Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (18 page)

"Do you want to end up like your Sonstwelter counterparts? Remember, they could return but you, ten, cannot."
The ten Battle Monks quickly glanced over at each other, and understood that they had come to the same decision. All of them ran the opposite direction from where the Simiavulgs stood and escaped with their lives.
Smoke remained motionless. The four Simiavulgs stood their ground until the Battle Monks were out of sight. He had been waiting for Ledur to arrive with his Tikbalang corps, but he feared that the next time he would meet the Simiavulgs they would have more than four members in their Simiavulg party.
He knew he needed to do something and it had to be now. Smoke could only think of one way that would give him the highest chance of being allowed into their village.
Hidden on top of a redwood tree, he was suspended fifty meters into the air. The DarkElf looked at the dizzying height. 'Well, here goes nothing.'
Smoke jumped from the tree and crashed into the branches below him. One of the thick branches broke his left arm while the smaller ones scratched his face.
The suicidal fall took less than four seconds but it felt like an eternity to Smoke. He finally smashed hard into the ground. CRAAASSSH!
The DarkElf tried to stand up but he discovered that he had broken his right leg. He was left with 8% of his life. 'This is perfect. I sure hope this works.'
He tried to crawl to where the Simiavulgs were, but his injured body could not move very well. So he decided to call out his targets.
"Hey, Simiavulgs! I mean, Doctus! Over here!"
In less than three seconds the DarkElf was encircled by four Simiavulgs.
"Eeii. DarkElf? Why do you know my name?" Doctus asked.
"I was a captive of those Sonstwelters you just dispatched. They left me here as an offering to you. I don't know why they didn't use me. I prayed to Cuezaltzin to be saved. Luckily, the great god has answered my prayers." 
"Why in the world would they think that the Simiavulgs would want a DarkElf as an offering?" The puzzled chimpanzee Simiavulg asked.
Smoke faced the female Simiavulg and replied.
"I don't know myself. All I know is that if I don't get help soon I'll be dead and I my body will return to their hideout, where I'm sure they will use me as bait again."
The four Simiavulgs discussed with one another.
Smoke thought that this was the best time to use his Beggary ability. "Please save me! Cuezaltzin will surely grant you favors in the here and now."

Doctus, the orangutan Simiavulg walked towards him. "Your faith in Cuezaltzin has rescued you. I find you worthy to be saved."
The orangutan Simiavulg grabbed pieces of branches, leaves, and vines and threw them onto a pile. He drew a transmutation circle around the pile and created an emergency gurney.
"Come, Tenvis, Meras, and Castas. Let us help this DarkElf to our village."
 

A heavily-bandaged Smoke laid on top of an emergency gurney made out of latched logs, branches, leaves and vines. The Simiavulgs placed a splint on his right leg and left arm that broke as a result of his fifty-foot intentional drop.
He laid flat on his back, which displayed a black metal orb attached to his leather breastplate. The orb's bulky appearance raised Castas' curiosity.
The chimpanzee Simiavulg asked. "What is that thing on your chest? It looks like a part of a shield or something?"
"Good eye. I'm impressed! That's right, this was a part of my round shield. I needed to upgrade my shield for a better one, but I couldn't leave my lucky charm behind."
Smoke patted the round black orb on his chest. "I now think of it as a part of my body. I know that it's because of this thing that I survived through a lot of life-threatening situations. This shield even blocked against a ..."
Castas raised her hand and shrugged her shoulders as if to signify that she didn't want any further information. Smoke understood and shut his mouth. Thus, their silent trip towards Saruras village resumed.
From previous stealth operations and from the time when he pretended to be Ilad, the Flame Knight, Smoke realized that it was imperative to have a discreet hiding place for Igniz.
His dark ember sprite also felt uncomfortable staying hidden beneath Smoke's hooded cloak. Which was why he agreed when Sharanga, the WoodElf Huntress, suggested to create a metal compartment for his symbiote.
There were minuscule slanted holes on the orb's surface, allowing Igniz to see outside it. The dark ember sprite remained in his dimmest state to block the light from where he hid.
With Igniz's hiding place secured, he resumed his observation of the four carriers of his emergency gurney. Doctus, the orangutan Simiavulg, led the way as he carried the front right-side of Smoke's gurney. Castas, the chimpanzee Simiavulg, walked beside Doctus and carried the front left-side.
Tenvis, the gorilla Simiavulg, carried the back left-side of the gurney, while Meras, the gibbon Simiavulg,  carried the back right-side. The whole group walked silently through a thick luscious forest towards the summit of Mount Yunggo.
Interestingly enough, the monsters inside the forest stayed away from them, although Smoke could feel their bloodlust and guessed their levels to be well beyond 100.
There were still some of the monster species from the lower level of the mountain, like the badger dogs and the ruby bears, but there were two other that stood above the rest.
A monster called Lemurcat closely resembled an asian tiger, except that its face was that of a lemur. Due to the lemurcat's comical appearance, Smoke found these monsters funny at first.
Yet, when he saw one of them prey on three ruby bears, his impression of the monster changed instantly. He imagined that if lemurcats were to travel in packs, they could prove extremely difficult to handle.
Then they met a group of monsters called Three-headed monitor lizards. These monsters had traveled in a group of five. The lemurcats that traveled solo did well to avoid these monsters with a body length of three meters.
Each head of the three-headed monitor lizard would attack with whip-like elasticity and its prey would be killed after three salmonella-filled bites.
For the three-headed monitor lizards, it didn't matter which kind of monster they would hunt. They would eat everything that stood in their path.
However, none of these two species of monsters ever came to attack Smoke and the Simiavulgs. The DarkElf noticed that these monsters always remained ten meters away from them.
Smoke made a habit of noticing minute details in his surroundings. There were many things he would still miss, but he felt that he had become better at it.
This was also in preparation for an escape route if things in the Simiavulg village were to go south. Smoke carefully watched where they had gone and where they were going. He tried to make a mental image of the route based on any imposing landmarks that he could find.
To his dismay, all of the scenery that they passed looked similar. Although Darius gave him a parchment with the locations of Saruras and Pferde, he feared that this information might be outdated.. He noticed that Pferde's actual location was ten kilometers off the mark when he found it, so the same might hold true for Saruras. He hoped that Saruras village was not like the temple of Aeternus Praesas, the medical temple of Guardias de Tiempo, where the last Beggar Imperator Kumbaba took his son Giro to. That temple would not appear on a player's map even if the player had been there already.
He learned this from the time he got his hidden Job. Darius told him that there were other places in Zectas with this bothersome ability. You would need a special map in order to find their actual location.
Despite the lack of prominent landmarks, Smoke noticed that his view from the gurney was slightly tilted. He concluded that they were still climbing further up.
He received a whisper from Ledur earlier. He told the captain of his Tikbalang corps to stay out of the Simiavulg territory, but to remain on Mount Yunggo.
Smoke told them to be ready for anything, but also to increase their levels and hunt while waiting for further instructions.
As they ascended further up Mount Yunggo, a notification window popped up.

The notification window surprised Smoke. The scenery had not changed at all. Laying on the emergency wooden gurney, Smoke could only see tall trees and faint sunlight that would sometimes break through the canopy above him.
A few steps after the notification window popped up, his Cunning of the Dire Fox ability detected thirty Simiavulgs directly over him.
Smoke used his Telefax Vision ability and saw them expertly clinging onto the trees. Some of them only used one hand, while others hanged themselves upside down with their feet.
He felt extremely lucky. If Doctus and his party had traveled on top of the trees when they met, they would have seen right through his lie.
After his deep sigh of relief, he resumed his study of the scenery above him. All of the visible Simiavulgs on the trees carried staves, but theirs were blue, unlike the black metallic staves that Doctus and his party were equipped with.
He wondered if those colors had any special meaning to them. There were numerous occasions when he thought about asking Doctus and his men, but decided to keep his mouth shut.
This was only Smoke's second time experiencing broken limbs inside Zectas. The first time was when Mitleid tortured him. When he came up with this plan, he thought that he would recover 100% of his health after some time.
However, Smoke couldn't have been further from reality. It had been four hours since the Simiavulgs started carrying him and despite their medical treatment, his life bar only recovered to 80%.
His right leg and left arm remained broken. 'I wonder if it will also take six weeks before my broken bones heal?' He remembered his experience in the real world.
When Smoke was fourteen years old, he tried to impress his younger brothers with a slam dunk. Unfortunately, it ended with him breaking his arm instead.
'Well, I could always kill myself and recover completely. But I'm sure there's a better way to heal myself.'
Smoke sighed. Lying down proved to fill his head with idle thoughts. He began to second-guess himself whether his plan on gaining access to the Simiavulgs would work at all.
He shook his head and cleared his mind. 'The glass is half full.' He opened his mouth to try to have a conversation with any of the Simiavulgs but they suddenly stopped moving.
They had reached the summit of Mount Yunggo. From where they stood, Smoke could see a blue-green expansive lake with a small island right in the middle of it.
"What is this place?" asked Smoke with mystified eyes.
The black-haired Simiavulg smiled, touched his shoulders and answered. "Welcome to Saruras village." Taken by surprise due to their previous silent treatment, he responded with a forced smile.
Smoke wanted to slap himself for asking the question out loud. He did just read the notification message, but he couldn't stop himself.
The mysterious island at the center of the lake captivated him in a way he couldn't understand. From his seated position on the gurney, he couldn't see any boats or other means of water transport nearby.
Black sand and dark-colored pebbles covered the shoreline of the lake. He wondered how they would get across to the island. He heard Doctus order the rest of the Simiavulgs to put him down.
Then, he saw Doctus walk over to an unnatural rock formation near the edge of the lake. He watched as Doctus placed his black metallic staff into a receptacle on top of the rock formation. The Simiavulg then made his staff face the island.
Smoke heard a rumbling sound, but didn't feel the earth shake. A brick road covered in green algae rose from within the lake. It had a width of five meters and Smoke thought that even carriages could travel on it.
Doctus took out his staff and joined the other Simiavulgs as they carried Smoke over the risen road. The DarkElf remained seated on his wooden gurney and watched in awe over the green lake. After thirty minutes, they were halfway to the island. There, Smoke thought that he saw something moving inside the lake.
He squinted his eyes and tried to peer into the murky waters. In an instant, a coral spear attached to a tentacle sprang at him. He reflexively tried to dodge and almost got knocked off the gurney.
However, the coral spear was blocked by a transparent barrier that changed its color to red upon impact. Seven more tentacles with coral spearheads attacked the barrier of the brick road, yet, none of the attacks made a dent on it. The lake monster raised its head and looked at them. Smoke looked around and found that the Simiavulgs remained unfazed by the monster's appearance.
Smoke had a concerned expression, which was why Castas assured him. "Don't worry, this barrier was made by four black-staves masters who were way stronger than us."
A pair of giant eyes attached to an even bigger head appeared. A giant squid with two feeders menacingly dancing behind its head emerged from the water.
The giant squid launched its strongest attacks, but the road's barrier still did not budge. The giant squid thrashed around the lake before submerging into the deep once more.
Meras, the gibbon Simiavulg, addressed the rest of her kin. "You'd think that Calamar would have learned by now."
Doctus replied. "Giant squids aren't like war elephants. They never learn their lessons. Calamar will keep on trying to smash through our barrier for as long as it's alive."
Meras then asked Doctus. "How old is Calamar now? I mean, he has to be old for him to reach level 500."
"I don't know. Ever since I was a young Simiavulg, he was already that big."
Smoke listened intently on their conversation and tried to join casually. "Are there any other high-level monsters like Calamar in the lake?"
Doctus looked straight into Smoke's eyes. The DarkElf felt like the Simiavulg was looking deep into his soul for a few seconds before Doctus finally answered.
"There are two other monsters whose levels reach beyond 300, but aside from those there are only monsters with an average level of 100."
"Those three monsters feed on the lower-level monsters as easily as if they were fish bait." Added Tenvis, the gorilla Simiavulg.
Smoke nodded as he listened to the Simiavulgs' explanation of the monsters in the lake. Once the Simiavulgs started talking, there was no stopping them.
They reached the end of the algae-covered brick road in no time. Smoke worried earlier because his intimacy with them had not grown at all ever since he joined them. Yet now when he checked his intimacy bar with them, it had grown to 82%.
He was laid down on the ground once more as Doctus walked over to a similar rock formation with a receptacle for a staff. He saw the Simiavulg turn the staff around and brick road descended back into the lake.
All four Simiavulgs carried him towards the tall iron fence that surrounded the whole island. They stopped when they reached an ornately designed iron gate.
The embossed iron figures of four Simiavulgs equipped with staves, aligned and in their fighting poses, looked extremely similar to the ones accompanying Smoke, which made him ask. "Are those four Simiavulgs on the gate based on you guys?"
"Howk howk howk. I wish!" Tenvis answered. "No, those are the four legendary grandmasters who lived 5,000 years ago." Tenvis then tapped on the iron gate with his black metallic staff and shortly after, the gates opened wide.
When they entered, Smoke saw a small hamlet similar to the one in Nanahuatl. The houses were made out of wood and concrete. Their glass-stained windows decorated in Simiavulg art brightened up the village.
Zectas' virtual reality had imprinted the sense of a belongingness in him and that was in Nanahuatl. He suddenly got homesick. He couldn't believe that he had been away from Nanahuatl for a long time now.
Steadily, a crowd of Simiavulgs from the four different sub-races began to gather in the main street. For most of them, this was their first time seeing another race.
He heard a small gibbon Simiavulg talk to his mother. "Mama, was that guy punished? Why did the four great masters shave off all of his hair? And they even beat him till his skin turned purple!"
Similar comments from other young Simiavulgs ensued. Smoke's only reply was a smile and a wave. Doctus, Tenvis, Meras and Castas walked onward with military precision.
Smoke kept up his pleasant demeanor. He felt like he was being paraded and displayed for the entire village to see. The Simiavulgs took a right turn when they reached a fork in the road.
He noticed that the scenery changed afterwards. All he could see were tall walls, grandiose gates and the roofs of the buildings behind them.
The rooftops of the buildings in this street looked like the ones of oriental martial arts temples from the old chinese movies he liked to watch.
The street had two well-decorated gates on each side and one at the end of the road. There were five of them in total. In front of each temple gate were Simivulgs with blue and brown metallic staves.
All of them had their heads bowed down, with their staves pressed against their chests as both their hands touched. Smoke could feel the deep respect these Simiavulgs gave to the four Simiavulgs who were carrying him.
The biggest of these gates was the one at the end of the street. The entrance had two red pillars with a green dragon on one and a golden tiger on the other.
The Simiavulgs left him in front of the two massive wooden doors with intricate depictions of Simiavulg art. Smoke remained seated on the gurney, completely helpless. He tried to ask the four Simiavulgs what was going on, but they left before he had the chance.
CREAAAK.
Slowly, the wooden doors swung outwards. An orangutan Simiavulg stepped outside. He dragged a red metallic staff that made a weird noise as it touched the floor of the temple.
Smoke sat still as the orangutan Simiavulg studied him. "Hmm. Doctus said that he found a gravely injured Cuezaltzinian, but I don't understand why he decided to allow a DarkElf entry to Saruras."
Reflexively, he tried to explain his situation to the Simiavulg. "You see, I was ..."
"Shush! Quiet! I wasn't talking to you."
Smoke stopped mid-sentence and still had his mouth wide open.
"Well, with these injuries I guess it wouldn't take even an hour to patch him up and send him on his way."
He immediately wanted to protest when he heard this. He wanted to earn the Simiavulgs' trust and recruit them to his cause. If he couldn't do that, then he planned to at least gain their rumored gift to increase his power.
Yet, the Simiavulg with the red metallic staff would not hear him out at all. Instead, the Simiavulg lifted his staff and tapped the ground loudly.
A pure white gorilla Simiavulg with red eyes came in a hurry and bowed down before the orangutan Simiavulg.
"Saru, take him to the House of healing and truths."
"As you command, Grandmaster Indignus."
Swiftly, the white gorilla Simiavulg single-handedly carried Smoke's wooden gurney with ease. Smoke couldn't believe that Saru could be that strong. After all, he was only as big as Tenvis.
Smoke was carried into the martial arts temple and led to a small detached house the size of thirty square meters. Once inside, he found an open space with a big casting circle almost the same size as the house.
He liked the wide rectangular windows on all four sides, which gave off an inviting feeling. Saru placed him inside the casting circle with numerous runes inscribed around the it.
Some of the runes looked familiar to him. 'These runes looks similar to what Baldaquin used in his casting circle of truth.'
He heard Saru chant a strange incantation, as the white gorilla Simiavulg placed both his palms in front of the casting circle. It created a white light and Smoke found it to be warm and comforting.
Slowly, he could feel his bones move and shift to their proper place. He could already imagine the bones being reattached and restored.
"So, how exactly did you end up like this?"
Smoke turned around and found the Grandmaster Simiavulg behind him.
He thought for a split second and decided to be as truthful as he could.
"I fell off a tree when I was following the Dikaya guild. That's when Doctus found me and saved me."
"You were following the Dikaya guild? I thought you were their captive? Or was it sacrifice?"
"I was originally traveling alone, headed to your village, but then certain circumstances led me into that predicament."
The Grandmaster raised his eyebrow and gave him a questioning look. "Hmmpf. Of course. The Dikaya members wanted to come and gain our ability. Are you the same as them?"
"I would be lying if I said I didn't want it, but I came to your village with a different reason in mind."
"Really?" The Grandmaster Simiavulg stroked his chin. "That's hard to believe, but I know that you're telling the truth. What is your reason for coming here?"
"I came from Pferde. One of the Witches of Wysteria attacked that village. I fought together with the Centaurs and we managed to defeat Terrabelle, yet it came at a great price. They've lost their military power."
Smoke hoped that by telling the Grandmaster about the events in Pferde, he would raise his intimacy with him.
"I've convinced them to move to a different place in order to avoid the two other witches' revenge. Then I heard that they would come for your village next. I was thinking that I could convince you to leave and join the Centaurs at the place they migrated to."
Since it had given him access to Saruras, he used his Beggary ability once more and hoped for the best.