Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure by Andrew Karevik (book suggestions .TXT) 📗

“Hey, you’re my friend when it comes to me ignoring your orders and my boss when it comes to me passing the buck,” he said. “Is that so hard to follow?”

Little Hig nodded in agreement to this statement. I sighed and looked back out at the red lights. They were faint, semi-circles that seemed to stack atop one another. At this distance, those lights could be anything. Torches, monster eyes, glowstones. Who knew?

“It’s our first sign of something of note,” I said. “We can’t pass it up. But I’m not going in exposed.” I uncorked my flask of a freshly brewed Ironskin potion. It smelled like lavender and cinnamon, two ingredients that were not part of the brew whatsoever. Thanks to my second sip ability, I took a swig and handed the rest to Trig. Two people for the price of one potion. How very useful.

Immediately, my skin toughened, growing hard and rigid. Another layer of protection in addition to my armor. If these lights were a lure, the beast trying to trap us would have a hell of a time trying to crack me open.

We trudged forward, weapons at the ready and torches carried high. Little Hig seemed to sense some kind of trouble and nestled back into Trig’s hair, burying itself and only popping its head up occasionally to check the world out.

The lights seemed to be in a fixed position, never changing as we approached. They were much further than either of us had calculated, for the size of the lights only grew slightly as we walked for an hour. An especially eerie silence had fallen around us. It was hard to describe, for the forest had been quiet before, but now, it was almost like…something was blocking sound.

“You okay?” I asked. There was no purpose in asking other than to test whether or not this part of the forest was indeed supernaturally silenced. My words had a strange dullness to them and were certainly softer than I had intended. Trig mumbled something back, but I couldn’t quite hear him. I could hear the words, but making them out was rather difficult.

I turned to face him. “I can’t hear you,” I said.

“I said, I’m fine,” he replied, straining to speak louder. He frowned and put his hand on his throat. “Why is it so hard to talk?” he whispered, though his mouth seemed to move as if he were shouting.

I shrugged and merely motioned towards the lights. They must be causing this. Or perhaps the monster controlling these lights also had an effect on sound. We continued moving closer and closer, minding the area around us.

Finally, my Tremorsense kicked in as we neared the red circles. I could sense movement within the circle areas, shifting back and forth, like something moving around, yet stationary. In fact, there were many vibrations in that exact area, all tightly bound together. All moving, yet stationary at the same time.

A shiver ran down my spine as more circles became visible. Some were deep yellow, while others were orange or red. They were growing higher and higher above us, piled on top of each other, like bubbles on water. In fact…my eyes widened as we stopped a mere thirty feet away, the flames of our torches illuminating the area. They were bubbles! Large, black bubble-like sacs that glowed and pulsed. Thousands upon thousands of these sacs were stacked atop each other, clustered together like grapes. But rather than hanging from a vine, they were wrapped around one immense tree.

“What the hell…” Trig muttered, his voice stifled and struggling to get sound out. The dampening effect seemed strongest here. As if something was trying to prevent all sound from escaping the area.

“They’re eggs…” I whispered. “Giant eggs.”

As if to confirm my words, one of the large sacs began to pulse and throb violently. The stirring motion within was indeed a life form of some kind. This egg, which had an orange semi-circle in the center of it, began to break open as something forced its way out. The sounds were muted and hard to make out, but both of our eyes went wide at the sight. A full sized Fitzon came wriggling out of the egg, its body wet and glistening with amniotic fluid.

This was no mere infant! It was a full-fledged adult and seemed to focus immediately towards something in the darkness. We readied our weapons, but the creature rushed off, leaving us alone to contemplate what we had witnessed.

“So that’s how Fitzons reproduce,” Trig said, looking up at the great tree. Thousands of eggs were all writhing and pulsing. “Crazy how many grow at once.”

“I…I don’t think these are just Fitzons,” I replied as a particularly large egg caught my attention. Within I could see the vague form of a L’Gara, twisting and turning in its embryotic state. This wasn’t a Fitzon nest, it was a…a hatchery.

Chapter 16

“Let go!” Trig grumbled as I dragged him back to our camp, following the faint flicker of flame in the distance. Sound was slowly returning to the area and I could hear his protests much more clearly.

“Sorry,” I said, “but we had to get out of there right away. Did you see what I saw?”

“Eggs?” he asked. “Fitzon eggs?”

“No, not Fitzon eggs. Monster eggs. I saw a L’Gara being formed in one,” I stammered, trying to get my bearings. Excitement and horror were overwhelming me at once as I continued to pull my companion towards the flames.

“For real? That’s awesome! Let’s go back there and start smashing,” Trig said. “Oh man, we’re going to get so many Bloodpoints this way.”

“You don’t understand. It’s a hatchery of some kind. It has to be,” I said, slowing down as we reached the fires of the camp. “And that means something is tending to it. Those eggs couldn’t just have appeared out of thin air.”

Trig rubbed his chin. “So you think this is a sign of something intelligent? Like what, some