“He’s alert,” an amused voice stated.
Tom looked up at Everlyn. She had been watching him while he was in the system room. He couldn’t feel any drool, but he knew how slack-faced he would have appeared. Tom tried to object, but his words caught in his throat.
He coughed.
Michael’s hands immediately helped support him. “Easy there.” A waterskin was passed to him. His muscles protested, but they worked, and his mind registered his surroundings. He was clearly within the shelter. What looked like someone’s sleeping hide was directly above him. Thick fur on barely treated leather, two hundred contribution points from memory. Someone had stitched it to part of the high-quality fabric that went into the canvas tent. That was closer to a thousand.
Tom internally wanted to condemn the largess, and the waste involved with squandering the precious resource on something as mundane as camping equipment. However, it was hard to express those feelings when those luxury purchases were the only reason most people were alive.
With his muscles protesting, he took a couple of sips. His stomach grumbled in complaint.
“You with us?” Michael asked.
Tom lowered the waterskin and nodded. It was whisked away from him, and then with a flex of his will, his soul-bound mana crystal appeared. They were safe in the shelter. He could afford to take some risks. He pushed twenty mana into it. Not emptying his reserves, but reducing them materially. Based on his notifications and what he had heard while delirious with pain, he thought he had a good grasp of what had happened more broadly, but they were only educated guesses, which meant they could be wrong.
“What time is it?” Tom whispered. While the camp was not fully silent, it felt like people were sleeping and everyone else was talking in hushed tones in an attempt not to disturb them.
Michael handed him a stiff bit of leather that had been converted to be a food plate. “About three hours since the sun fully set.”
Tom looked down at it curiously. In the limited lighting, it was hard to see, but by touch and feel the ‘plate’ seemed to be like the leather inserts you could find in cheap armour. The type that was a cloth with pockets in them that contained boiled leather to add protection without the need to shape the equipment to the person. Then he studied the food dubiously.
Once more, the clash with his expectations was stark. He had expected the camp to be overflowing with fresh meat. Instead, there were two strips of jerky and… he prodded the mass on the other side of the plate. Dry, crumbly, with occasion sharp points and with very little weight.
Everlyn chuckled. “Yep, fried insects. The poison stingers have been removed. They have alchemical uses, and once we get the auction house functioning, they should turn a tidy profit. The rest of the body is protein, so dig in.”
He tapped the plate.
Michael shook his head sadly. “We were short of plates to store and serve food on. The armour this came from did not protect against the wasps.”
“I don’t want to know, do I?”
“You don’t,” Michael admitted hurriedly.
Tom took a bite of the jerky.
“I personally thought the insects were better,” Michael warned.
“Me too,” Harry agreed.
The jerky was cheap and bad. He washed it down with water and then grabbed a handful of insects and shovelled them in his mouth. They crunched with next to no taste, apart from a hint of pepper. They were unpleasant, but not offensive like the jerky.
“It always feels good to eat something that almost killed you,” Michael said with a self-deprecating laugh.
Tom washed down the mouthful with a small sip of water. “People died, didn’t they.”
“That they did. Eight.”
“Shit,” Tom whispered.
“Yep, but without you. Us.” Michael waved.
Tom looked at who was around him and included in that general ‘us’ group. Harry, Everlyn, Sven, and Thor all crowded in and were part of the conversation.
“Along with Toni, Clare, and other healers on and off were also critical. Though being fair, a few people tag-teamed in and out on the physical clean-up duty.” Michael nodded seriously. “No, without you, Harry,” he tapped his own chest, “and Everlyn, I reckon at least half the camp, if not more would have perished.”
He finished his mouthful of bugs. “Toni?”
“The air mage,” Michael answered. “She could create windy areas that forced them over Harry’s traps. Very burst contributions, though.”
“I know she saved everyone at the start, but did she keep fighting?” Tom asked.
Michael nodded. “Yes. She was one of the good ones. Got stung multiple times but kept coming back. Jeffrey too, he’s a bit blinkered toward those close to him, but he and Joline got everyone settled.”
“Screw the bureaucrats,” Everlyn quipped and patted his shoulder. “They didn’t face the wasps. Toni, on the other hand, cleared the wasps off you constantly to give your healing relief.”
Harry shook his head. “She got stung, too, every time she helped like that. The bastard things would immediately aggro on her.”
“But it was necessary,” Everlyn told him. “She would clear them, and we would cover part of you up. Lower the surface area they had available to sting you. It gave you a chance to get on top of the poison again.”
“But eight dead?”
“Yep.” Michael’s voice was grim.
“One mound?”
“Hive,” Michael corrected. “But yes and no. Only one hive sent a single wave, but I reckon you were thinning the numbers of a couple of other hives.” Michael looked troubled.
Tom put the plate down. There was still half a piece of jerky, but his stomach was not up for eating any more. The insects he would pick on - they weren’t making him nauseous. “More of the same tomorrow, then?”
“The hunkering down, yes.” Michael answered. “The deaths, no. Our shelter will be better, and Harry can get twenty traps going at once. Between that and you being an insect magnet, the rest of us should be safe.”
“Insect magnet. Yep, my enmity with them is five.”
Michael whistled, impressed. “It’s not just Jeffrey who hates you, hey.”
“Low blow, low blow,” Tom quipped.
There were appreciative chuckles around him.
“I’m not sure how it reached five.”
Everlyn offered him some more water. “That’s a lot, though I once ground my enmity up to eight.”
“What?” Tom gasped, sending water flying out of his mouth.
She giggled. “Yep.”
“What were you doing? Trying to commit genocide?”
“They weren’t intelligent, so not genocide. Drive them to extinction, as it turns out… yes. But that was accidental. It wasn’t deliberate.”
“What do you mean?” Michael asked because Tom had another mouth full of insects.
She laughed. “They were monsters with a loot table that not only contained a complete set of reagents for a healing potion, but they also dropped the major parts of a body tempering lotion.”
“So, driving them to extinction was accidental?” Michael clarified.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” she said, making a funny voice at the end. “They were ugly and smelly, and hunting became so easy. By the time I reached enmity of eight, they were coming at me from almost half a kilometre away and were too puffed and exhausted to fight me when they arrived. And I didn’t have to enter the swamp proper to kill them anymore.”
“Wait,” Tom said, suddenly remembering the earlier conversation. “Did you say we were planning on bunkering down tomorrow?”
Michael nodded.
“Shouldn’t we try to get out of this place?”
Michael laughed. “How? They’re super aggressive during the day. They’re less active at night, but they’re still out there. And we tested it after dark. Lights attract them, which makes moving when it’s dark almost impossible.”
Tom glanced at the wisp of light that was illuminating their small area. If light was dangerous, that didn’t make sense. “Why?” He pointed straight at it and then at another nearby one. While he had certainly appreciated the convenience, he could have eaten the wasps in the dark by touch.
“They’re dim and,” Michael tapped the leather above them. “We’re blacked out in here.”
“Seems strange to bunker down. I assume Existentia has moons–”
Everlyn held up three fingers.
“–then we don’t need lights to move around.”
“Too dangerous,” Michael muttered.
She put a hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Michael’s right. While it’s about as light out as earth on a half- moon, that’s too dark to travel easily. The ground isn’t as forgiving as you think.”
“How did you check?”
“I took advantage of your enmity, of course.”
“Wait, you guys knew about that?”
“Everyone knew. They would be flying in straight lines get to within twenty metres of you and then spin at right angles to come and get you. I stayed within that attraction range, and they zoomed on by ignoring me.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
He felt rather than saw her shrug. “Against smarter animals, sure. Enmity isn’t perfect, but against wasps, I was pretty safe. Plus, if I got stung, I could always heal. Anyway, it let me do some scouting. Admittedly only within forty paces of you, but in that small area I found natural divots in the ground. I don’t know what caused them, but if you step in them wrong, they can break ankles. Almost perfectly shaped for that, which makes think it might be a GOD’s manipulation as opposed to natural.”
“Dangerous to say that out loud,” Michael suggested.
“Bah,” she stuck out her tongue. “We can speculate however we want, and it’s not like I cursed the GODs, so there’s not going to be a blasphemy penalty.”
“I wouldn’t even go that close,” Michael repeated stubbornly.
Everlyn rolled her eyes. “There are hard lines I won’t cross, and that didn’t get near them. Anyway, there were those holes and a thistle that was more poisonous than the wasps. And who knows what else is hidden further out.”
“We’re stuck here,” Tom concluded.
“No,” Michael shook his head. “We’ll find a way out. But if we panic and run straight away, people will die unnecessarily. There is time to wait for a couple of days and assess our progress. With,” Michael waved at the shelter, “this protecting us, we can afford to delay, get stronger, and eventually we’ll come up with a solid strategy to deal with the wasps.”
“The plan hinges on me acting as bait, doesn’t it?”
Michael slapped him on the back. “That’s why you got double rations.”
“That was double rations?”
Everyone nodded. Feeling guilty, he picked up the final half piece of Jerky and started chewing.
He was exhausted; and while his titles were interesting, he didn’t want to talk about them now. “I’m going to sleep.”
“Haven’t you been doing that all day?” Sven asked and guffawed.
There were hisses of annoyance.
“Quiet, people are trying to sleep,” someone grumbled from the other side of the room.
Everlyn chuckled at the look of irritation on Sven’s face. “It wasn’t even a funny joke.”
Sven glowered, and that made her laugh harder.
Admittedly, silently.
Tom had not been joking about his tiredness. All that healing had exhausted him, so he laid down, and just like he had for the last thirty years, he fell asleep instantly and slept lightly. The hard dirt was better than the rock caves he was used to, but he woke repeatedly. The quarters were cramped and a slight shift of anyone nearby roused him; or worse, the clink of metal had him planning out the coming fight, with his heart pounding. Five hours later, he gave up the futile attempt for good. Normally that was more sleep than he needed, but because of the broken nature and potentially his lower vitality he felt fatigued.
The exit to the shelter was obvious, and Tom headed over there, keen to get outside into the open air. It was dark, and when he glanced up, he couldn’t see any stars. Was that just how Existentia was, or were clouds responsible? It was impossible to tell, but Tom could not remember the world ever being this dark on Earth. In the trial, sure, but not in the real world. There was a dark silhouette with him an arm’s length away.
“The clouds rolled in about an hour ago,” Harry commented.
Tom didn’t bother nodding because it wouldn’t be able to be seen, anyway. Instead, he stretched out a hand and felt the ritual-charged air surrounding him. “Mana regeneration.”
“Yep.”
Harry had established a ritual right outside the entrance to the shelter. That had to be deliberate. “I assume there are energy drain rituals further out?”
“Six,” the Harry shadow answered.
That number did not surprise Tom at all. Just as he had guessed when their group was giving introductions, Harry was a hard and motivated worker. “And you’ve been out for over an hour.”
There was a grunt for an answer and then a pause. “All night.”
“Do you not need to sleep?”
Harry chuckled. “Everyone needs to sleep, but I’ve a job to do, so the best I’ve achieved is frequent micro naps.”
“Why? Are the draining rituals that important?”
“That’s our guess.” He felt the other man shrug. “The council thinks it takes pressure off the shelter. They’re probably right.”
Tom moved out of the way of the exit and sat down.
Harry nudged him. “Are you charging your crystal?”
His crystal had fifteen mana in it, and he wanted it as full as possible before daylight came and he became besieged once more. Ten mana disappeared into the crystal. “Of course.” His skin flickered as bugs landed on it and were fried.
“I’m glad you’re here. Means I only need to maintain three rituals, because they’ll come to us.”
“What happens when the rituals expire?”
“The wasps will get their energy back and fly away.”
“Oh.”
Harry chuckled. “Twenty minutes before that, the guards clear them.”
“How?”
“Three people have a see in the dark spell, and there’s one on each shift, and they keep the spell active on all the other guards. But with you here, they’ll concentrate around us, which gives us a lot of flexibility.”
“Great.” Tom’s tone conveyed a different emotion. After all, his enmity levels meant the wasps would come to sting him. Sparks flew out from him. “Ouch.” His Touch Heal fixed the area the damn thing had got a sting in before it died.
“Oh yeah. I imagine that’s not pleasant.”
“I’m not sure you’ll need the rituals. After all, I’m the bug zapper.”
“I’ll keep them.” Harry did not sound at all convinced that Tom would remove the need for them.
“I was too tired last night to look, but I want to consider upgrading my Skills. Can you watch?”
The Harry silhouette nodded, and with permission given, Tom dropped into the system room.
The cool metal of the spartan room greeted him. It was familiar, and it grounded him. An entire day surrounded by people had been taxing — even if most of the time he had been semi-conscious on the ground.
He stretched luxuriously.
There was no one in here. Tom smiled and then turned to his work. There was experience to spend. The question was whether there was anything he could buy to make the upcoming fight easier.
From a moment, he ummed and ahhed about what to do in the safety of his own head.
“No point procrastinating.” He smiled ruefully. “Show affordable items to fight wasps,” he ordered.
The wall shimmered, and options appeared.
Wasp Sting-Proof Body Suit (Common)
Rated to stop stings up to rank 3. Each sting reduces durability by rank squared.
Self-repair - 300 durability per hour
Durability 2000
Cost - 3500 (Soul-bound on Purchase)
Tom assessed what he was seeing.
The item was solid.
Against the standard wasps, it could tank two thousand stings and three hundred extra per hour. That was an awful lot, but it lost power quickly against stronger wasps. A rank ten wasp, for example, would deplete the durability within twenty stings.
Its usefulness was niche.
And not something that he could consider getting. His job was to act as a stinging bag for the others; and as brutal as the experience was, subjecting himself to the attack of thousands of wasps, it was lucrative both for experience and natural attributes. Plus, with the enmity levels he had, the common suit would never be sufficient. It would get overwhelmed within minutes if a major swarm hit the camp.
The uncommon version was the same as the common version, but it was four times stronger in all aspects. Including self-repair, but unfortunately, it cost twenty thousand experience, so no one in their group would even contemplate it. The article of clothing was something a high-ranked person with an excess of experience might consider purchasing purely so that they did not worry about the annoying wasps. Anyone at that level would of course have sufficient vitality that the wasps’ stings would not be a threat, just an irritation.
Then there were various rings that would use his mana or an internal mana source to kill insects. The ones that used his mana were less efficient than Spark, so they got shelved immediately.
Of the external mana rings, the most interesting was.
Ring of Insect Frying.
This ring channels the power of the sun to create pulses of laser light that will blind and kill enemies around it. The more the sun shines, the more powerful this ring becomes. In full sunshine, the damage output suffices to kill a single rank 1 insect per second reduced by resistance.
Cost - 6000 (Soul-bound on Purchase)
If enough people equipped these rings, they could put out a lot of damage. Ten rings would take a little under two minutes to kill a thousand insects if they weren’t resistant to sun energy. If they were, well, nothing was a hundred percent resistant, so they’d die, eventually.
It was definitely something others might find useful. For example, if Everlyn and Michael were healing him and if they wore this ring, they could get steady experience while doing so.
The rest of the equipment options were designed similarly to the rings. They were basically all the same, providing a method to clear out a few annoying bugs as opposed to a swarm. There was another ring that passively recharged with mana rather than relying on and redirecting the energy of the sun. It was consistent and worked in all conditions but was materially less effective than the Ring of Insect Frying. It also cost five thousand experience, and it would safely kill the first few wasps that came near you and then be useless till it recharged again. If they were stuck here for a few weeks, it would probably pay for itself, and then when they escaped these swarms, one would have what amounted to a free trinket that would make one insect proof while wearing it.
Tom went back to the real world. The sky had lightened slightly, and his mana was almost fully recharged. He spent fifteen mana this time on his crystal before returning to the system room.
He wanted something to use someone’s attributes and grit rather than passive magical trinkets. Within his mind, he phrased the various questions he could ask to tease out the information that he wished to examine. “Display non-magical wasp-killing instruments.”