Chapter 14 - Bonus Round

Frick returned a while later, the little blue goblin holding out the pocketknife for Nate. He wasn’t sure but he guessed it had been an hour or two that Frick had been gone. It was hard to tell but the fire was mostly gone, a few embers still glowing among the ash, so he figured an hour or two was probably right.

He’d spent that time doing two things. The first was reviewing his clothes. Arikanvil had made a comment about Dead Realm material not handling mana well, and he could see the evidence of that. His shoes were starting to come apart. They probably only had another two or three days in them. The same was true of his plain black shirt. His pants were holding up a bit better but even they were starting to show signs of wear. It was going to become a problem sooner rather than later and was being exacerbated by the higher mana density in the Dungeon.

The second thing he had been doing was going over his plan and thinking about how it might not work and why. He had considered trying to boil the lake but figured the creature was smart enough to just climb out before the lake boiled. Another consideration had been to try and lure the monster out to get a better idea of what he was fighting again, but in the end he had decided that his plan as is would function the same way. It should let him escape if things went badly and then he could try again. Frick hovered over to him as he firmed his resolve.

“All set boss man. We ready to get that bag?! I mean mana, just so we’re clear,” Frick announced.

“Are you always going to be this chipper Frick?” Nate asked.

“Only when it comes to mana, ways of getting mana, or planning on how to get mana,” Frick responded with a grin, rubbing his stomach, or where the stomach would be if he were actually a blue goblin.

“You’ve got a one track mind Frick.”

Nate picked himself up off the ground, kicking some dirt onto the remains of the fire. “Let’s finish this then shall we? The sooner we do, the sooner we can complete this Dungeon. Which is step one in my Five Step Plan for settling down amongst civilization and living the good life.”

Nate started walking down the hill, missing the strange look Frick gave his back before the Familiar floated after him.

Nate started taking deep breaths. He knew he was just trying to calm himself. It was easier to accept the previous fights with constructs. They had attacked him first, and besides, they weren’t living beings. Nor was this like with the boar creature. He’d needed to eat. That was just the circle of life. But this time, he was actively looking for the fight. The whole situation rubbed him the wrong way. The logical part of him accepted the necessity and reasoning behind seeking out the monster of the lake. It was bound to die anyway, The System had decreed it, in a roundabout fashion. That wasn’t even considering how it would help Nate develop, which increased his chances of surviving this Dungeon. He needed those rewards. That meant the beast needed to die. He just wasn’t happy about it.

Nate continued to mope and stew the entire walk through the forest. He hadn’t lost his sense of cautiousness and continued to check the trees as he did so, but he could tell he was being half-hearted about it. Nothing new appeared thankfully and Nate motioned with his fingers for Frick to guide them to where the runes were carved into the trees. The blue goblin… no, that wasn’t the right way to think of him anymore. They were contracted to each other. His Familiar, yes, that felt better. His Familiar floated past him in all its gobliny glory and maintained an easy pace for him to follow through the trees. It only took another minute and they had arrived at the shore of the lake.

Frick had set up the trap a little deeper into the valley than Nate had previously gone but he was fine with that. He took a moment to inspect the runes and was happy with what he found. Frick had done a good job, and it only took a minute for Nate to familiarise himself with the rune placements. The runes led between the trees moving five trees deep into the forest, creating a path down the middle. This plan was going to work, Nate reassured himself again. And if it doesn’t I can always run, he thought with a smile.

“You ready Frick?” Nate asked.

“Ready to watch you crush bones and kick ass boss man. Check out my war face!” Frick replied.

Nate turned to look at Frick and found him with his normal, toothy goblin grin. “You don’t look any different to usual Frick.”

“That’s right boss. Because a goblin is always ready for war!” Frick cackled.

Nate snorted, trying not to laugh but in the end he couldn’t help himself. He laughed along with Frick for a moment before calming down, “Thanks Frick. I needed that.”

“Any time boss man. Now get to the crushing. Frick needs his mana fix!” Frick responded.

Extracting a mana gem from his spatial storage, he began to let it flow through his Core, focusing on his Improve Material Skill. This part of the plan relied on the trees functioning like his pocketknife as he pushed only enough to improve the tree around the rune. It cost him more mana than he had expected and by the time he was done raising the sections of the trees with runes on them  to Rare, he had emptied another mana gem. Three down, seventeen to go he thought. Probably about to be sixteen actually. With that thought, he pulled out another gem and began charging all the runes, shaping the barriers, before carefully walking down the middle towards the lake.

Accessing his spatial storage, he walked to the edge of the water. His plan was predicated upon two assumptions. The first was that the monster of the lake could smell blood, or at the very least it could smell corpses. Nate figured there was still blood in the boar remains he was carrying around. The second assumption was that, if attacked, the monster would become enraged enough to chase whatever attacked it. It was time to see if he’d been right.

Dumping what was left of the boar into the shallow water next to the tree line, Nate quickly moved back to behind a tree, pulling two wooden runes out of his hoodie pocket. Activating his barrier, he flooded it with as much mana as he could from the gem. This was the first time he had four Intents to work with and while he kept the shape and distance he spent both his other Intents focusing on making the barrier more capable of absorbing strikes. He didn’t want to get launched into the trees if he could avoid it. The second rune was his Earthen Projectile. He had considered the Mighty Fire rune, but he didn’t want to open up the battle with all his cards on display, so to speak. Who knew if this monster had the intelligence to make plans or adapt after all.

Settling in to wait, Nate let a small smile creep onto his face. This battle wasn’t one he wanted, but at least he had Frick to keep him company now. Even if the Spirit was mana-mad, it was nice to not be alone. He had felt himself trusting Frick already, which was surprising given the short time they had been together. Perhaps that was part of the contract rune? He would have to ask Frick later. His thoughts were interrupted as he saw ripples moving on the lake. It had only been a few minutes by Nate's estimation. So, either there were other things in the lake or that crab had a great sense of smell.

That question was put to rest as the creature made its entrance. Nate watched, fascinated, as a giant lobster looking creature pulled itself up out of the depths of the lake and into the shallows. Activating Identification, he quickly got a response.

Juvenile Freshwater Kraken Lobster: Level 30

Identification – Runic Level 4 > 5

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

The creature was a vivid blue, not unlike Frick, with red eyes and a slight red tinge along the teeth of its claws. Six antennae, or at least protrusions, exited its head between its eyes. Two faced forward and the other four down around what Nate assumed was the Lobster's mouth. The water was probably only half a metre deep where the creature was pulling itself up, but he still found it hard to judge its height, not sure how far its spindly legs were sinking into the sandy bottom of the lake.

He was being conservative when he said it was probably three metres tall from legs to back. That was ignoring the fact that it was probably six metres long, its body ending in a fin-like tail. It was both beautiful and horrifying. Beautiful because of its eye-catching colour and the deadly shape of the beast. Horrifying because Nate knew he was about to pick a fight with this monster, and he had not missed its level. A level thirty. Ten levels above the strongest opponent he had faced, and that fight had been too close for comfort. Nate swallowed some saliva and steeled his nerves, now wasn’t the time for second thoughts. Now was the time for action.

Nate crouched down, waiting for the beast to get closer to the shore. He needed it as far away from the centre of the lake as possible . The Lobster pushed itself forward in a scuttling run, faster than Nate had expected but not so fast that he was worried. It was undoubtedly faster than he was though. He could already tell that. It was getting close enough to the bait that it was time to see how angry he could make it. Mana began flowing into his Earthen Projectile rune, Nate guiding his Intent, focusing on aim, speed, density & shape. He was going to try and really make it mad while giving himself a tactical advantage. The lobster surged the last couple of metres towards the boar's remains, its horrid mouth descending onto the corpse. As its head lowered Nate released the blast of earth, aiming for the most vulnerable spot he could see, the beast’s eyes.

The stone blasted away from Nate. Shaped like a cone and sharpened to a point, it probably weighed around ten kilograms. The unprotected left eye of the Lobster was blown apart in a shower of blue-green blood, the piece of stone firmly lodged in the side of the creature’s head. Nate had expected it to scream or something but instead it reared up, rubbing its forelegs against its shell creating a grating noise that made him wince. Slamming down it turned toward Nate, clearly preparing to rush him. Stage one, success!

Nate turned and bolted into the forest down his path between the runes. He could feel the lobster give chase, its skittering legs smashing the ground and making it shake as it pulled itself out of the lake. As it did so, Nate began the next part of his plan. Nate was rewarded with a crashing noise as the lobster toppled sideways almost immediately as it entered the trees, scrabbling at the air as it tried to right itself.

Nate had figured the size of the creature would make it wider than him. He was not wrong, and the body of the lobster ended up being almost two metres wide. It meant the width between its legs was also wider. He had expected it to be a crab, but this was even better as the Lobster’s legs were spindly and unused to crossing uneven surfaces. An uneven surface was what Nate had created, using ten barriers he’d altered their angles so that they functioned as ‘plates’ you could stand on. However, he’d made them uneven, altering angles and heights to create an obstacle course designed to topple the monster.

He was ready to cheer when he heard a yell from Frick, “Hit the deck boss man!”

Unceremoniously throwing himself to the ground, Nate rolled and found himself facing back towards the lobster as he saw it raise its claw. A moment later a powerful jet of water blasted from the claw, slicing straight through the tree Nate had been running towards. Just great, the bloody thing had a water jet cutter. Nate scrambled back to his feet as he saw the beast try to angle its claw towards him. His enhanced intellect working overtime, he realised its channelling speed must be lower than his. Or that water jet spell required more mana. It had taken the beast almost four seconds.

With that in mind, Nate raised his projectile rune while the creature was still helplessly scrabbling, trying to find its feet on the uneven ground. Aiming carefully, he could really feel the fine motor control improvement from his Stats. He might not be fast or strong, but his Dexterity of thirty six gave him the perfect ability to aim and he was rewarded with another grating sound as its front legs curled in, scraping along its shell. The second eye was gone, a bleeding blue-green mess left in its place.

Nate used the split second of success to jump back behind another tree and pull his barrier up. A moment later the water blast blew through the area, cutting sideways across where he had been before slicing the tree in half. Lying on the grass he knew he wouldn’t have time to get up and move before the tree fell, watching it come down in slow motion. All he could do was hunker down behind his barrier and hope it would be enough.

There had been no sound except the water blast as the tree had been cut, but the forest was filled with the noise of breaking branches and the impact as the tree hit the earth below. Nate found himself trapped amongst the branches and beneath the trunk, his barrier having protected him from being injured. There was no way he could get out with his barrier up.

Nate’s speed of thought let him spend a full second oscillating between waiting for the next water blast or reducing his barrier size so he could climb out. In the end being a sitting duck, even with his barrier up, just wasn’t a winning strategy. With that in mind he focused his Runic Intent on the rune and used it to reduce the size of the barrier to that of a small buckler. Scrambling out from under the tree took painful seconds and Nate couldn’t help the fear flowing through him as every moment he expected a water blast to cut him in half.

“Run boss man!” Frick yelled from somewhere in the trees above.

He pulled himself out of the final branches and turned to see what Frick was talking about. The Lobster hadn’t wasted its time with Nate trapped and had managed to right itself. Back on its feet, now he could see that it could clearly hear him as it turned towards his location. He turned to run, heeding Frick’s advice.

Before he had taken two steps he was thrown from his feet as the ground shook. Tumbling across the ground before rolling into a tree, he was quick to get back to his feet, prepared to continue his mad dash. That moment allowed him to see what had happened. The Lobster had smashed one of its claws into the ground trying to get to him. The indent it had left in the earth was as deep as the one Nate himself had created blowing up a mana gem.

If one of those caught him, he was paste. It was now or never. It couldn’t see but could clearly hear. Nate stood perfectly still, not making a sound as he began to charge the Mighty Fire rune. Focusing his Intents on it, he split them; two focused on the intensity of the fire and two focused on delaying the activation. Distance wasn’t going to matter with what he had planned.

With the rune almost fully charged, Nate raised his other hand to indicate to Frick the time had come. The Familiar started making a racket back amongst the barrier runes. The beast instantly spun on the spot, its spindly legs working overtime before it dashed towards the sound, claw raised. However, the same as the first time, the uneven distribution of barriers caused it to topple over, the speed it was moving at working against it as it rolled onto its side.

Nate cocked his arm back and threw the Mighty Fire rune towards the Lobster. When Nate had explained his plan to Frick, the little goblin had some suggestions. Spirits it seemed couldn’t really be killed. Banished, yes. Sealed, yes. But killed, not on this plane of existence. Even knowing this, Nate goggled as the little blue goblin caught the Mighty Fire rune in its hands and dived at the Lobster’s open mouth.

“One small step for goblins! One giant leap for mana aficionados everywhere!” shouted Frick as he disappeared into the open maw.

A breath later, Nate felt the Familiar Contract in his chest as Frick was banished back to its confine till he’d recovered from the blast. A “temporary banishment” the little bugger had called it. A minor inconvenience he had said, for the price of defeating the monster before him. The Lobster thrashed back and forth for only a few seconds, destroying another tree with one of its claws, as the Mighty Fire rune flash fried its insides. Nate stood still, watching the smoke pour out of the Lobster’s mouth as the smell of burned flesh permeated the air . Good thing he was hungry he supposed as his Notifications started going ballistic and a wave of processed mana flowed into his chest.