Tess had expected to argue and convince the village. She didn’t expect them to agree and send her off with a pack of provisions.

“Everyone saw what you did on the wall,” Esti had said as she handed Tess her pack. “Not much use arguing against facts.”

“I’ll bring him back safely,” Tess answered.

“I’m sure of that,” Esti said.

Tess thanked the rest of the villagers for their help and made her way to the village edge.

Woohoo! A new quest! We’re off to save your savior. I think that’s worth… maybe another 500xp? Yeah, five hundred is a nice round number. Now, onward to awesome!

 

Tess sighed. At some point, she would have to find a way to mute this god. He was like a younger brother enraptured with their older sibling, always following them around and inadvertently getting on nerves. Only in this case, Tess couldn’t ditch them somewhere.

The woods ahead loomed despite the afternoon sun’s cheery light. Probably because of the obvious hole carved through the trees. The foliage around the hole curled with sickly brown corrosion. A gaping maw to hell that only the foolhardy would take.

Tess steeled herself, rearranging her current skills from archery back to survival. The boxes interrupted her.

Hey! You should have enough to feed your skills with that 70xp! Why not get that Druidry upgrade and talk to animals? Or maybe a bonus to Archery?

 

Tess grumbled, but opened her skill list and purchased 7 tier one packages. For once, Novus was right. She had enough skills to unlock some secondary effects. Effects which could mean the difference between life and death.

The slot machine appeared again—

“I don’t have time for the animations,” Tess growled.

Which was quickly replaced by a wheel with seven flappers in various places. It spun once, curtly, then deposited all seven skills into Tess’s vision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey you got some nice luck for a tier 1 package.

 

Tess ignored him, opening her skill list to determine what she wanted to remove as she jogged to the woods. Linguist Fanatic was her first choice—the skill being useless to her—then all the other fighting styles except Blind Fighting and Archery. Eventually, she settled on one Mana Reserves and one Qi Reserves as the final two to feed to Archery.

“So how do I feed these skills to Archery?” Tess asked.

You can let me know which ones or you can open your skill list and drag the skill you want eaten over the skill that eats it.

 

Tess did so, opening her skill list and placing her chosen skills into Archery. There was the sound of a garbage disposal, which made Tess’s hair stand on end, and a cheery tune.

Archery’s secondary skill is unlocked! Have fun blasting monsters!

 

The woman waved the box away as she trekked into the forest. Greenery loomed around her like a concerned parent, advising her to stop treading deeper into the ghastly sick trail left by the Jaria. Tess ignored the feeling, using the time to drop Onomonopia and grab Super Hearing again.

The world opened with a concerto of buzzing as thousands of insects just out of hearing were suddenly all too present. The percussion sound of branches cracking ahead clued Tess into how close she was, and the woman brought her jog into a slow run.

The off-white form of the monster appeared ahead. Tess grabbed her bow, notching an arrow and Activating Ancestral Guard. The arrow flew, striking the Jaria and sticking in its thick membrane.

The monster didn’t stop moving.

Tess cursed and continued to dash in an attempt to overtake the monster and find Mirari. She moved out from behind the Jaria’s trail and into the woods, hopping over trees and other foliage as she tried to get a glimpse of Mirari.

The smoky light of a torch gave his position away.

“Mirari!” Tess shouted. She leaped over a fallen log and moved to his side.

The Jejende looked over. “What are you doing here?” He hissed.

“Helping you,” Tess answered between breaths.

The two looked stubbornly at each other, neither refusing to yield as they traversed the wood. Tess, however, was used to people trying to push her out of things, and had therefore perfected her stubborn stare until it was an art form in and of itself.

Mirari relented. “I’m leading it to the cliff ahead. The fall will be enough to break the shell. All we need to do is keep it on the path.”

Tess nodded and moved out of the Jaria’s path. “I’ll make sure nothing else gets in the way.”

She fell into a rhythm, her legs steadily pumping as she diverted her focus to anything that might come upon them. Luckily, prey animals reacted here in similar ways to those on Earth. Nothing wanted to stand in the path of a hunting predator.

The duo moved for some time, keeping their pace up as they weaved through the trees. The Jaria followed, slowly growing until it reached the tops of tree branches.

A seam started to appear on the Jaria’s membrane.

“It’s going to split!” Tess shouted.

“We’re almost there!” Mirari pointed a steep incline just ahead.

The man scrambled up the hill, using his free hand for stability. The Jaria stopped at the bottom of the hill.

“It’s not climbing!” Tess shouted.

Mirari turned to see the monster stopped at the incline. It was obviously attempting to climb, but the monster’s round body prevented it from doing so. The ground beneath it churned, the monster eating all the bits and pieces of moss and bugs digging through the dirt. As it did so, the split in the monster grew.

Tess shouted to Mirari. “Get out of there! Toss the torch away! We’ll find another way to kill it.”

As long as Tess had some time, she could re-equip her skills. With Mirari protecting her it would be a cinch to pierce the monster.

Mirari looked over to Tess, then back to the cliff.

“Oh, don’t you dare you—”

Mirari turned and continued making his way up the hill.

Tess groaned and stowed her bow. “Self-sacrificing idiot.”

She kept an eye on the Jaria as she made her way to the cliff. It looked more like a conjoined twin than a singular entity now, the membrane only held together at the base. Then, with a sickening pop! the monster split. The one house-sized Jaria had become two elephant-sized Jarias.

But the monster didn’t stop there. More seams appeared on the two monsters, and the two quickly split into four, then eight, then sixteen, continuing to split until they once again reached the size of a cat.

The swarm turned as one toward the hill.