83
1060 Words
After they were mostly healed, Matt spent a few minutes to make a quick and dirty enchantment that he hoped would stop their eardrums from being ruptured any time they fought a Fishman. He suspected that the enchantment would only work once before they needed to fuel it with Genesis Energy, but it was simple enough, and could be fueled for hours on what they had decided was a single unit of Genesis Energy.
With their bodies healed up, they started to plan for going further up the island.
Before they left, they remembered the stupidly heavy chest they had lugged around, as well as the voice that had spoken to them when they had first discovered it.
They opened it now they were on the island, expecting another clue.
As the lid creaked apart, they found an odd assortment of items inside its depths.
Some of it seemed useful, like the enchantment detection wand that Matt intended to keep, and the mirror that had no reflection, but rather runes that he figured would break illusions.
Along with those trinkets, there were some items that seemed little more than trash. What good a dried duck’s foot and peach stone were was a mystery to them.
Storing everything, they were going to leave the chest when Susanne kicked it to release her irritation at having to carry the damn thing around for so long.
Except, she nearly broke a toe when she kicked it. The chest hadn’t become any lighter now that they had arrived.
That caused them to give the chest another look.
It still had engravings on its surface where the compass had come out of, but none of them seemed useful.
Aster asked the question Matt was trying to avoid. “Are we supposed to drag this thing up the mountain?”
Liz betrayed him as she nodded. “I bet it’s one of those things where we can complete the ruin with just the items inside, but we need the chest itself for the greatest rewards.”
“I’m not going to be able to carry it the whole time, not without mana. Susanne, could I get a hand putting it on the elephant?”
Liz raised an eyebrow as they manhandled the chest onto her summon, but when Matt shot her a good-hearted glare, she laughed and gave the two of them a hand in fastening the treasure to the pachyderm’s back. It didn’t take that long in the end, but the summons wouldn’t be helping them fight in this section at all. Hopefully, Minkalla would consider that enough of a cost, so it wouldn’t add some Genesis Energy cost to the elephant beyond the reserve to summon it or block the item from working altogether for bypassing the ‘challenge’ of carrying the treasure chest.
Their compass pointed inward, which was a good enough direction for them to push forward.
They were mildly shocked when they found a proper city at the base of the mountain after they climbed off the beach. But that surprise was nothing when they saw that the mountain wasn’t a mountain at all.
It was a palace.
It was at least a hundred stories tall, and they lost the ability to count as the top levels of the palace were shrouded in mist at the top of the bubble.
Spreading his spiritual perception through the city, Matt found a perfectly normal city, if a low-tech one. There were oddities that couldn’t be easily explained.
The houses had perfectly cut glass windows that were all identical, with fine metal latches, but those same houses had hand-carved wooden utensils and rough wooden furniture.
That was only one of the oddities they discovered as they made their way through the seemingly empty city toward the mountain.
They were around five blocks in when Liz halted; Matt and Susanne didn’t need any more prompting to ready their weapons.
Liz whispered. “I sense a half dozen Fishmen tearing into an octopus thing. North-northwest.”
Matt stretched his spiritual perception and was just able to find it at the farthest edge of his vision.
And Liz was right, not that he expected anything else.
The Fishmen were tearing at the octopus like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet. It almost reminded Matt of zombies.
He paused at that thought and shared it. “They look like zombies. Look at the jerky movements and ravenous hunger. It’s like the Fishmen are possessed.”
Susanne shrugged. “At least that’s the story the ruin is trying to tell. They’re still rift monsters.” She corrected herself quickly. “Ruin monsters. But the point still stands. They’re monsters.”
Matt nodded at her point. It was a valid one. These weren’t people they could save if they were strong enough, or anything of the sort.
Aster flicked an ear as she offered. “Let’s still skirt them. Something feels weird.”
No one had any issue with that. Still, no matter how careful they were, they were forced to fight another Fishman that seemed more under control of its movements, like the one on the beach.
It started the fight by screaming, but with the enchantment Matt made, their eardrums were able to hold up under the stress, and all four of them rushed the Fishman in retaliation.
This one raised its hand, but instead of casting [Water Jet], it cast [Water Bubble], and Susanne’s first attack bounced off the shield.
Matt redirected his s***h into a thrust, punching through and popping the shield.
He was ready to block the monster’s next swipe, and sidestepped as Susanne came in for a second attack.
The Fishman tried to take to the air, but a shard of ice nearly took its head off, and it fell back to the ground.
Matt and Susanne attacked from different directions but were blocked by another cast of [Water Bubble].
Thankfully, Liz rushed forward and thrust her spear through the bubble, skewering the monster in the process.
With her weapon in its chest, it was a sitting duck for Matt and Susanne’s blades to scissor across its neck.
As its body disappeared, causing a rush of Genesis Energy, a skill shard formed where its remains were.
Matt picked it up and looked it over, before tossing it into his storage ring. He’d inspect it later.
- Writer
