As much as Reysha wished otherwise, Apexus did have to wear the mask when they went into the next city. Learning all of the ways his facial features should and should not move was difficult. Apexus’ facial features had too much manoeuvrability. Pulling the corners of his mouth up to the height of his nose was as easy as pulling his lips back to reveal his teeth.
It was best to keep his face concealed, lest he tried to wrinkle his forehead and instead push his hairline back by several centimetres.
“I hope my face fixes itself when I get muscles,” Apexus said, while they left the town behind. “In the way I move it, I mean,” he clarified before Reysha could say that there was nothing left to fix about his face.
The tiger girl’s mouth was already open, so another comment flew out with bantering ease, “How would muscles help your face? Do ya want to beat people up by wiggling your eyebrows?”
“It’s about limiting the movements,” Apexus explained. “When you smile, it tenses and relaxes muscles and sinews. It does that the same way every time. I need that too, so I can stay consistent with my facial expressions. Otherwise, I have to actively think about where my eyebrows go every time.”
“That does sound annoying,” Reysha said, while making a variety of faces. Smiling, frowning, confused looks, surprisedly raised brows, wide and narrowed eyes, the whole program.
“What are you doing?” Apexus wondered.
“Ya talked about my face and now I have to test all of it,” Reysha explained. “It’s like when someone tells ya that your tongue is too big for your mouth or that you are breathing loudly so you become super aware of it… or if someone yawns around you so you… haaaaaaaaaaahhh… do it without thinking about it yourself.”
Apexus, who did not get any of those urges himself, tilted his head and then looked to Aclysia for confirmation. He got it not in proper words, but in the fact that the metal fairy was in the middle of yawning. Despite her not needing sleep, she had been created with an accurate representation of all standard humanoid urges. The slime, on the other hand, (currently) had no tongue, didn’t breathe, and hadn’t evolved to be a social animal in the same sense as humanoids.
“How are you doing, my melody?” Apexus asked, since Aclysia behaved absently.
“Calculating our current finances,” the metal fairy responded. “We are in possession of forty-two silver and three copper now.” She looked over her shoulder. “I am considering if we may have bought a little too much.”
Because the group was so light on living expenses, not having any rent or food costs, money easily pooled in their pockets. After they had sold everything they had recently gotten, they had been around two gold in wealth. To the average person, that was existence assurance for a solid two weeks. For the three of them, it was money for new equipment. A new dress for Aclysia, an extra pair of boots for Reysha, as well as maintenance of her weapons and armour, and a couple of general tools to add to their growing arsenal of things. Also, additional underwear and means to clean it. As cleanly as they tried to be, certain kinds of dirt, sweat for example, tended to stick to clothes.
The only thing Apexus had wanted out of that entire shopping spree were two simple strips of linen that he could use to tie his hair together. The slime found it bothersome for the entirety of the black strands to fly around every time he moved his head. Being confined to a ponytail was a bit better. The girls liked it too, more than they had thought when he had suggested it.
“Not like we’re going to use that money for anything else,” Reysha pointed out.
“I suppose so, but I prefer having a sizable amount of disposable income,” responded Aclysia while they continued their march south. “It gives me a bit of ease.”
They had been out of the desert for about two days now. It had taken them one day to take the air route of it and another for them to approach a city with the wanted level of inconspicuousness. Now they were making their way to the Drowned Altar, one of two dungeons remaining before they could access the one at the centre of Azenia Ra, called the Long Way.
The Drowned Altar would be more of a challenge. Being a dungeon of a higher-level bracket, the monsters inside were tougher than those they had faced previously. As its name implied, it was also partly underwater. The prospect didn’t bother Apexus, he had been born from and lived his early life in water. Aclysia and Reysha would struggle with the environment. They were already clear on that much.
Good news for the trio was that they had thoroughly read the guide and could prepare themselves in various ways, be that by discussing tactics or simply mentally adjust for the potential of water combat. They had also been able to scout out what Apexus would want next and the choice had been obvious and splendid.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The sound of water dripping from the cave ceiling into the ponds was steady and calming. It echoed from both the natural formations all around and the stone bricks that surrounded the ponds and walkways. The Drowned Altar was a typical dungeon, in case of its location. At the heart of a half-flooded landscape laid the entrance to a tunnel that led deep underground. Down there, the dungeon sprawled out in all directions.
The trio had descended several hours earlier and had gotten familiar with their surroundings. That was, at least, the walkable parts of it. Between the drip stones slithered semi-aquatic snakes with a weak venom, their black scales glistening from the moisture in the air, reflecting the light of the glowing insects that hopped around in search of plant life to consume. Proper walkways were nowhere to be found, instead they had to weave through the stalagmites, and so run-ins with those snakes were an ever-present obstacle, but they weren’t so powerful as to serve a proper threat to the three as they searched for the correct pond to advance their dungeon crawling.
As they knew from the guide, the Drowned Altar was roughly separated into two different kinds of segments. Those were the cave areas, such as the one they were in at the moment, and the underwater areas, accessed through the many ponds that were found all across the caves. Any sane landwalker would have avoided hopping into the water if they could help it. Aside from humanoids being, in almost all cases, not optimized for underwater combat, there was also the issue of warmth. The water of the Drowned Altar wasn’t freezing cold, but neither was it warm by any description. It would sap the stamina from anyone inside. There was also the standard water issue of diving coming with the question of breath.
Knowing that mortals would consider all of these drawbacks, the god that had created this dungeon had decided to leave people no choice. The entrance area was filled with nothing of interest. The snakes were simultaneously weak and punished carelessness, making them awful opponents even for the task of training for additional levels. To access more interesting parts of the dungeon, one had to swim through underground tunnels that connected the different cave segments.
As clear as the water was, fighting in it was going to be difficult or border on suicide. The strongest monsters of the dungeon lurked in there. “So, how are we going to go about things?” Reysha wanted to know, once they had found the correct pond. With the help of the map they had bought, they could minimize the number of times they had to dive and aim for the safe caves where the healing fountains were. Regardless, they had to dive. “We just jump in face first or what’s the plan?”
“As the guide describes, we have to consider three types of enemies,” Aclysia reminded the redhead. “A many-toothed fish with a lamp-like appendage attached to its head, a large eel with a venomous bite and a slime with adjustable tentacles. All of them are ambush predators to some degree, so I think it would be unwise to advance recklessly.” She looked to Apexus. “Darling, as previously discussed, I think our smartest path is for you to clear the way and to signal us once its safe.”
“Urgh, but that means we just have to sit here and wait,” Reysha complained before he could answer. “I want action, bubble butt, action!”
“May I remind you of the described appearance and behaviour of the Anklebiter?” Aclysia asked and pulled the guide out of the adventurer’s bag to cite a well-chosen passage. “The Anklebiter is named for its tendency to attack prey after it has passed them, usually catching its victims ankles. It does so with needle sharp teeth that are set in a jaw that make up 70% of the monster’s total body. The bite strength is enough to penetrate even leather boots. The teeth will usually break in the ensuing struggle, allowing one to get away, but drain blood until a person arrives on the other end of the tunnel.” Aclysia took a dramatic pause to put away the guide again. “Blood is not replenished by simple healing spells and taking a break every time you become anaemic would slow us down considerably.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Reysha sighed and conceded. “Okay, I’ll just keep gutting snakes then. At least I can gorge myself around here.”
“I’ll just get to it, then,” Apexus let the two women know and turned to the pond.
“Retreat if it's too dangerous, darling,” the metal fairy called out, before he got into the water. “We can come up with alternative strategies, in case this gets too dangerous.”
“I will,” the slime assured her, his tone free of worry. Because he wasn’t human, the hunting strategies of any of the three water predators didn’t scare him. Bleeding out was not a concern and neither was running out of oxygen or stamina.
With wings barely the size of a hand, Apexus walked into the water. It was shallow at the rim, but quickly dropped. Soon the calming drop sounds all around were replaced with the unique sound underwater. Moving liquid surrounded him while he followed the oddly smooth floor of the pond into the tunnel.
In the absence of illuminating insects, glowing bits of crystals lended their light to the tunnel, creating spots of security between dark stretches. It was about twenty metres long, a considerable but not unreasonable distance for people to dive. A humanoid, particularly the kind that hadn’t grown up swimming regularly, would have been nevertheless unnerved by the prospect. The further one advanced into the tunnel, the further air was away. Anything could have lurked in the darkness and anything would have been more mobile down there than oneself. Humanoids weren’t usually anything but the top of the food chain, but in this environment, they were most decisively not.
Apexus felt nothing of that and took the opportunity to drink some of the water surrounding him. ‘Would be nice if I had something to control my buoyancy,’ he thought, while crawling along the tunnel floor on all fours. Being a solid blob of slime and bone, he stuck to the bottom with ease. ‘I hope the Graplegoo is down here…’ he thought eagerly.
His prayer was heard.
A quarter down the tunnel, his wrist came into contact with something slippery. It proceeded to swiftly wrap around his hand and then expanded. Tendrils sprouted from the tentacle, crawling up his arm. The mass for this was provided by a blob that spilled out of a barely visibly crag, holding onto Apexus with all its weight.
The chimera was curious and dragged its would-be predator into the light. It was a long-winded action, but one he had more than enough time for. Being weighed down until he suffocated wasn’t something that he felt threatened by.
It was, like himself, a slime. The Grapplegoo’s body was made from a light grey, translucent liquid, with a clearly visible, black core at the centre of it. Where Apexus differed from that base template through a vast accumulation of individual limbs and organs, the Grapplegoo stood out through the spiky appearance of its nucleus, a large number of hard, red spots all over it and a beak-like protrusion.
Each spike of the nucleus was connected to one of the red dots through a barely visible bundle of fibres. Each of the red dots, in turn, was the tip of one of the tendrils that extended from the main tentacle, which had a particularly large red dot on its own tip. The nucleus and the hardened spots were the two anchor points for the organs that gave the Grapplegoo its strength to hold its prey. These fibres were exactly what Apexus was looking for. Highly adaptable, stretchable tissue that fulfilled the role of muscles and sinews.
With each passing second, the Grapplegoo extended more tendrils around Apexus’ arm, making it almost impossible to be removed. If it had been capable of higher thought, it would have thought it would have been in for an easy meal. If it had been capable of more senses than touch, it may have been surprised to see the stomach of its prey bloat and deformed. As it was, the Grapplegoo only got to panick by the time it’s watermelon sized body was enveloped by a more potent variant of slime. One of these two had to rely on a beak to tear its food into smaller pieces and that one wasn’t the steadily evolving chimera.
The Grapplegoo tasted like saltwater with a pinch of sugar. Not all that pleasant, it had to be said. Apexus also was mildly displeased with himself for eating a fellow slime in the first place. There was no kinship between them, they were too different beyond the base to be considered to be the same species. Still, like many humans would feel it odd to eat a gorilla, the chimera slime was filled with a fundamental distaste for devouring the Grapplegoo. That it had very little in the way of sustenance didn’t help.
Instinctual dislike aside, Apexus had to eat it and he had to kill it to allow Reysha and Aclysia safe passage. When he had to kill it anyway, not eating it would have been even more disrespectful. Letting things rot was a waste. Prey deserved to be treated with respect, as Apexus saw it.
‘It being mostly water makes it pretty quick to eat,’ the slime thought about the upside and resumed his movement down the tunnel. He would clear it out while he was forming his new Growth. It was going to be temporary for now, but testing things was never wrong.
Thanks for the chapter!
So he gets his muscles from a type of slime with weird tentacle-muscle-slime hybrid. Pretty good.
"After they had sold everything they had recently gotten, they had been around two gold in wealth. To the average person, that was existence assurance for a solid two weeks."
28 silver and 57 copper per day. for the life of an ordinary person (let's say a city dweller), isn't it too much? "When one iron dagger costs 1 silver coin." A solid week is: payment for a place of living, 3 meals a day and that's it. WTF?
These are too wild leaps of the economy on one not too large leaf, which, without haste, can be completely bypassed on foot in 4 months, while moving through the wilderness.
In the Middle Ages, in the villages in general, money was found only with the heads of the villages in order to pay the lord for the use of land or to mediate in the exchange of villagers with wandering merchants. And this is if money was found, since at least 75% of trade was done by barter, and not by currency trade, if there was any trade at all.
Even if you don't take into account the barter system. A standard exchange would be:
1 copper coin (maximum 10 in case of drought, since there would already be a deficit higher and they would not be sold at all) for a bag of grain or flour, which after processing is enough for about 1 day of food. This is from 14-140 copper coins for bread in 2 weeks.
10 copper coins for a hotel (100 with a dense population) (which is not necessary for a local, since there is a house) - 140-1400 copper for 2 weeks.
10 copper coins for meat (1-2 pieces per day) (100 if rare) - 140-1400 copper in 2 weeks
1 copper for vegetables (10 in drought) 14-140 copper for 2 weeks
10 copper for tax per day - 1400 copper in 2 weeks
Bottom line: only 44.8 silver coins in 2 weeks of existence under bad conditions.
Of course, this is only a rough inspection, but according to the previously mentioned economy in the world, this is clearly closer to reality than 2 gold in 2 weeks.
Admittedly, I treat economy as an after thought in this story (at least for the moment, because its not really a focus while they are one the road all the time).
Putting that aside, you putting out numbers relating to the middle ages is, uh, confusing to say the least. There's way too many differences to draw any kind of sensible comparison.
To name a few:
1. There is no divinely ordained overlord and, more importantly, no serfdom
2. Resurces, food in particular, aren't as scarce on a world that's an eternal, fertile Spring.
3. Health is less of an issue due to the presence of magic
4. A steady influx of new coins and random luxury goods comes through adventurers returning from dungeons
5. It's just not the f*cking medieval age?
Now, I don't know what "previously mentioned economy" you are referring too. I assume you mean the 1 silver dagger. Which I don't recall where that's from (a quick search of my word document yields nothing, but it was just a quick search and I may have used the wrong key words). If that's out there, then I would have to take a look at it again and potentially fix it as something that stands out aggreggiously even in an economy that's mostly handwaved.
I also don't know where you get your travel numbers from. Not even saying they are inaccurate, I would have to check, but I haven't mentioned with one syllable the amount of time the average person would need to travel somewhere. Best you would have is how long the group took for specific stretches and these three aren't exactly your run of the mill John Woods.
In summary: your analysis, while it does point at the fact that the economy isn't thought out in detail, is pretty poorly thought out. Please refrain from your sensationalist tone or put more work into it. Keep comparisons to what applies.
I do appreciate your interest.
@Funatic I understand that my tone may be strange, especially considering that I use Google Translate. So sorry if he seemed too harsh.
But if an ordinary resident can only live for 2 gold for two weeks, something looks strange. Considering that our group of characters spent about a week in the dungeon (path and passage) and even with their significantly reduced costs, they only made a profit from the campaign 2 gold.
Wouldn't the profession of an adventurer, then, be meaningless, with such a level of danger for such a small pay? This is the main reason why all this seemed too strange to me.
The work has not yet sufficiently disclosed the attitude of other strata of society towards adventurers. And in general, in general, there is not enough disclosure of various strata of society and their relationship to each other.
Previously, this was not so important, but the moment is approaching when this information should be presented to the reader, otherwise, for example, to me personally, it will constantly seem that something is missing.
He is getting closer due to the fact that Apexus is getting closer and closer to the humane appearance and behavior. And accordingly, communication with the humanoid community should begin soon.
@Funatic This is another post on a slightly different topic.
And by the way, technically speaking, the level of development of society is at the level of the Middle Ages, which is why I call it the Middle Ages. Therefore, I am accustomed, like many other people, to organize information.
By the overlord and taxes, I mean in view of any governing body that definitely exists (at least in the known worlds of the work), since even under theocracy, to manage a group of people, a governing body is needed that organizes activities.
At least at the moment I see 3 organizations: Local authorities. Adventurer's Guild. Church.
But you are right, and I was really also wrong in many ways.
Due to the eternal summer, food shouldn't cost too much, and the constant influx of coins from the dungeons can really cause wild inflation and currency depreciation.
Besides.
"Silver coin for an iron dagger" was mentioned in chapters before / during the journey / conquest of the "Verdany" dungeon. And there it was explained by the lack of copper and bronze coins on this sheet.
I got the distance in a logical way by reading the map: comparing the distance segment and the indicated travel time and then by calculating. In the end, their speed of movement in the terrain will not differ catastrophically from each other. Although I forgot to take into account the fact that the world is a ball at that time due to the appearance of the map.
Considering the fact that the trinity only move at night in a world that in my opinion has more time of day than night, they have less time to move compared to ordinary people.
Also, given that the group is forced to hide and bypass any settlements of humanoids, roads and other travelers, they spend about the same time moving through the same segment of the path as an ordinary person on transport (cart / horse). Until they move through absolutely impassable terrain, through which you can only go through flight.
Therefore, I thought that the speed of traversing the world for an ordinary person could be this. But ... if we exclude the comparison, then 4 months this will be the approximate speed for which they can go around the world (in the square of the map, above the ground).
By the way, their movement speed is really little described, since there is nothing to compare it with. And speed is a relative value, which makes it difficult to give a definite answer.
@ZeleniyKrokodil The average adventurer doesn't just go dungeon diving. They go fulfill local requests and take mercennary work. Our trio also doesn't barter for proper prices. They sell to the first person that take something.
I am sorry, but "society is on a similar level of development as the middle ages" is just patently false. They have a similar aesthetic, yes, and in terms of physical technology they might be similar but on the axis of life expactancy, possibilities, access to magic, education, meritocracy and moral technology they are completely different. Society is not the same.
The Leaf is not run by the Church. The Chuch has a presence on the Leaf. The government of the Leaf was never gone into. For the most part, local communities govern themselves and large cities have a council of influential people and/or elect a major. Large citites would probably have customs, but these are details that are currently not of import.
The "silver coin for an iron dagger" you mention was not in regards to daggers, but to throwing knives, which are much smaller, contain less material, and dont have grips that need to last. In short: they are cheaper to make.
Your assumptions on travel are wrong on numerous levels. I don't know where you got "the trio only moves by night" from, but its simply false. Them moving by night is, if anything, an exception. They have been moving by day in numerous scenes. They also use roads, as was shown on numerous occassions. They also fly fair distances, which is particularly important when it comes to the water crossing.
@Funatic Firstly,
Firstly, I never lied, but simply made a mistake, because I was sure that I was telling the truth.
At the expense of the government, we say the same things, just in different words. Since even the government of the city-state is still a government. And what kind of management system they use is their business. But the fact that it is this is a fact, otherwise where would the guards of entries / exits from the list, etc., come from?
At the expense of their journey, I only proceeded from the feelings I received from the work. Since the reader knows less than the writer about the work, such situations are common. And the writer, depending on his goals, can eliminate or save them.
Now, at least to me, it is much clearer that the group's rate of performance for the purpose of making money is much worse than that of ordinary adventurers.
@Funatic
And finally, at the expense of the Middle Ages (on this particular sheet for example).
Which corresponds to the Middle Ages from what I've seen:
aesthetics (pretty much consistent)
mechanical technologies (in fact, this is what I call the main technological tree chosen by mankind)
Learning (no reason has yet been presented as to why I can’t count this way, since there were no signs of high-class learning yet)
moral technologies (I did not notice any special differences from the Middle Ages)
What does not correspond to the Middle Ages:
healing skills (this is really cool, but ... does it look like they are doing it just because the system helps them? very unclear)
Which shouldn't be compared because of the fantasy component.
health and longevity (they are filled with magic, this is natural if you constantly eat high-performance food and breathe clean air, and it is easy to heal damage, this is natural)
access to magic (to be honest, this is not much different than access to the ability to light a fire, etc.)
Those that do not make sense to compare at all:
possibilities (they are just different, they simply cannot be compared in any situation)
meritocracy (this is the rule of the strong, not the worthy)
@Funatic
Eventually:
Technological level of development:
mechanical - middle ages
magical - not enough information (but not yet higher than the middle ages)
biological - the future due to the device of biology, which can directly affect energy by bypassing material tools (outside the body)
Cultural level of development:
society - middle ages
information exchange - revival (there is a system, but the system does not reach the level of the telegraph)
exchange of resources - the Middle Ages or worse (the presence of active monsters / bandits (there is a criminal world, so there are bandits) \ natural disasters (in this case, these are only parasites, but they are out of the list)
Art - before the scientific era (the basics of why and what they like are not clear)
Moral level of development (it basically never changed):
personality - best (slime) really high, but also as usual / average as usual / worst (Apoto) as usual
Free will is abhorrent, when there are explicit and unambiguous ideals (gods) and free fanatics following those ideals (inquisition) as they perceive them, there will definitely be a strong restriction of free will at the expense of organizations such as the inquisition. Apoto is one of the examples (not the church with the Inquisition, but free people should pursue him for his atrocities), another mucus (the hunt is appointed by a divine organ, which should not be opposed without a worthy reason for this).
The ability to choose a positive path is disgusting, when a person simply follows other people's ideals (ideals of the gods), it is much more difficult for him to work out his own path, and the lack of free will does not help this.
@Funatic I like to do detailed evaluations of other works, because thanks to this, I myself learn to write. If it looks rude, then I'm sorry it was. But I believe that in most cases, detailed evaluations of a work can help the author look at his work through the eyes of the reader.
But in general, the work is going pretty well so far, and I have not noticed any irreconcilable logical errors. Even what I thought was a mistake with the money state was at most a significant mistake, but it turned out that I was mistaken. Although I would still advise you to go over this topic again when Apexus and the group finally enter society.
In fact, writing a work with such a wide range of standards must be difficult. Since each time you move to a new location (sheet), you will have to adjust these standards based on the situation on the sheet and its surroundings. But teleportation will at least solve one of the problems of linking to past standards.
I hope this conversation was useful not only for me, but also for you. I will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.
@ZeleniyKrokodil Your interest is appreciated.
I will end this discussion here with simply stating that numerous things you list there seem to be relying on your memory, which is, of course, tilted towards the case you find most likely. If you ever do a re-read, I'd urge you to pay attention to details that would prove you wrong. Because, for many points, I definitely wrote them in.
Have a nice day-