Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (42 page)

On board a five-by-three-meter rowboat he borrowed from Darius, Smoke was sitting comfortably and slowly rowing towards Verbrannt. He was following the flow of Murray, a wide and deep river that split the continent of Wysteria in half by traversing from the northern sea of Merfroide to the southern sea of Merchaude. Igniz was orbiting above him and monitoring their surroundings.
He had called Sierra earlier to tell her that he needed some time alone and will be taking a winding trip back to clear his head. He expected to get an earful from her, but to his surprise, she only told him to be careful and that she and the others will be patiently waiting for his return.
Traveling on the river, he immersed himself in its mysterious spectrum of colors. The deeper waters displayed shades of brown, green and blue. The monsters that hid in these parts changed their color in accordance with the color of the water. Based on Smoke's acquired knowledge, some of these monsters were the three-meter-long green stingrays, which were able to jump out of the river and appear to be gliding. They used their stingers to attack their prey, both underwater and above it. Then there were the two-meter-long tigerseals, whose bodies had the markings similar to a tiger's and their heads looked like ones of tigers as well, but their tails were horizontal flippers.
Aware of these dangerous monsters residing deep within the river, Smoke had made preparations beforehand. Since most aquatic monsters have low Lightning resistance, he sharpened his weighted chain and sickle, arrows and an ordinary short sword against the Electro stone.
Eventually, Igniz observed several striped animal bodies swim past the rowboat. Smoke used his Cunning of the Dire Fox to get a better understanding of what he was up against. He equipped his power chainsaw bow and waited patiently.
A tigerseal leapt out of the water and tried to take a bite out of him with its sharp canines. He reflexively lowered his center of gravity and swayed his body back to almost ninety degrees. After its failed attack, the tigerseal dove back into the river.
PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK
Eight electric arrows struck the ripple in the water with precision. Moments later, the tigerseal's body floated to the surface, its life bar displaying (0/37,000 HP). Smoke had taken one out after a single round of arrows, but he sensed six more tigerseals swimming directly under the rowboat. He hunted down all six of them with relative ease but still got injured in the process.
'These monsters may be below level 80, but I still need to be careful.' he reminded himself.
He collected seven seal skins and chunks of meat before resuming his voyage.
A few hours passed and his thoughts were only of the grandeur of the Murray river. He saw some poison dart frogs lazily eating the mosquitoes, along with Permiana dragonflies feasting on the same frogs near the riverbank. He was far from those monsters, so they left him alone.
Then, his Cunning of the Dire Fox picked up a group of ten stingrays up ahead. Unsure of the level of danger they could pose, he decided to proceed with caution. The sight of these majestic three-meter-long monsters leaping out of the river and flapping their pectoral fins was mesmerizing. Smoke thought they looked like birds flying out of the water, for a few seconds at least. He carefully rowed alongside them, ready to pick up the bow placed on his lap at a moment's notice.
SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH
Smoke was slowly getting drenched, as a good amount of water went his way each time the stingrays would dive in. They remained docile despite his presence, so he surmised that even though these monsters were huge, they weren't aggressive. He opted to leave them alone, as he somewhat enjoyed their company.
He was able to relax and have a leisurely ride for the next hour. The setting sun was gradually giving way to the dark shades of the night sky. With his satiety bar at dangerously low levels and Igniz as his only source of light, Smoke decided to make camp for the night. He broke away from the stingrays and rowed to a forest patch near the riverbank to his left.
With Cunning of the Dire Fox, he observed that there were no hostile monsters nearby. He tied his rowboat to a sturdy sycamore tree and started gathering firewood. Smoke had Igniz ignite the campfire while he skillfully cut the seal meat into cubes before putting it into the boiling pot.
Both of them enjoyed the cubed seal meat. With his satiety bar filled, he told Igniz to scout the nearby area and only to engage low-level monsters that aren't in a swarm. He trusted his dark ember sprite to fend for himself while he logged out for the night in Zectas in order to get two hours of sleep in the real world.
                                         

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Lush green sycamore and cottonwood trees greeted Smoke as his eyes adjusted to the virtual reality world. "Igniz! I'm back, bud." he called out to the dark ember sprite. His symbiote came flying less than thirty seconds later and orbited happily around him, cheerfully greeting him upon his return to Zectas.
Smoke reached out his hand and patted Igniz on the head. As he did, he looked at his arm and suddenly remembered the feeling of Horrabelle's nails deep in his flesh. Pulling his hand back, he held the area below the wrist tightly.
'Tromperie was merely a setback. It was not a failure, but a precursor to my delayed success.' Smoke chanted positive mantras in his mind in order to drive out his frustration.
With one deep breath, he cleared his head. He then opened his backpack window, took out the seal meat and started chopping it into nice, even cubes. He needed to prepare a meal in advance, so he wouldn't have to make a trip to shore the next time his satiety bar gets low.
Igniz orbited around him, which helped calm him down as he cooked their meal. He smiled at the dark ember sprite. "Thanks, bud. I'm glad you're around. Although, I feel that if you could talk, things would be completely different." he said.
Smoke sharpened his weapons and readied his belongings. With everything prepared, he untied the rowboat from the sycamore tree and pushed it into the river. A poison dart frog sitting on top of a driftwood attacked him with its tongue, but he easily dodged it. Igniz quickly shot a fireball in response and blew both the driftwood and the pesky frog out of the water.
Calmly rowing along the river, Smoke enjoyed a couple of minutes of serene nature as he felt no monsters nearby. However, he noticed that this was unnatural and could only mean that there was something farther up ahead. He signaled his symbiote to fly in front of the rowboat and scout for potential danger.
Using Symbiote Vision, Smoke saw blue scaly humanoids with gills where their ears should be and fins on top of their heads. He instantly recognized them as Murlocks. They appeared to be blocking the way to one of the many branches of the river. Remembering his last encounter with these creatures, he eagerly took out the specialized earmuffs and equipped them. He counted a little more than a hundred of them, but even though there was a lot of them, their life bars only had 14,000 HP at most.
After a couple of minutes, the monsters finally came into view. Their females started opening their mouths. Smoke assumed that they were using their Siren Song ability, but the sound-blocking earmuffs protected him from it. He decided to pretend he's affected by the Siren Song, and remained seated and still as his rowboat drifted towards them.
The murlocks swam to his rowboat and pulled it to the shallows. They lifted him up and carried him in his seated position. The monsters gathered closer as they energetically jumped and danced. 'Looks like they are celebrating their DarkElf meal.' he thought. His eyes carefully checked the monsters and he discerned that they were still clueless of his mobility. As soon as he was taken to the center of the gathered group of monsters, Smoke swiftly took out his lightning-enchanted weighted chain and sickle and activated Cyclone of Slaughter.
SHIIING KLANG SHIIING KLANG SHIIING KLANG SHIIING KLANG
Sixteen afterimages of his sickle and iron ball circled around him with incredible speed. His weapon sliced through or bludgeoned all monsters within fifty meters. The murlocks' life bars of 14,000 HP were getting drained after only two hits.
Fifteen murlocks that managed to escape the range of his weapon's deadly ability tried to run away. Igniz, who remained high above them all this time, targeted the fleeing monsters with fireballs. However, his attacks only dealt 2,000 points of damage to them, which allowed thirteen murlocks to escape.
After Smoke's Cyclone of Slaughter ability ended, he collected the spears and fins the monsters dropped. It took him a while to gather all of them. He wasn't surprised to see that Murlocks gave him little experience; it only proved that he was well above their level.
Minutes later, Igniz flew to him and glowed in a bright red light. This was a signal indicating incoming monsters. He looked in the direction the murlocks fled in and found around a hundred Lamias charging towards him. He relied on dried mandragora flowers in order to defeat these humanoid monsters with serpent-like bodies before, but now he felt that he could deal with them himself.
As they got closer to Smoke, numerous Water Balls from the lamias came at him. He dove to his right and immediately switched to his white metallic staff. He produced a concave purple Manatl with his left hand and absorbed the incoming water-based attacks.
PLOP PLOP PLOP PLOP SCHILD PLOP PLOP PLOP PLOP
A single glacial spike stood out among the Water Balls as it smashed into his Manatl. He noticed that a two-meter, dark green lamia was leading her sisters as they marched to him. They continued with their ranged attacks and Smoke started to back away. Igniz was firing his fireballs from above at the outermost lamias, but just like with Murlocs, his damage against them was only 2,000 points.
Less than a minute went by, but it felt longer to Smoke. The lamias unceasingly kept attacking him and gave him no room to breathe.
Several Water Balls went past his concave Manatl and dealt 2,500 points of damage. His life bar displayed (163,750/176,250 HP). As his Manatl started to show signs of dispersing, he signaled Igniz to fly directly in front of the Lamia boss.
"Use the blinding light!" Smoke yelled as soon as Igniz got into position.
Immediately, his dark ember sprite released a bright light, temporarily Blinding the lamias and stopping their ranged attacks. Smoke canceled his concave Manatl and transferred the gathered energy into his white metallic staff. With the aid of his Lunar boots, he leapt over the Lamia boss and struck her head with his energized staff.
CRAACK
The dark green lamia's skull cracked wide open and her life bar showed a depleted value of (0/120,000 HP). A notification window popped up.

Smoke swiftly picked up the items dropped by the boss monster.

Igniz then engulfed the lamias in a sea of flames as he created multiple firewalls among the clustered lamias. The monsters were caught in a daze upon seeing that their leader was defeated in a single strike.
Fighting his way through the bewildered monsters, Smoke positioned himself smack in the middle of the lamias, hindering them from using their ranged attack. They tried to hit him with their claws and tails, but Smoke would either block or evade their melee attacks. With a concave Manatl gathering energy on his left and his white metallic staff hitting the monsters on his right, Smoke kept fighting the throng of Lamias
Despite their high resistance to Fire, the river monsters were still damaged by Igniz's multiple firewalls. Added with their inability to hit Smoke, the surviving lamias tried to make a run for it. Smoke quickly erected a circular earth wall around them and snuffed out their chance to escape. Smoke and Igniz continued their onslaught until all of the lamias were exterminated. It took them less than twelve minutes to finish the job.
'I guess this is what a difference of forty levels does.' Smoke thought to himself as he recalled how he had faced these monsters when his level was still in the early sixties, almost losing Adder in the battle against them. However, he also knew that it wasn't only his level that played a part in this victory, but all of his accumulated combat experience, items and abilities as well.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he remembered how miserable he felt after the previous battle against Lamias. Adder lost an arm because of Smoke's folly, but he also grew stronger from that mistake. Smoke reaffirmed his resolve to continue to grow stronger and learn from his encounter with Horrabelle as well.
                                

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Smoke decided to replenish his HP and MP and was sitting on a branch of a sycamore tree that extended over the Murray river. He conveniently tied his rowboat to this same tree as well. His dark ember sprite was patrolling above the trees, on a lookout for any potential danger. Smoke peacefully enjoyed eating the cooked tigerseal meat. While eating, he thought of checking out the items he got from the Lamia boss.