The Land: Monsters, Chapter 1 SNEAK PEEK

Hello my wonderful patrons!  I know its been a while, that's because life gets real sometimes.  I've transititioned in my work life, had some family issues come up which thankfully have all worked themselves out and a few other things happen.  Through it all, I've been working, but the books just aren't ready yet.

Anyone who was here before Predators came out remembers how I had to move the publishing date so many times.  Because of that, I made myself a promise that I wouldn't say a date until I KNEW it was the right one again.  

Despite all that, I've never stopped appreciate ya'll.  So, before its ready lol, here is chapter 1.  I need to be super duper clear that I am NOT going to start releasing other chapters until they are ready for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that I've already had other authors steal my concepts and ideas, I've had to hire lawyers... It was a really negative situation all around.  So until my baby is ready for the world, she'll stay underwraps.

I hope ya'll understand, and I hope you enjoy this first chapter of The Land: Monsters.

Either way, I appreciate you!

Now without further ado, Chapter 1 :)

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CHAPTER 1 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC

Richter cursed. He was in a lair! Not only that, he’d finally found out where the high-level monsters were hiding. The ichorpede skittered towards him faster now, clacking its pincers together in anticipation. It was only fifty yards away. The chaos seed ran to the left and grabbed the only weapon available, a gnawed leg bone. He had no idea what kind of creature had left it behind, but it was as big as a Louisville Slugger. Part of him realized that this bone was only here because the ichorpedes had been able to bring down such a large beast. A bigger part of him told that part to shut the fuck up! It was game time. 

As the giant insect closed the distance, Richter began to prepare. Minor Chitin Carapace thickened his skin and increased his natural armor by +4. Weak Haste boosted his speed and Weak Mirror Image made two copies of himself. He summoned a saproling and spider, evolving them both with Chaos magic into stronger versions. With the ichorpede only ten yards away, he dismissed his night vision, then cast Grease and Weak Flame in quick succession. The entire circle of brown gravy sludge lit up, enveloping the giant insect in fire.

It reared back with a hiss of rage, its head towering five feet above him. Richter was raising his makeshift bone club to strike when he heard a voice that made his mouth drop open in shock. Floating out of the darkness came a small winged creature only a single foot in height. His body was ash grey and black bat wings flapped behind him. The expression on his face was both bored and annoyed. When Xuetrix spoke again, his tone was a perfect match. 

“I said stop playing with those bugs, human. You made me a Vow, and I’m here to collect.” 

The moments of distraction cost Richter dearly. The ichorpede, though damaged by the flames, dove through them. It shot towards the chaos seed’s figure, it’s powerful pincers snapping shut on his unarmored body. To its surprise, the figure it had attacked shattered into countless shards of light a moment before disappearing. It was not Richter, it was merely one of his mirror images. Wasting no time, the real Richter spun and slammed his bone club on the head of the ichorpede with all of his strength. 

The hardened boned slammed into its armored shell and forced its head to the ground. For a single instant, Richter cheered in his heart, but then he was forcibly reminded of the necessity of powerful weapons when fighting high level monsters. Though the force of his strike forced its head down and away, it caused no actual damage. Before he could perform a second swing his impromptu bone club, the high level monster of the depths struck again, and this time, it’s aim was true. 

A moment later, he was knocked off of his feet. He landed heavily, the rough rock digging into his bare back. The force of the massive insect’s charge propelled him along the ground. Skin and blood were left behind in a gooey pink smear. For the second time in as many minutes, Richter was reminded of the horror of battling without armor or arms. The tattered remains of his clothes offered no real protection. This was not a movie where the action star never really got hurt. This was relief and it was real agony flaring with him while he struggled for one more minute of life. 

The ichorpede’s serrated mandibles surged towards his face. There was not a doubt in Richter’s mind that it could rip half his face off if they managed snapped shut. As he fell, his hands shot up and just managed to grab the pincers. The sharp spikes on the inside of the mandible’s tore into his hands. Red hot blood flowed in small rivers on to his face and chest. The scent drove the ichorpede wild and it surged forward with a high pitched keening noise. 

As bad as the tearing pain was in his hands, and this was not the worst agony. The monster’s acidic spit flowed faster as it grew lustful and blood drunk. The scant drops ofo Richter it had tasted were only enough to make its terrible hunger soar. The green tinted acid form its mouth immediately started eating into Richter’s hands. A large drop fell from its mouth onto his chest with a sizzle, and he could smell his own flesh cook while it dissolved his flesh cell by cell, sinew by sinew. 

Richter screamed in agony as the skin and then muscle of his chest began to melt and run. His Strength attribute was just enough to keep the insect from stealing his life. The lich’s Curse of Eternal Servitude had been weakened when Singh suffered the final death, but it could still damn Richter’s soul if he died in the next seven days. The scream of pain issuing from his mouth began to be mingled with rage. After everything he had gone through, he would not let his story end like this!

The ichorpede kept surging forward trying to bite Richter’s head free of his body. As it pushed, it’s mandibles would come closer before the chaos seed was able to force them back. The continued to skid across the rock ground leaving more of the young lord’s tissue and blood behind. Richter managed to get his left knee up between himself and the monster, but in response, it plunged some of its countless legs down onto his right side. Five of its spike like appendages sank into chest, abdomen and leg. His health dropped by more than twenty points and fifteen as the legs sank in to the first joint of the insect’s dagger like extremities. If he hadn’t cast Minor Chitin Carapace increasing the natural armor of his skin from 0 to +3, the damage would have been even worse. The high leveled monster’s poniard legs were even stronger though. 

Richter howled. 

If he had been wearing his wood sprite armor, he might have been able to ignore the attack long enough to counterattack. Without it though, his body was being savaged, and his spell thickened skin was scant defense. Less than ten seconds into the battle, and he was already afflicted with a Bleeding debuff. As the sharp ends of the ichorpede’s legs were still in his body, Richter’s debuff had no time limit. The chaos seed’s life literally oozed away as he fought the level thirty-one insect, struggling to just survive another minute. More drops of acidic spit fell onto his chest and neck, inflicting more damage and sapping his will to fight. 

Though Richter did not know it, most men and women would have already succumbed. The pain of feeling one’s own flesh liquify, after all, could easily drive one mad. His own Secondary Attribute Resilience was several times higher than most peoples of The Land.  Resilience was a person’s ability to withstand the worst of circumstances.  The average person had a base value of +1. His own was +3.6, more than three times greater. It was in part due to his various life experiences, but mostly due to the boon he had received for eating the First Fruit of the Quickening. While others would have panicked, Richter’s own mind became oddly still now that his life balanced on a razor’s edge.

The first thing he thought about was Xuetrix. Casting about, he saw that the imp had faded back into the darkness of the cavern. Richter cursed in his own mind, but was not surprised. How much could you trust a demon? Next, he turned his attention to his two summoned creatures. The spider and saproling had evolved into a Mesmer spider and thorn element respectively.  Both of these evolutions were magic based meaning they couldn’t stand up to too much close combat. 

Even if they could, they were on the far side of the fire. That was where they needed to be. More ichorpedes were spilling into the cavern. Several were coming through a large doorway at the far end of the underground gallery. Others were coming through holes in the stone, crawling on the walls in defiance of gravity. He needed his summoned creatures to delay the others if even for a few moments. 

Those mental calculations took place in an instant. Richter was no stranger to battle at this point. He had lived and died and killed and saved more than he could easily count. He was without any true weapons or armor, but he was not without resources. He had his items. Eight rings, a bracelet and his necklace. All of them power talismans. Baring his teeth to keep from screaming, he accessed his Ring of Shadow Shift. Looking up at the monstrous face of the ichorpede, he thought, fuck you!

You Ring of Shadow Shift cannot transport 2 beings!

“No!” he grunted. “Fuck me!” Richter’s mind raced. Whether it was because the massive insect’s segmented legs were piercing his body, or just because he was in contact with an enemy, his ring wouldn’t work. He strained to keep the ichorpede’s pincers from savaging his face. It grew closer with every surge. Even as he fought a losing battle, it’s acidic spittle fell on his chest and face. His health literally dribbled away. As he struggled, he was reminded of his first life and death struggle in The Land with a wolf in the Forest of Nadria.

In his first days as a resident of The Land, he’d taken a quest from the Hearth Mother to kill diseased wolves. He had been attacked and born to the ground. Only a bracer against the wolf’s throat had kept it from biting his face off, just like the ichorpede was trying to do now. He’d killed the wolf, but had died minutes later when the other members of the pack tore him apart. It had been one of the more traumatic and horrible experiences of this life. The fear had nearly crippled his soul, broken his mind. He’d only been a level two noob, nearly helpless.

Despite the corollaries between his position now and then, he was not the same person. He had burned settlements, enacted revenge on those who had dared harm him and used the bones of his Mortal Enemy to adorn the central building of his village. He was not weak. He was not prey. He was not even a predator. He was Richter. He was a monster!

With a shouted strain, he pushed against the monstrous centipede’s head and gained a scant inch of relief. At the same time, he shuffled through the notifications he had gained during the destruction of the Mausoleum. Some shocked and amazed him, others confused him, but he still minimized them all to the side to be viewed later. They were not what he needed and could not help him that instant.  That was, until he heard the sweetest sound any man or woman could ever hear. A snarling grin appeared on his face and he let the prompt wash over him.

TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING! 

You have reached level 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. You are awarded the following points to distribute:

Per Level

Total

Stat Points

As a Chaos Seed, you gain 6 Stat Points to distribute to characteristics instead of the   usual 4

30

Talent Points

As a Chaos Seed, you receive 15 Talent Points instead of the usual 10.

You receive an additional 15 Talent Points from your Profession and Specialty for having a   100% affinity in Enchanting

190

Chaos Points

You receive 8 Chaos   Points due to your Blessing by the Lords of Chaos

41

Skill % Points

+25% to the   skill of your choice

+125%

There was a new line at the bottom of his leveling sheet that he didn’t understand.

Further leveling blocked until Evolution branch determined. 

Richter had no idea what that meant, but that didn’t matter to him in the slightest. He had Character Points to burn. A deep and malignant chuckle rumbled in the depths of his chest while points were poured into Strength. 

Six points arrested the forward movement of the ichorpede. Ten let him push it back. Pain flared in his body as his muscles and their attachments to his bones and flesh were enlarged and augmented. Suffering had never been so sweet, and the insanity in his laughter grew stronger. Fifteen let him force its pincers wider and he was able to force himself into a sitting position. Pain ripped through his body and it underwent changes to accommodate his increased Attribute. His musculature bulged and his bones strained. If his Constitution was not already so high, the changes might have ripped and torn his body into a grotesque parody. A hunchback of the underworld, strong, but imbalanced. Thankfully he had already invested heavily in Con allowing his body to handle the changes. 

The ichorpede hissed in surprised fury and redoubled its efforts. Richter was slowly pushed back towards the rocky ground as it brought more of its several ton body to bear. His Strength was now twelve points higher than the thirty-foot long centipede, but it outweighed him by a great amount. Between that and his precarious position on the ground, he was not able to gain the upper hand. As he waged this struggle for life and soul, more insects flooded the cave system. His summoned creatures went to work. 

Facing the largest concentration of monstrous centipedes, the mesmer spider released its magic. It stood three feet tall on its sharp sleek legs. It had only one eye that crossed its arachnid face like a prismatic band. The bejeweled organ lit with an inner fire before a conical beam of light shot forth. The five ichorpedes caught in the beam were entranced and froze in place. The spider scuttled forward and tried to bite them with its poison fangs, but was unable to penetrate their armor. 

The thorn elemental joined the fray as well. Casting Entagle roots broke up through cracks in the stony ground. Though much less effective than if it was cast in a forest, the evolved creature’s magic was not weak. Inch wide green vines ensnared the bodies of two ichorpedes that were within the ten yard AoE. The insects hissed and snapped at the plant tendrils, breaking them with ease. More came however, and the thorn elemental followed up its first spell with another. Yellow particles filled the air as it cast Sleep Pollen. The spores were inhaled by the ichorpedes, stilling their actions to a certain extent. The high level monsters were not easily quelled and only one fell asleep. 

Using its last offensive ability, the elemental shot a poison thorn at one of the bound ichorpedes. It struck a lucky shot, threading between armored plates. The poisonous dart sunk into flesh. The giant insect hissed as its HP started to fall, but its health barely fell. With half its mana gone and all of its skills on cooldown, the thorn elemental moved to engage with another ichorpede rushing towards its master. It would buy Richter all the time it could with its three foot tall body.

Richter did not have time to pay attention to the valiant efforts of his summoned creatures. With some regret in his “frugal” heart, he invested the last fifteen points in the Strength. He had not wanted to invest them all into this one stat, but if he was miserly, his life might end right here, right now. This was not a time to worry about the future. With the points allocated, an honest to god bellow ripped itself from his throat. It was deeper than any yell he’d ever remembered issuing before. Power flooded his body as it acclimated to his over all Strength nearly doubling in the past minute. His shoulder’s broadened, his arms and abs became a topographic map and legs bulged at the ruins of his clothing. 

Suddenly, the straining battle he had been waging seemed silly. His hands had been wrapped around the ichorpede’s mandibles, fighting desperately to keep it from biting through his face. It had been all he could do to hold it back. Now though, it felt like he was fighting against a child. With a wild grin, he tightened his grip and yanked his arms wide!

The left pincer was forced wide and back. Richter felt something crack in its mouth. That was nothing compared to what happened on the right. The chaos seed ripped the mandible completely free from its head. The two foot curved bone dripped acid from the pointed end and gushed grey blood on the other. The ichorpede squealed, a surprisingly high pitched sound that Richter had not heard it make before. His left hand was cut as it reared back in agony. He barely noticed.

While it whipped its head back and forth in horrible pain, the chaos seed rolled clear. Rolling over his broad shoulders, he pushed up in a handstand while he did, easily launching himself up and onto this feet. The ichorpede had reared up teen feet off the ground. Gushes of grey ichor sprayed side to side from the hole Richter had left in its face. For the moment at least, it was ignoring him as it was wrapped in its own personal hell. The chaos seed did not miss the opportunity.

With one hand, he wove a quick spellform cast Minor Slow Heal. With his Life Mastery, Richter’s spell was 50% stronger than it would have been otherwise. His Intelligence was also high, and Limitless maximized the bonus his attributes gave his spellpower. The extra 36.5% boost to his magic meant that over the next minute he would heal about one hundred and sixty points of health. The golden glow suffused his body, bringing relief from pain and a fifty-six point drop in his mana.

That done, Richter grabbed his bone club and took stock. His health was improving. He’d lost over three hundred HP during his scrape with the ichorpede. The monster’s sharp legs had wrecked the left side of his body when it had pierced him. If his skin hadn’t been thickened due to his Minor Chitin Carapace spell, the damage could have been far more extensive. It had only given his skin another four points of defense, but that had stopped the monster’s legs from hitting any major organs. With eight hundred and twelve max Health Points, he’d been able to endure the pummeling. Within the next minute, he’d restore half of what he lost. Richter would give a lot for a health potion, but that was just one more thing he had to go without. His stamina had dipped as well during the struggle, but it was still three quarters full.

His mana was another story. Preparing for the battle, he’d cast a good deal of buffs. Coupled with summoning two creatures and evolving them, he’d spent nearly seven hundred mana. His mana pool was respectable at seven hundred and seventy-four, but he’d still suffered a large headache from depleting his MPs so fast. Richter had long since become accustomed to such minor annoyances. What he could not ignore, was the fact that he needed mana to power his spells. 

The saving grace was that he had invested a large amount of points into Wisdom. A value of forty-five, coupled with his Ring of Flowing Thought, let him regenerate thirty-two mana a minute. Compared to his initial regen rate of six MP per minute, it was blazing fast. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t good enough to let him keep slinging spells nonstop. It would take more than twenty minutes to completely refill his tank. He didn’t have twenty seconds before he was in battle again. 

The two minutes he’d been struggling with the ichorpede had given him sixty mana, but he’d used that to cast his healing spell. Currently, he only had eighty-six points of magic to spend. That was enough to cast two rank-one weak spells or maybe one rank-two minor spell. That would not be enough! He’d stored a spell in his Ring of Spell Storage that he might be able to use as a trump card, but it could only store novice magic, level nine or below. He needed time! 

A cracking noise drew his gaze and he saw that his thorn elemental was being ripped apart. Two inchorepedes had clamped onto it and were pulling it in two directions. It’s health dropped quickly. The mesmer spider was surrounded and was only seconds from being destroyed. It did not have nearly the same defense as the evolved saproling. Worse, the ichorpede had oriented on him again. It threw the length of it body towards him. Cursing, Richter dove at an under it. A moment before it made contact, he fell into the silhouette it cast backlit by the flames. He was in the shadow realm. 

The first thing he did was frantically look about. This was the second time he’d broken his promise. The shadow realm was a place of intense danger where even low level monsters could steal his life. Not only that, but it was filled with disease that could be resistant to his magic. He’d promised that he wouldn’t reenter the realm unless he was at his full strength. There just hadn’t been a choice though. Thankfully, his luck held. There weren’t any monsters right next to him though that didn’t mean there weren’t any close by. For the moment, he was safe. 

The body of the icihorpede fell through him, having no effect except Richter feeling a faint resistance as they passed through each other. Richter paid it no mind. Until his time in the Shadow Realm elapsed, it shouldn’t be able to hurt him. He glanced at the new icon in his vision. It was the silhouette of a man with the number “5” next to it. That was the time he had before he was ejected from this dark space. Time moved differently in the shadow realm. The last time he’d been inside it had been in the Barrow of the Chaos Serpent. When he had tamed the mauler, he’d had about five seconds of shadow time for every real world second. Hisako had told him it was variable though, and the further removed he was from sunlight the longer the conversion would last. Keeping an eye on the timer, he started running. 

Richter ran past the injured ichorpede and was about to run through the grease fire, but he felt heat even in the shadow realm. The fact that the fire could effect the shadow realm just remined him of how much he didn’t know about the magic he was using.  He could just hear the Hearth Mother’s lecturing tone. It wasn’t that she wasn’t right, but he had limited options at this point. 

The chaos seed detoured around his grease fire and kept running through the cavern. A screech of pain made him look back.  Three ichorpedes were attacking and eating the one he had injured. Everything else in the dungeon looked like it was moving through honey. He saw the wooden body of the thorn elemental snapping and saw a slow spray of fluid come from the mesmer spider as two of its legs were bitten off by an ichorpede. Its abdomen was also a melted mess as it suffered from the monsters’ acidic spit. 

The summoned creatures had not lasted long, but they had bought him time. Initially, Richter’s goal had been to run out of the stone doorway, but as he watched, another five ichorpedes spilled through. He couldn’t take the chance of his time in the shadow realm running out when he was in the middle of enemies. Looking around, there were small holes pockmarking the walls, but half of them had ichorpedes crawling through. He was not a huge fan of enclosed spaces already, but being trapped in one with acid spitting monsters took his aversion to a whole new level. There was only one exit that didn’t have ichorpedes streaming through it. A large and incredibly ominous hole angling down into the ground. 

The further he ran from the fire, the more gloom occluded his vision. Especially in the dim Shadow Realm, it grew increasingly hard to see. Thankfully, while most magic was suppressed in this realm, Light and Dark magic worked fine. As he sprinted to the hole, he cast Night Vision. Black energy coalesced around his fingers during the one second cast time. The spell only cost five MP. In the midst of a battle, every point of mana could count, but it was more than worth the price.

Richter’s view became an overlay of green and black. Even the green was muted by the color suppression of the Shadow Realm. The dark hole became much easier to see through, and the chaos seed discovered why no ichorpedes were streaming out of that particular exit. The expletives that flooded the still air around him would have made an orcish sailor proud. All he could hear in his mind was Solo saying, “This is no cave.” 

The entire passage was lined with teeth.

#LITRPG #ALERONKONG