Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Arachnids
Pllrch.
Rael pulled his blade out of the carcass of a saber wolf, glancing at the other carcasses he’d slain — a pack of unranked saber wolves. Their name was obvious enough: hulking wolves with brown fur and two long fangs baring from their maws.
Rael wiped the blood from his face. It’s been three days since he’d slaughtered the entire goblin camp, and he didn’t stop there either. He’d gone on a killing spree throughout the entire area, even marking out different zones — some he’d claimed and some had creatures he hesitated to face, at least not yet. Which eventually led to him stacking up too much meat for one man.
He strapped the blade to his waist, not bothering to cleanse it of the blood that still clung to it. His entire body was drenched in blood anyway.
Rael moved on to gather all the carcasses before bringing out a tiny pouch — a magic pouch to be precise — one he’d gotten from the ranked goblins. Not just magic pouches but other goodies as well. A good bounty; he was even wishing he’d find another goblin hideout. But of course, he knew the rarity of ranked goblins — after all, that one was a prince. While he should have been worried about the king or some sort of revenge, he wasn’t, because:
One — there was no known goblin territory across the entire Borderlands, meaning there wasn’t the necessary strength to establish one.
Two — goblins reproduced just like those nasty wormrats, so as much as he was a prince, he was definitely of little importance.
And three — he had started to feel some itchiness along his veins, a weird feeling, but he had hints at what it might be.
He summoned his interface.
[Host Interface]
[Name: Rael Drakul]
[Age: 22]
[Gender: Male]
[Race: Human]
[Rank: (Tier I) Iron Fighter Rank]
[Aether Capacity: 11.3%]
[Aether Limit: 13%]
[Strength: 11]
[Agility: 9]
[Endurance: 14]
[Will: 17]
[Intelligence: 9.3]
[Aether Reserves: 6.2]
[Aether Manuscript: Warmaster Scripture I (Phase: Iron Path Initiated)]
[Aether Techniques: Blood Rend Technique]
[Aether Spells: Eye of Critic]
[Quest Logs]
—
Tier 1: ?????Unavailable??????
—
Tier 2: Clear the Surrounding Area
Status: Incomplete (49%)
Objective: Remove immediate threats and cleanse your claimed land.
Reward: Low-Class Inscription Manuscript — [Boundary Ward Sigil]
—
Tier 4: Survive the Withered Nights
Status: Dormant
Trigger: In 17 days
Objective: Endure the Withered Nights — a time when corrupted essence floods the land and sanity rots.
Reward: ???
Rael’s eyes focused on the tier 4 quest.
"Just 17 days more... this isn’t looking good at all." He really had to quicken the clearing quest because honestly, he wasn’t going to try his luck in surviving the Withered Nights without a Boundary Ward Sigil. Even territories with hundreds of Aether users still hid behind their walls, only defending them in the last hours of the Withered Nights when the Withered Spawns went berserk from hunger — and that alone killed dozens of Aether users.
He sighed, taking only one carcass into the magic pouch, not bothering with the rest. He only took this one because he liked the fur — just wanted to keep it as a trophy, a weird hobby he’d developed of recent to pass away boredom. He turned, heading back to his territory — well, he was already in his territory already, just not at his living place, because he’d noticed his Dominion sense seemed to be growing, though slightly, very slightly. He suspected it would reach this spot in a few days, which was exactly why he’d cut down all the trees around the perimeter. He was planning on building a wall anyway; after all, a sigil would need to be placed on one.
A few minutes later, he reached his camp that was lit up by burning lamp posts he’d made — just logs with holes where dried roots were put to burn and light up the four corners of the camp. Whether it would attract something, he was wishing it did — after all, there was a reward for winning a battle in his camp.
He moved to his house of alchemy, which now held a few bottles within — potions he’d gotten from the goblin shamans. Though most of them were useless and, well... odd, he kept them on a rack just for appearances. Walking toward a huge boulder at the center he’d turned into a butchering table, he poured out the contents of the pouch as piles of Aether beast corpses appeared on the boulder.
Seeing all the carcasses, he couldn’t help but smirk to himself.
"Who would think a month ago I would have been their dung by now... just sadly most of them will be a waste."
Rael sighed. He felt pained looking at all the precious beast parts that could have been sold for grimcoins. After all, one of the richest businesses across territories was, of course, beast trade — dead or alive.
Aether users and top families used beast trade for a living and spent resources just to get their corpses, and look at what he was doing — turning them into beef jerky.
"So damn sad... well, soon. Soon enough." He turned to leave the house of alchemy before he was swallowed by the dream of what he could become by selling all the beasts he’d slain. Besides, he needed to wash all the blood and grime off him.
.....
Hours passed as Rael sat within his quarters, eyes closed as he breathed in and out in a slow rhythm for minutes before finally opening his eyes, now refilled. He turned his gaze out the window at the three moons of Goldoria. Tomorrow, he was planning on venturing into a marked zone since that was the only way to speed up the clearing mission. But what freaked him out about this marked zone was that, though the creature — or well, creatures — that dwelled there were weaker than the rest of the zones, he knew he had to apply caution. In fact, this wasn’t even a risk he’d take if not for the Aether recovery potions he’d gotten from the goblins. Though he had no idea how much they could refill, the necessity to speed up the mission was there, because he was sure if he cleared the zone — that nest — he would almost, if not completely, finish the quest. After all, that species was always abundant in number, far more than those vermins. They were arachnids after all.
"Damn spiders."