

[Weaknesses]

-fire

-piecing attacks

‘The weaknesses are pretty straightforward, though it would be quite hard to use fire against it down here.’

The runes disappeared and I sheathed the carving knife. The shadow returned to its original place and the splitting pain in my head gradually disappeared. The shadow was still a complete mystery to me and I was unable to control it. It was the reason for not using the knife as a weapon, it would prove ineffective for now.

“If we keep this pace up we will be in the town within a day.” Ben said with a laidback expression.

“Should we start moving again, my wounds aren't deep so I should be fine.” The last of the bandages had been used when Ben injured his arm. I ended up having to deal with my injuries and keeping most of my blood inside with mana which proved very tricky.

Ben could do it without straining himself because of his high amount of mana, it acted as an extra layer of skin for him, however for me i had too little reserves and had to attempt to increase my output in only the injured areas. In the end I couldn't do it and resorted to increasing my overall mana output across my entire body.

“Yeah lets go, but if you feel like you're about to run out of mana we'll take a break.” I nodded and we packed our stuff into pouches and began walking  through the seaweed and towards the nearby town. Due to my extra mana output we Ben had to cut down the seaweed as we walked. 

It didn't take long for us to reach the end of the forest, luckily for us the zone didn't seem very large and so they had only spent the last 2 hours traversing the place. Ben had described that the average seaweed forest usually covered a few miles and took days to get through.

Either way we were still almost a day away from our location and the terrain in front of us was not the best for walking. It consisted of multiple hills, some leading off into the distance and others being incredibly steep. Corral stuck out from the ground in some places and from how Ben was reacting they must have been living creatures. 

Between two of the mountains a cave was etched into the surface and led into the ground. I turned to the sky, noticing the darkness above. It was now night time. I became ready to set up a fire but Ben stopped me.

“We won't camp out in the open tonight.” I gave him a confused look.

“What do you mean Ben? Are we going to hunt in the night again? But we have enough food.”

“Nope. We won't hunt tonight, this time we are going to be sleeping in there.”

I followed Ben's finger and traced it to the cave. The idea sent a chill down my spine, I liked the idea but couldn't help but feel it was a bad idea. Despite my worries, I had no reason to refuse.

“Ok.”

***

The cave had been full of the same corral from outside, luckily Ben used mana to ‘mark’ each lump of coral so I didn't accidentally step into a death trap. I didn't want to find out why Ben was so careful around them.

The cave was much bigger than we had thought, it was basically pitch black down here and we had to rely on mana sensing to get through it. Well for me that wanted I was just blindly following Ben into a place that could become my coffin.

Suddenly a soothing voice rang out in my head.

[ You have entered the shadow bears territory.]

‘wait what?’

The system had never announced an area when I entered it, not even in the seaweed Forest. I suddenly had a sharp feeling of despair as a bear-like growl startled Ben.

He drew his sword and instantly got into a defensive stance. I couldn't see but I could hear the heavy footprints and then the sound of clashing steel.

Ben had been pushed back by the attack, it was the first time I had seen the man struggle to defend an attack. He immediately went to counterattack.

He lunged forward, choosing close combat, and brought his blade down. His attack was deflected, at this rate he was not going to beat the creature. I had to do something.

I approached where Ben stood, he had still been sending out mana to illuminate the corrals within the cave while fighting, a barrage of strikes were sent towards the bear. Each of them is deflected by the monster.

I reached the two of them, staying at a somewhat safe distance from the two. What could I possibly do, the carving knife was not good for combat. I didn't have enough skill with mana to do anything, what should I do? 

That's when I noticed the floating ball of mana behind me pulsating slightly. Ben was trying to tell me something. I looked towards it and it suddenly took the shape of a coral. It took me a few moments after that before it clicked, and a plan formed in my head.

Ben was knocked away by an attack, his silhouette fell towards the ground and the mana around his sword grew dull. 

‘shit!’

“Over here you overgrown fuck!” I bit into my hand reminded by something Ben had told me. 

“Monsters are drawn to blood and noise, most of them are driven by instinct.”

Loud thumps echoed through the cave, heading towards me. My legs shook slightly but I stared in the direction of the footsteps, still unable to see in front of me. Until I suddenly could.

Ben's mana merged with the massive bear-like beast In front of me. Before i was caught in its maw I jumped to the side. Crashing into the dirt and watching as the bear attempted to stop itself. 

It had almost succeeded, but before It could stop fully I crashed into it using all of my weight and stabbing it with the carving knife. Pain washed through my head as the bear crashed into the corral. 

The moment it did and before I could even perceive what has going on the bear has been pierced through completely and warm blood trailed down my face. 

My eye was missing. The only reason I hadn't died was due to sheer instinct. I had reeled my head back, afraid that the bear might have attempted to attack me while I bashed it. Due to that the corral only took my eye.

[You have slain a shadow bear.]

[The god of shadows rewards you.]

The runes shimmered into existence In Front of me. A smile appeared on my face despite my dire predicament.

[Echo of pure darkness: 2/100]

My happiness disappeared quickly from my face, my eyes were reluctant to stay open and i simply embraced my tiredness, slipping into a deep sleep. Except i didnt exactly fall asleep, i was met by the same void as usual. But something was different.