5
1049 Words
Grabbing the lion’s body, he felt around the mane and looked for the spatial item he assumed was there.
It was a necklace, as he suspected, and he sent a thought into it to find a relatively normal assortment of items for beasts, along with a number of natural treasures and other items from Minkalla.
Aster ripped a similar necklace from the deer as Liz came back with the ring and gear of the man he shot.
“Can you help me? The antlers have some special metal on them, and it seems like I can’t just pull it off.”
Matt wasn’t happy with mutilating a sapient’s body for their items, but he still brought out a small hand saw and cut the antlers at the skull. If they didn’t take it, Minkalla would just eat the items, and he really wanted to know if the antlers and their fire absorbent properties were a natural treasure or something more ephemeral.
He continued his search for whatever the compass had been pointing for and found a loaded skill shard holster. His curiosity got the better of him, and he pulsed his AI to try and identify it. Annoyingly, it took a few seconds before his AI returned any results, pulling up a secondary data pack that Kurt had passed him in preparation for Minkalla.
[Kar’tan Greets His Foes] was an air-aspected area debuff skill, usually only found in the Monster Collective, but had been picked out as especially good for Aster. It was like the opposite of [Tailwind], inhibiting the motion of enemies even if they tried to use their Concept to part the air in front of them.
He happily tossed the shard to Aster as he continued his search, eventually coming on to a small ruby containing an even smaller flame within. None of them recognized it, but it was packed with enough essence to warrant later inspection.
The humans didn’t have anything so impressive on them, so the four of them continued their trek into the labyrinth.
After another day of spotting and avoiding traps, fighting monsters, and navigating the maze, their compass suddenly started spinning like it couldn’t figure out where it ought to point. It took about an hour, but they eventually uncovered a hidden trapdoor set into the floor below them, opened by turning a nearby pipe knob three and a half times exactly.
It swung open, revealing a lush, green room containing a single, larger bush sitting atop a small hill. It bore a single blackberry streaked with a lighter purple.
Liz was the first to say something, though from Aster’s whines, she probably had recognized it about the same time. Her voice rasped as she piped up, “Oh! A void blackberry! That’s a nice find.”
“A what now?” Susanne poked her head in.
“A void blackberry,” Liz repeated with a smile before relenting and elaborating. “It helps with internal void resistance. Lots of people with void-aspected bloodlines, or who otherwise have void affinity, can suffer from health problems, but void blackberries help mitigate them…a lot, actually. It’s also key in a lot of potions and enchantments that utilize void mana, makes them more resilient and less likely to corrode. Really good alchemists can even brew void resistance potions from them. So yeah, it’s nice and valuable.”
Matt quipped, “Also, the flavor is apparently divine. I’m almost tempted to take a nibble just to find out what all the fuss is about. It wouldn’t lose much from one single drupelet missing I’d bet.”
Liz whirled on him. “Don’t you dare!”
He laughed. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. None of us would do that. That means you, Aster.”
He nudged the fox away from the trapdoor before her drool could drip down onto the bush below, and she tapped twice on the ground while yipping. Liz translated her message this time, “It smells like cold and sharpness and ice and nothingness and ice cream and…”
Liz dropped into the room below, carefully coaxing the bush into her garden orb. In the instant before it vanished into the expanded greenhouse, it dropped its fruit into Liz’s hand. He couldn’t tell if the bush itself had survived—natural treasures were notoriously difficult to transplant and grow—but he hoped it had. Maybe Liz would be able to crossbreed it with normal blackberries, preserving the flavor if not the magical effects.
He was really curious about what made it taste so good.
Reaching down he gave Liz a hand back into the main labyrinth, and they carried on their quest for the exit.
2
Matt walked through an alley and shied away from the shadows that reached out to try and touch him. It was just an instinct, but something told him that if he allowed the shadows to touch him, he’d never be able to leave.
At first, it was easy to casually walk along, but with each step he took, it became harder and harder to progress. Soon, he was jumping and flipping, using every bit of his Tier 1000 body’s prowess to avoid the grasping shadows.
Just as the shadows were about to finally entrap him, he felt someone push him from the side, and he woke up with a start.
Liz had her face buried into her pillow and murmured, “Bad dream. Tossing and turning.”
Matt kissed her forearm draped across his chest, then slipped out from under it and into the living room. There, he found Aster standing guard. Which meant she was curled around a carton of ice cream and using her spiritual perception to watch their surroundings.
With their shielding, their house was nearly impervious from attacks, but nearly impervious wasn’t enough this deep in Minkalla.
Aster felt him arrive then whined in what he interpreted as a question, and he quietly explained, “Weird nightmare. I was super strong but trapped in an alley, and shadows were trying to trap me forever. So, yeah, I’ll give you some company for a bit until I settle down.”
His bond picked up her ice cream and settled into his lap, where he brushed her fur while she ate her treat.
- Writer
