landbeastnovel Chapter 7-4
Chapter 7-4
The theory that members of dungeon races appearing on Earth were subjected to a kind of ‘mnemonic lamination’ by the System suggests many fascinating possibilities. A particularly interesting one is the seeming homogeneity of the various groups of the same species which arrived through different dungeons at disparate times.
It is possible, on one hand, that every known group of dwarves originated from the same monolithic and unchanging society. On the other, perhaps they come from radically different backgrounds, and were rendered into palimpsests by the System, thus erasing their prior differences. We may never know the truth, but it is an observable fact that entirely independent groups of each dungeon race share an uncannily similar culture.
- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System
“Sooo, you don’t want your brother to know of your ambitions?” I asked finally and G’hala shook her head once.
“I believe that if he knew I had been offered Warrior and didn’t take it, he would be devastated. He might even put aside his pursuit of the title.”
“I don’t understand. I mean, I get the part about not wanting to hurt him, but wouldn’t it help you if he gave up?” I had been confused a lot today.
“For all the time we have spent together, Az, you should know better. Tell me, what does the Clan value?” she asked.
“Strength,” I responded immediately.
She nodded.
“And how do you prove that you are not just strong, but the strongest?” she asked intently.
I thought for a moment before replying.
“If you want to be the strongest, you have to prove you’re better than anyone else. I guess… that means competing with the best and winning?”
“Exactly!” she roared enthusiastically, sounding a bit like JJ for a moment.
I finally put it together. “You want your brother to stay strong, so that when you compete with him, you can impress the Clan by beating him?”
“YES!” she shouted, and I winced at the volume. She lowered her voice before continuing. “Will you help me, Azure?”
“Um…” I thought about it quickly. I didn’t want to come between the twins, they were both my friends. Maybe I wouldn’t have to, though!
“I can support you by pushing both you and your brother to be the best you can be,” I offered tentatively. I got a toothy smile in return.
“Spoken like an Ironhide, Gunner,” G’hala said and I smiled in relief.
Then, of course, she wanted to train. I felt obligated to help her out, since she’d gotten me at least partially out of my terrible mood, not to mention trusting me with her secret. The problem was figuring out how I could help her train.
With my paltry Level 1 Blunt Weapons I was no match for her abilities with a spear. I was much better with my cutlass, but even the thought of having to spar the towering orc with my short sword against her seven-foot spear made me cringe. There wasn’t even a Healer around after all…
Then I recalled the training I’d done with Raylan before we’d even reached the Academy. I grinned suddenly at G’hala.
“How would you like to work on your speed and agility?” I asked with a pointed smile.
When we stumbled out of the training hall laughing an hour later, the whole place smelled like singed bread. Definitely not my fault, of course.
Back in my room, I Inspected myself. It had been a while and now that I had a new Skill I wanted to see how everything looked.
Ugh, no wonder my clothes don’t fit right anymore… I’m going to need to buy more soon, unfortunately. I can’t live in my armor, can I? Hmm…
Maybe I could. But that aside, I was happy with my progress for the most part. I’d even been making some progress on my Spells, using the infusion mod during every Sprint since I’d revealed that trick in the duel. My Shotguns Skill had finally caught up to my Level, and I was getting close in a few others.
I really wanted to get my active Skills to Level 5, because they were likely to get a new effect or more significant improvement every five Levels. With passive Skills that wasn’t the case, they just steadily and slowly improved at whatever they originally did.
Stolen story; please report.
Pistols had stopped going up once we ran out of our allotted training ammunition. Arlo had requested more from his family, but until then, we needed to conserve ammunition for a real fight. I kept my Adjudicator loaded with three rounds of 454 and three of what I’d learned was called 000 buckshot. Apparently, my 4BK rounds were number 4 buckshot, and for no good reason the pellets got bigger as the numbers got smaller.
It was nice to know what 4BK stood for, even though I had no idea what a ‘buck’ was and why it needed different kinds of shot to kill it. However, I still didn’t know what BB meant, since even Arlo hadn’t been able to explain that one. The 000 – or triple-aught – pellets in my Adjudicator loads were much bigger than the ones in my 4BK, but they didn’t hit any harder in the testing I’d done with the target dummies. It seemed that the larger shells in my shotgun could generate more power.
The 454 Casull was a single shot that hit much harder than the 000 pellets, but not as hard as a slug from my shotgun. It was actually more powerful than Arlo’s pistols, not counting Skills of course. His revolvers were chambered in something called 357 Magnum. I was surprised to see just how much smaller the rounds were compared to the 45 Magnum in the Raptors and especially the fat 454 Casull.
“357 Magnum is a time-honored and effective cartridge,” Arlo said, his arms crossed defensively as I held up a 357 and 454 and squinted at him.
“All Pistoleers receive a pair of either 357 Magnum revolvers or 45 ACP semi-autos at Tier 0,” he added. “When I reach Tier 1, the caliber and power of my weapons will increase.”
“Oh, I bet you say that to all the girls,” Raylan teased.
“Just girls?” Jayce interjected in their double-voice, turning slightly to emphasize their masculine half.
“And boys!” Raylan tried to salvage the situation as the rest of us laughed at the Knife Fighter.
Compared to my shotgun, there were some advantages to my Adjudicator. I didn’t need to spend mana to conjure the shells for one. The recoil with the shotshells was also much less than my shotgun. Between that and not needing to rack a new shell for each shot, I could both shoot and reload it faster as well. It was really a wonderful backup weapon, and someday I wanted to meet Arlo’s parents and thank them for it.
Lost in thought, I jumped with surprise when Jayce called out over the Comms to ask if I was coming to lunch. We spent the afternoon doing some casual training, more having fun than anything else. I almost managed to forget the whole mess with Tara for a while.
That evening, the team shared a few drinks at the bar after dinner. I was feeling happy and relaxed when we left, but when Jayce pulled Raylan into their room with a teasing smile, my mood turned. I found myself in my room, crying softly into my pillow for quite a while before I finally fell asleep.
WEEEOOH-WEEEOOH-WEEEOOH
I almost jumped out of bed as the deafening blast of the siren split the night. Dead god, what is going on?! That’s the Tier 2+ siren!
My armor manifested in moments, my shotgun already in my hands. I hurried to my desk and had to store my gun for a moment as I retrieved my belt, heavily loaded with my backup weapons, canteens, and pouches. I cinched it tight around my waist, clueless about what was going on. The alarm was so loud I couldn’t even understand what my teammates were trying to say over the Comms.
Suddenly, the alarm stopped. I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when my recovering ears picked up on a chorus of shrieking sounds coming from the outside. I was turning towards my shuttered window when the shrieking grew rapidly louder.
CRASH!
My window exploded inwards as something hurtled through it. I found my shotgun back in my hands by instinct, my thumb already flipping the safety off as I aimed. The creature had big leathery wings, two muscular legs, and a long neck with a jaw full of sharp teeth. Fuck! Identify!
Monster: Terrordactyl
Level: 8
Level 8?! I can take you, you piece of shit!
BOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-click
Confined in the space between the two beds, the monster ate the full force of my shots. The first one shattered its barrier, then the next two punched brutally into its body. Dark blood erupted from the hits, pouring out of its chest. The monster shrieked in pain, the sound agonizingly loud as it bounced off the hard stone walls of my room. It reared back, its head not far from the ceiling, and I fired again.
BOOM!click-click
My fourth shot caught it right in the bottom of its jaw and silenced it instantly. The creature collapsed, blood flowing onto my floor, which was already covered in shattered glass and the remains of the wooden shutters.
You broke into the wrong Wasted bedroom, didn’t you?!
My celebration ended as quickly as it had begun as I heard the sounds of fighting outside.
Everyone started talking at once, making it impossible to understand.
I heard a few acknowledgements overlaid on the noise coming from outside. It wasn’t just the monsters shrieking, I realized as I heard the boom of thunder and what sounded like people screaming. The corpse of the terrordactyl was blocking me from getting to the window to see what was going on, so I stored my gun and grabbed it with my gloved hands.
With a heave and a few shoves, I forced the limp body back out of my window, letting it fall to the ground below. The creature was surprisingly light for its size. With my reloaded gun in hand, I got my first glimpse of the scene outside. It was chaos.