The ear-ripping screech of the Silksong Moth made Percy grind his teeth. Its body was made up of tiny reflective scales that caught the moonlight in the dark forest. Its six long legs ended in barbed claws that gripped tightly onto Thalos' shoulders.
Percy was vaguely reminded of a melting pile of mold when he looked at its face. Multiple thin mandibles vibrated from the black, disgusting mass of warm flesh that was its face.
Its red eyes darted nervously around as it put all its strength into moving Thalos from the earth. Its silver wings flickered like flashing light, moving fast enough to fill the silent forest with violent winds and an eerie buzzing sound.
Thalos kept watching Percy casually, his jet-black hair blown sideways from the wind. His eyes danced with amusement as he watched Percy.
"Silksong Moth. They are rather deadly. Using powers of ice and mist to weaken their prey, then illusions to trap the poor beasts in their own minds. This one failed to understand that I was hiding my strength and came down without first casting its mist over us."
Percy remembered everything he had read about the monster. It was graded Rank 2 for its abilities and was a good source of magical materials. Blankets and cloaks that would not only protect you from cold but also illusions.
The cloak he was wearing right now was one such protection coat. He would like to have its wings and silk pouch for his tests with Hermetics.
He already carried some to test his magical technology. He pulled the Spellbolt from his shoulder and pointed it at the Moth.
The Spellbolt was designed to look like a crossbow to give the people of this world something familiar to use. Percy's Spellbolt was crafted from white wood treated with vinegar to improve the multi-layered circle's efficiency.
The intricate lines on the bow glowed blue as he drew mana from its rudimentary Spellcore to fire a lethal round.
This was the version two Spellbolt, so it had three types of shots: Non-lethal, Lethal, and Disable. The multi-layered circle drew mana and filtered it through his intent to select a mode of fire. Then it fired.
A sharp crack filled the air as a glowing blue bolt of mana streaked across the air, illuminating the entire forest for a brief moment. Then it blasted right through the Silksong Moth's head, sending a splatter of slimy green fluid over the forest floor.
Its batting wings slowed and its six arms lost strength as it fell to the ground. With a brief thud the monster was dead.
Percy watched its body, bow still pointed and ready for another shot. His breath was silent and his shifting eyes were dead calm.
Thalos watched his son and then the dead monster with a bit of shock. It was already dead? He expected a struggle, he expected he'd have to take off one wing so the monster couldn't escape.
"That weapon of yours is going to make wars a lot faster."
"Until innovation rises to challenge it of course."
That was the ebb and flow of invention. You're either learning from the past to build something new or you are creating something to change a present situation.
The Spellbolts would have come one day. Percy suspected that they had similar technology in the era of the old empires, just not as sophisticated and optimized.
The second version of the Spellbolt could gather energy and fire in less than a second. Older versions of such technology took a lot of time to charge up before releasing a shot. The only thing his Spellbolt had in common with the historical versions was the need to charge the bow for nearly an hour.
And he was already coming up with a fix for that with Version three. There he would improve the Spellcore to allow for not only fast charging, but also more personalisation opportunities.
He slung the white bow over his back and walked closer to the Silksong Moth. Thalos seemed to recover from his initial shock and walked over, pulling out a knife.
"Come on. I'll teach you how to harvest the most important pieces of the beast. If you're prepared to haggle, you could get three gold coins from everything here."
Though he grew up in more or less luxury, Percy made sure to constantly try to understand the value of money. He would need those skills to manipulate it properly after all.
In Demetria, where food was abundant and clean water was now just a given, a single bronze coin could buy a loaf of bread. With one gold coin could buy a house, then the other two golds he could buy everything you need for a bakery.
"Well don't mind if I do," Percy said as he took the knife and followed Thalos' instructions to the T.
"There, a bit deeper between the bones. Okay, now sever the wing and pull it out gently. I'll wrap it up."
After that they moved towards the belly of the creature and Percy sliced it open after a few moments of intense struggle. He really needed to increase his strength stat. He found the glands inside the body of the moth that it used to make silk, but there wasn't much.
"We'll find more silk if we can find where its young are hiding," Thalos explained. "Cut out that organ too, it's very tasty and sells pretty well too. We'll probably eat it tonight though."
The green blood of the creature was sticky and smelt like spoilt rice. Percy choked and gagged throughout the entire process. He couldn't believe they would be eating anything that came out of that monstrosity.
How abysmal it must feel to be a butcher. He wrapped up the meat and promised himself he would wash it when they went to get fish for Barty.
Then he rose and looked around, the eerily dark forest didn't change much. The silver moon made it easier to see.
"What now? What else are we hunting tonight?"
Thalos turned up at the moon. They still had some time, he wanted to get back and make sure Barty ate before he slept. He had planned to only teach Percy how to hunt Silksong Moths today, but he might be able to squeeze in another predator that lived in this area.
Thalos rubbed his sticky hand against a tree, saying to Percy.
"We should find the Moth's young first. Harvest a lot of its silk and sell it at the Carmen town a couple days from here. After that, we'll hunt Ashfang lizards."
Percy got a little excited by that. Ashfangs were a crucial component to the lighting tools that he and Terra were trying to come up with. She was more good with the material science of Hermetics, but he'd tried to make things work and make some progress during the trip.
The system screen popped up suddenly.
He checked to see if he got any optional quests from Nyx or Aether, and found something he did not expect.
━━━━━━ ✦ Optional Quests ✦ ━━━━━━ Googlᴇ search novel fire.net
– Complete the Second Version of the Spellcore (Given by Aether): Your inventions continue to impress the god of possibilities. He humbly requests that your next version of the Spellcore improves on its conductivity to avoid burning the Aetherite conductor. Rewards: One Rank 4 customizable reward, twenty additional stat points.
– Find the Forgotten Temple (Given by Nyx): Find the forgotten Temple of Demetria, and claim her inheritance. Not much to say here, but I'll speak directly. This will determine whether you return to Dema in ruin or not. Rewards: One Rank 5 customizable reward, fifty additional stat points.
– Hunt down two Ashfang Lizards (Given by Tartarus): The god of depravity and perversion delights in your work. Gather four Ashfangs. Rewards: One Rank 1 customisable reward, five additional stat points, the knowledge of how to make the Crimsonfire curse mark.
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