From here, we will need to be more careful,” Valens told us as we set out early the next morning. We traveled slowly, Valens leaving to scout several times or having us hunker down and hide for long stretches to avoid a monster nearby. He was clearly skilled at scouting, and Romanus told me that he had the Hunter class, which was apparently a non-combat class similar to Archer but without the combat skills. It allowed him to track and hunt monsters.
After several hours of traveling, we were cutting over an old field of wheat when I received a notification.
Regional quest discovered: Cull the Drakes.
You have discovered a regional quest. Complete this quest to receive additional rewards. Quest requirements: You must kill the drake and its spawn before the spawn becomes large enough to threaten the nearby populace. Reward: +1 to an attribute of your choice, 500 experience, additional reward depending on your contribution.
Do you wish to share this quest with your group?
I stopped in my tracks, surprised by the notification.
“Everything okay, Alexander?” Romanus asked me.
“Did either of you just get an announcement like you do when you get experience?”
“An announcement? No.”
Valens shook his head as well.
“How strange,” I said. “I just got one saying that there is a regional quest in this area for us and it comes with a reward if we complete it.”
I elected to share the quest with the two of them. They both got a faraway look on their face and then refocused on me after a moment.
“This is amazing!” Romanus said enthusiastically.
“Why didn’t we get this as well?” Valens asked. “We have never got something like this and we have been out here for years.”
“It’s because I got the achievement for surviving the safe zone. It said it unlocked a thing called quests, which seems like a part of the system set up to try to encourage people to kill monsters or complete other objectives to help people survive.”
“That would make sense,” Romanus said, “and we never knew because nobody has had the freedom to earn such an achievement in generations. At least not in Sycae. The army and Emperor probably knew but never bothered to tell the rest of us.”
Valens shook his head in disgust at the thought.
“So many rewards we could have been earning,” Romanus added. “That anyone could have been earning. It would make survival easier for everyone if we knew. Was the information lost for everyone?”
“It’s possible,” Valens said. “The army does have some teams still clearing dungeons, mostly ones that form in their enclave, but they would likely know about achievements.”
“All it would take is one of them clearing a dungeon and then leaving the city,” Romanus agreed. “The rest of the requirements are easy to meet. It seems likely they had that happen at some point.”
“Even as our people barely hold on, people play games like this,” Valens said, turning away in anger. Romanus reached to grasp his shoulder, clearly wanting to comfort him, but stopped himself.
“Are the drakes why you are out here for this hunt?” I asked to change the subject.
Romanus shook his head. “No, we had no idea a drake was even around. They are very dangerous, especially a mother drake with a fresh brood. We were hunting a type of bear. We spotted it on our last hunt but were already burdened with too much to carry back. It was a nature-type mutation, covered in bark that is worth a good amount as armor or a cloak. But this quest reward is significant. We should consider completing it instead.”
Romanus told me everything he knew about drakes while Valens took a moment for himself. Drakes, I was told, were similar to dragons but less intelligent, lacked the ability to fly or use magic, and were generally smaller. Despite being smaller than actual dragons, they could still grow to the size of a house or larger and were incredibly quick and very dangerous. Their scales were resistant to most damage, physical or magical.
“Could we even complete the quest?” I asked after his description of how dangerous drakes could be.
Romanus looked over at Valens before replying. “We probably could with just the two of us, if we were careful and smart about it. With you as well, if your strength is enough to clear dungeons, it should be possible.”
When Valens was feeling better, he left to scout the area around us in an attempt to find the drakes. Romanus and I waited in a small dip in a nearby field that was covered by overgrown wheat and other bushes. I tried to think if there was anything I could craft that would help us, but if the drakes were covered in scales that were resistant to damage, my newly empowered Penetration Bullets would likely be my most effective weapon, and I was stocked up with plenty of those now that my nanobots had finished re-forging them.
We waited several hours, Romanus falling into a light sleep while I kept watch. When Valens returned, he informed us that he had found the nesting grounds. We climbed out of the dip in the field we had been hiding in and followed him to an abandoned house nearby.
“We should rest and deal with them tomorrow when we have plenty of light,” he told us. Romanus agreed and I shrugged, deferring to their expertise. We claimed a corner of the house that still had most of its roof intact and settled in. The three of us made small talk as we ate a meal of travel food and then we turned in for the night. The two of them fell asleep quickly, a skill they had clearly picked up from many years of traveling, while I lay under my blanket and tried to get some rest, but mostly I thought about the drakes and the implications of finding out that the city was considered a safe zone.
Sometime in the night, I was jostled awake by Valens, who was pushing on my leg to get my attention. When he saw that I was awake, he signaled that something was outside and that we should be silent. I nodded in return. I reached for my gun, not drawing it from its holster but ready in case something attacked us.
The three of us waited in complete silence. I could hear something rooting around in the distance, but nothing more than that. The creature sounded like it was at least a hundred or more feet away and the sound it was making wasn’t that loud. I probably wouldn’t be able to hear it if I didn’t have such sensitive ears. I was curious how Valens had detected the creature.
Eventually, the creature moved away from us. We waited for another twenty minutes, just to be safe, and then Valens signaled that we were safe. I raised an eyebrow at him, asking how he knew the creature was gone.
“Danger Sense skill,” Romanus quietly answered for Valens, who had moved to one of the windows in the old house and was looking out on the fields nearby.
“Ah,” I replied. I didn’t know exactly what that skill was, but from context, it sounded like it could give some kind of warning anytime danger was near. That was a handy skill to have out here, I was sure. It also explained why the two of them were so comfortable sleeping without keeping watch. I hadn’t wanted to question them since I was new out here, but it had been one of the reasons I’d had trouble sleeping. I should have trusted they knew what they were doing.
Once Valens returned to us, the two of them settled back into their bedrolls and got some more sleep. I didn’t even try, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep, so I just got up and watched the darkened fields outside until the sun began to rise. After a quick breakfast, Valens led us to the drake’s den.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what we found. The drake had dug a massive tunnel in the ground, almost a cave. It was big enough for a train to drive through and led downward at a steep angle. The hole stank of stale blood and musk.
Valens gathered us around the entrance. “Normally,” he told me quietly, “we would dig large pit traps and lure a large beast like this to a prepared area and ambush it. But for a drake with a new brood, she won’t leave them for anything. We will have to go in there to kill her.”
“That seems like a bad idea,” I said, eyeing the dark tunnel leading downward.
“Well,” Romanus said, “I may have a bit of an advantage inside that should help us.”
He reached toward me and touched my brow. I felt something warm pass through his finger and into my body. I gave him a puzzled look.
“Shadow Sight,” he said, “a skill of mine. It will let you see in the dark for the next three hours.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He did the same for Valens. Valens then raised his hand and activated another skill of some kind. I felt warmth wash over me, as if I was suddenly standing next to a campfire. My body felt like it had been pumped full of adrenaline, but the surge of strength and speed didn’t fade away. I moved my hands, making sure I hadn’t lost control like when I last gained more attributes, but thankfully I had no issues with my coordination this time.
“That will also last a few hours,” Valens told me.
I thanked them both, and then Romanus and Valens unstrapped their backpacks and hid them nearby. Romanus drew two large shadow-coated daggers that I was sure hadn’t been on him a moment before. They looked dangerous, the shadows coiling around the blade and flickering as if they were alive.
Romanus went first and then Valens nodded at me, and the two of us followed him into the cave. As we entered, I could tell the tunnel in front of us was getting darker, but I could see as if it was the middle of the day thanks to Romanus’s skill. I looked at the ceiling as we moved deeper into the tunnel and saw it was made from loose dirt, the occasional root hanging downward above our heads. I couldn’t believe the dirt didn’t collapse on top of us, because I was pretty sure physics dictated such loose material could not support the weight of the earth above it. But since it seemed stable enough and the other two weren’t concerned, I just chalked it up to magic and tried to put it out of my mind. Valens drew his large two-handed sword, the first time I had seen him do so. It was almost as large as him, but he moved it like it weighed nothing, holding it in one hand as he carefully navigated downward through the tunnel.
The ground under us comprised dry, hard-packed dirt. I could see claw marks on the sides of the tunnel, deep grooves the size of my head at least. The center of the tunnel was flat and smooth, as if something large had dragged itself down it recently. I stared at the claw marks, really hoping the confidence of these two hunters wasn’t misplaced, although I was pretty sure I could escape if I really had to. I would just prefer not to lose these two new companions who might someday even become my friends.
We continued downward for several minutes, moving carefully to avoid sliding down the deep tunnel. I glanced downward for a second to check my foot placement, and when I looked up, Romanus was gone. I reached for my gun, thinking we were under attack somehow, but Valens shook his head at me. He made some hand signals that I eventually understood to mean Romanus had gone forward to scout. I stared down the tunnel, pretty sure that Romanus had disappeared or gone invisible in some way, impressed by whatever class he had.
The tunnel eventually leveled out, and the smell of blood and musk became even thicker, pooling at the bottom of the cave as if it was a liquid. Valens crouched down, his greatsword carefully resting against the compact dirt of the floor. I crouched as well and moved forward to stand next to him.
The tunnel opened up into a large circular cavern about twenty feet in front of us. There were a number of scaled bodies piled together in the center of the room, intertwined so much it was impossible to tell how many there were. Peeking through the mess of bodies was a faint golden glow. Somewhere in there was the mother drake, and she was a gold boss.
Valens tapped me lightly on my shoulder to get my attention and then began to count down on his fingers. When he finished, he made a fist and charged forward silently, his large two-handed sword pointed toward the drakes.
As he charged, I saw dark shadows coalesce above the nest of drakes in the form of a massive blade. It was the size of a person or larger, its edges flickering with deadly, living shadow. The shadow-blade stabbed downward into the pile of drakes, cutting deeply into them. The nest went crazy. Cries of pain and anger filled the small space, and the drakes began to writhe to untangle themselves as quickly as possible. When the large shadow-knife dissipated, Romanus was standing in its place. He began to cut around him, slicing the stirring drakes with both of his knives.
Valens, meanwhile, charged in next and began to carve through the smaller drakes with wide, devastating strikes of his sword. Everywhere he struck, a deep, bloody gash was made in one or more of the drakes. Some of them died instantly.
Romanus flipped backward off the pile of drakes and disappeared again, leaving only Valens standing in front of the nest as the drakes finally untangled themselves and looked around for whoever was attacking them. Valens backed away and activated a skill, causing several illusory shields to appear around him just as the first drakes reached him.
I drew my revolver, not wanting to leave my companions fighting by themselves, and unloaded six shots into the neck of the mother drake as she reared her head upward, hissing in anger at Valens. My bullets struck her in the neck and lower jaw. The first couple of bullets knocked her head backward slightly but didn’t seem to penetrate her thick scales. Looking closely, though, I saw the scales I had struck had fractured, leaking blood down the monster’s chin. I reloaded and fired at the same spot again before the mother drake could recover, and this time my bullets penetrated deeply into her neck, spraying blood everywhere as bullet after bullet slammed into her. She roared in pain, the sound so loud in the confined space that I felt my eardrums rupture.
While the mother was distracted, Romanus reappeared behind the swarm of smaller drakes that were attacking Valens and began killing them with shadowy strikes from his daggers. Valens was backing away slowly, focusing more on defending himself while Romanus attacked the unsuspecting drakes that were focused only on reaching Valens. Even when Valens fought defensively, his large sword carved deep wounds in any drake that got too close, and his illusory shields kept the rest back when they tried to bite and claw him.
I reloaded again, watching the mother drake to see what she would do next. My bullets had clearly hurt her, but she wasn’t out of the fight yet. She tucked her head, protecting the weakened scales on her neck, and began to search the cave, obviously trying to find the source of whatever had hurt her so badly. When she turned her head to the side to see better, I aimed quickly and fired. My bullet took her in the eye, shattering the cornea and blinding the beast. She roared again, turning to protect her eye from further attacks. I turned to the smaller drakes attacking Valens and unloaded the rest of my bullets into them in an attempt to give him some breathing room.
Reacting swiftly to the space Romanus and I had bought for him, Valens charged forward, throwing himself into a spin with his two-handed sword. His sword began to glow and his momentum sped up. He turned into a whirling top of death as his sword spun around and around him, killing drakes with every rotation. He carved a bloody path through the drakes, leaving them shattered and broken.
Romanus turned his attention to the mother, disappearing in a flash of shadows. Another large shadow-blade appeared above the mother, striking downward and cutting deeply into her back. When the knife faded, Romanus appeared again, standing on her back. He stabbed downward, digging both of his shadow-daggers into the mother’s back.
I reloaded again and waited, watching as a number of the drakes recovered from Valens’s spin and turned their attention to me. I targeted any that were looking in my direction, firing precise bullets into each one of their skulls, blowing their small heads backward and killing them instantly. My newly empowered bullets had no problem piercing through the scales of the smaller drakes.
As I reloaded again, the mother screamed and then charged forward, heading toward the tunnel leading out of her den, which was right where I was standing.
I hadn’t fully reloaded yet, but I slammed the wheel of my revolver closed and fired at the bloody wound on her neck I had made before. Each bullet sent a spray of blood gushing out of the mother but didn’t slow her down at all. I ran to the side as fast as I could, but the wide body of the mother still clipped me as she passed. I braced myself as her body connected with mine, expecting to be knocked painfully to the side. Instead, I was barely pushed backward. My strength was significant enough that I actually felt the drake give slightly when I pushed back against her scaled body.
I stared in surprise as the mother ran past me. Her tail came whipping after her, and I ducked quickly to avoid it as it swung over my head. I stared down at my body as I stood back up, shocked to find myself completely fine after the mother’s body hit me. I kept being surprised by how different this world was from my own. The impact of attributes here was so supernatural it was hard to comprehend how much they changed about the world. I kept having to readjust my preconceptions, and it was really difficult to judge relative power levels when I had no experience with so much of this reality.
I looked back at the other two, who were finishing off the newborn drakes with ease. Seeing them in no danger, I turned and chased after the mother, reloading as I ran. I put on a burst of speed up the tunnel. I caught up to her easily as she pulled her heavy body up the tunnel ahead of me. I stayed back to avoid her tail as it whipped back and forth behind her, just keeping even with her so we wouldn’t lose her when she got out of the tunnel.
On the surface, I followed her as she ran away from us in a clear panic, fleeing for her life. I raced beside her, pushing myself to go as fast as I could, and rapidly outpaced her. My lean, powerful body could run significantly faster than the mother, even with the pounds of rippling muscle that made up her body.
Once I was far enough ahead of her, I flipped and ran backward, firing all six revolver shots into one of her leading legs. My bullets penetrated deeply into the limb; the smaller scales that protected her extremities did not have the same protection as the bigger parts of her body. When she tried to use the leg I had shot, it couldn’t support her weight and she stumbled, her momentum sending her spilling forward and crashing into the ground in front of me. She slid for several feet, carving a deep rut in the ground with her body. I slowed, reloading, and then lined up my shots and fired more bullets into her vulnerable throat. She tried to pick herself up, but my bullets knocked her head backward, sending her crashing back to the ground. She tried stirring once more but couldn’t manage to raise her body more than a few inches. Instead, she slumped to the ground, an exhausted breath escaping from her body. Blood was pouring from the wound on her neck and back, and after a few minutes, she let out one last breath, dying.
I felt mixed emotions as I watched her die in front of me. On the one hand, it was clear she would have killed me and any other human she came across without a second thought. On the other, killing another being was a brutal and undignified act. Watching the once-proud mother drake bleed out in front of me, I felt a momentary sadness at the cruelness of the world. In a better time, maybe the beautiful and fierce drake could have been friendly or at least left to live its life on its own. In this time, however, survival was too difficult, and every advantage had to be seized. Otherwise, next time, I would be the one left bleeding out on the ground. Still, the drake deserved respect and I took a moment to honor her death as I waited for the others to catch up to me.
A couple of minutes of silence later, Romanus and Valens came running over. Seeing the mother drake dead, they slowed and grinned at me where I stood next to her corpse. Romanus threw an arm over Valens’s shoulder in celebration, giving him a broad smile as well. Valens leaned into the side-hug, and then they stepped apart and walked up to me. Romanus clapped me on the shoulder and Valens nodded in respect toward me.
“I don’t know what kind of magic you have,” Romanus said, laughing, “but it was very effective!”
Valens approached the mother drake and inspected her body. I smiled back at Romanus, but before I could respond, the notifications from our kills rolled through my mind.
Newborn drake defeated—150 experience awarded.
Six more announcements for defeating newborn drakes followed immediately after the first.
Mature matriarch drake defeated—1000 experience awarded.
You have completed the quest Cull the Drakes. You have been rewarded with +1 to an attribute of your choice and 500 experience. For being the first group to complete a regional quest in your region in nineteen years, you have also received an upgraded reward.
Perk obtained: Monster Hunter. You can sense the presence of monsters nearby. This perk scales with your level and perception attribute.
Congratulations, you have received enough experience to level your Archer class. You are now level 17.
Endurance +1
