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

I moved as cautiously as I could, trying to keep my feet from making noise, but the perpetual shifting bones beneath me rattled a great deal while also causing me to stumble every now and then. As I navigated this terrible maze, a prickling sensation touched against the back of my head, as if something were trying to get its way inside of my brain. The golden band on my Tyndel charm began to glow a little, indicating that it was protecting me from something. The beast was close, but unable to affect my mind. This was good.

I peeked around the corner to find an expansive area, filled with more skulls and bones, as well as actual human corpses. The bodies were naked, bloated and grey, looking as if they had been dead for some time. A wretched stench greeted me, the all too familiar stench of death. This open area was a giant square, with dozens of braziers scattered about, green flame flickering from them. These braziers were identical to the ones we had seen back at the Eldest’s village. How very strange.

“Luuuuurrrrrrrghhh,” came the voice again, this time close enough for me to pinpoint it. I inched closer to the flames, keeping my body low, trying to get a glimpse at what was ahead. Finally, the massive, bloated frame of a beast came into focus. It was sitting in the dead center of the expanse, its long, slug-like body coiled tightly into a circle, like a serpent. Unlike the Eldest, it bore no resemblance to humanity.

The closest this slugbeast came to resembling a person was its upper torso, a pathetically small, skinny cone of flesh, with two beady eye stalks and a single, two-fingered hand. This ‘head’ I guess, was at the top of the mound of flesh, slowly moving up and down, almost…lounging around. That’s how I’d describe it anyway.

The beast took notice of me and stretched its hand towards me, too sluggish to actually get up and move in my direction. It bellowed once more, the sound coming from beneath the creature’s body. Hideous, grotesque but…not as dangerous as I had feared. Or was it luring me into a false sense of security?

I could see another entrance on the other side of the expanse, with walls of skeletons leading presumably into another part of the maze. A perfect spot for a flank.

I let out four long whistles, followed by two sharp ones, signaling to Trig that I had the enemy in my sight, but we needed to ambush it from another angle. A shrill birdcall came back. He acknowledged the plan and would search for an opportunity. Hopefully he could find his way through the maze in time.

Until Trig appeared on the other side to provide a flank, I would wait to strike. Instead, I focused my mind on the beast and waited for my Mystic Vision ability to kick in. Slowly, a hue of purple energy began to form around the massive slug’s body, followed by a flash of words in front of me, informing me of the situation.

Element of the Orphine

Elemental Immunities: Mental attacks of all forms instantly fail.

Elemental Resistances: Highly resistant to water, sonic and ice attacks.

Elemental Weaknesses: Takes double damage from fire attacks.

I grinned at this revelation. Fire attacks were easy to come by for me and Trig used fiery explosives, so this would be a short fight. No more wasting time using trial and error in order to figure out an enemy’s weakness. Now I could get to the most powerful method in the least amount of time.

Right on cue, Trig appeared on the other side of the maze, his red torch flickering in the darkness. My enhanced perception could see that he was quite pale, having been shaken by walking through a literal maze of death. I wondered if he had seen something else within the maze, something that wasn’t in the way of my own path. Or perhaps I had just become so jaded to this insane world that walking through a maze of bones didn’t affect me as much as the normal person. After all, Trig really didn’t go out into the field as much as I.

He chirped a ready sound and I nocked four arrows on my fire bow, drawing back the string tightly. The large body of the beast would make hitting it quite easy. I waited a beat, to see if the Orphine would do anything, but it simply continued stretching out its hand at me. It seemed that without the ability to affect us with its compulsions, it was helpless.

I fired, watching the four streaks of flame crash into the large slug’s body, embedding themselves in its flesh.

“Aghhh!” Trig screamed as he collapsed to the ground, holding his chest and stomach. I lowered my bow and looked at the young man to see that he was bleeding profusely, his armor untouched.

“What hit you?” I called out.

“I don’t know,” he whimpered, falling over onto his side. He wrestled to get his chest armor off, to reveal what was causing the bleeding. Much to our horror, as he pulled his tunic open to inspect the wounds, four holes had manifested themselves upon his chest and stomach. Arrow wounds to be exact!

“Oh damn it,” I said, looking back at the fat beast. It still hadn’t moved, but its eyes seemed quite pleased with what had happened. Somehow, this thing had transferred the wounds from its own body to Trig’s. Indeed, the arrows sticking out of the beast hadn’t drawn any blood whatsoever.

“First my ears,” Trig grunted as he chugged a potion, “now my chest. You just love to hurt me, don’t you?”

“I had no idea!” I stammered. The wounds were closing themselves up rapidly on his body, but that did little to comfort me. If I had fired a heavier shot, or…or if I had struck where the creature’s heart would be, it could have killed Trig. How could we fight a monster