Asteria carefully licked the blood of her fur-coat, staring at the bone needles she had made. As far as she could see, two were very sharp and the best ones she had made, while six were kind of broken and useless as a weapon. The other seven were average. When her coat was cleaner, she curled into a ball next to Mother Rat and watched Jason, waiting for him to come out of that egg. He soon did, very much different. He was still a slime, just a much…flashier one. But he was most likely stronger now, so who’d care about a detail like that?
“Jason, you changed,” she commented neutrally. Asteria couldn’t claim she had grown any fonder of him during their short acquaintance, but while he was out of commission, his leadership skills, as much as they uncomfortably resembled a dictatorship, still managed to create an obvious absence. Unfortunately, no-one else from this mismatched group seemed able or willing enough to fit a leadership role. They would just have to do with the slime, for now. Not too bad of a deal when he was most likely the strongest one amongst them and had plenty of sense about what to do in a fight as well. “Hey, listen, I made some bone needles, so we could use that hole for a trap instead of storing mana crystals. Unless you have a better idea what to do with them. I don’t think anyone beside you, Digbie, and maybe Asura could use them as a weapon,” she shrugged.
Still curled into a ball, Asteria closed her eyes for a few moments. She stayed fully alert, listening closely to any suspicious sounds, especially paying attention to anything that might signify the goblins’ approach. However, she did want to rest her body as much as she could before the fight, because although she had eaten lizard meat and drank some of their blood, she was still lightly fatigued from the digging, fighting, and being poisoned. She trusted her own senses and felt safe enough being near Mother Rat – who had proven to be quite the force in a fight – to simply rest for a while.
Listening to the goings on in the cave, Asteria resolved to wake up Edward soon if he didn’t do so on his own. He really didn’t need to get skewered in his sleep. Neither did she, but to be truthful, she was anxious enough that despite lying down, her heartbeat was faster than it usually was, and her muscles tensed back up almost as soon as she got them relaxed. At least she managed to control her breathing somewhat, and in an attempt to calm down, she once again called on the magic she knew she had within her, just to feel the energy coursing through her, though as usual, it wasn’t exactly eager to respond. All the while, she kept her ears perked up, waiting for the inevitable attack.
Your battles and experiences have culminated into new power! You are now Level 2! You gain Skill Points to distribute as you please!
Unspent Skill Points: 5
Current Skills: Shield I (1.3) Minor Heal I (1.4) Lesser Flight I (1.1) Barter I (1.0) <UNUSABLE SKILLS> Scribe (0.1) Charisma (0.2) Intimidate (0.1) Iron Gullet (0.8) Dextrous (0.1) Taboo (0.4) Monster Analysis (0.2) Magic Analysis (0.1) Throw Item (0.1)
”I could do with a rest...” Naji says, flitting over to Ash and landing comfortably on her back, careful to avoid landing on the sack covering her. There was probably nothing of interest in terms of loot on the slimes body and, frankly, he was not about to go slushing through its remains even if there WAS. ”Hmm...Anyone have an idea what Iron gullet does?” He asks, since it was the closet thing to a new skill he could afford. Taboo also looked interesting, though it was similarly light on details of what function it may serve if any.
There if a brief pause. ”Also what gullet means...Second language and all.” He rumbles from his perch atop Ash’s back. ”Reading all of this in English is really uncomfortable for me. Don’t suppose anyone has found an options menu with language settings?” He asks looking at the group. ”...unless all of you are American or something. Which would explain the english.” He adds, if for no other reason than to make a little small talk with his new friends while there was lull in the supposedly life threatening situation.
Looking over his newly changed body, Jason huffed a sigh of displeasure. Now he was gonna stick out like a sore thumb, what's more; he looked fucking ridiculous. Quickly using the source crystal on himself, Jason turned toward Rain and Asteria, as they had been the only ones so far to address him. Reaching out a pseudopod, and activating [Telepathy II], 'Indeed I have,' he responded to the both of them before Rain scurried off.
Listening to Asteria's report, Jason nodded, 'Thank you for the Intel Asteria, I think using the pit as a trap is an excellent idea. I leave that to you while I try to finish defensive preparation' he telepathically replied whilst using [Magic Analysis I] on his newly upgraded ability.
Turning to the butchered lizard corpses, an idea formed in Jason's head; if mana crystals could take on new properties, such as the flame touched crystals, perhaps adding fanged lizard venom to a normal mana crystal, could create a poison tainted mana crystal! Thus, by Binding Together a flame-touched crystal, and a poison-tainted crystal, something equivalent to a poison grenade could be created!
Creating a small divot in the ground, Jason dragged the remains of the lizards to his imitation of the Alchemy bowl used by the other humans earlier. Wriggling a pseudopod inside of each lizard, the slime mage fished out each lizard's poison sacs. Pointing their fangs into the created bowl, Jason lightly squeezed each sac, milking as much venom as he could into the divot he created. After squeezing the venom out of each lizard into the divot, he used [Material Analysis I] to ensure that it was working, then he added a mana crystal. If successful in creating a poison-tainted Mana crystal, Jason would pull a lung from one of the corpses. Sucking in a puff of air, he lightly inflated the lung and proceeded to stuff both the poison tainted mana crystal he just created, as well as a flame-touched mana crystal into the tight, fleshy bag. Examining his new creation, Jason felt a sense of pride, hopefully this poison grenade would do it's job.
Now onto other things, Jason began to ponder how to take down Rattleskull. With all the evolved goblin's experiences taken into consideration, it was unlikely that rock spire would be an effective or efficient way of dealing with him. The warlord needed a new weapon, something that fucking monkey had never encountered before....
Then it hit him.
PSIONICS!!! Considering the mental faculties of the goblins, mental warfare could yeild potentially lethel results. However, at the moment, Jason's only psychic power was communication, even more concerning, he'd needed to experiment on his allies in order to develop it. However... since this would be a skill meant to attack, rather than communicate, could he not test it on himself? Besides, since psychic power was will made manifest through mana, perhaps Jason could crystallize his understanding of the spell's, and minimize the need for actual testing.
Clearing his his crowded mind, Jason pictured a glass sphere that had a valve at it's from. This sphere was how Jason chose to picture the mind; enclosed, protected, but able to be peered into, and if the valve (representing the 'invisible connection') was opened; accessed.
With a target lain before him, Jason envisioned his assault. Small incopreal tendrils of psionic energy began to wrap around the sphere, slowly constricting and causing the sphere to begin to warp, and crack... and then, it shattered.
Jason pictured this mental scenario several times, yet something seemed... off. The end came too quickly, as if minds were fragile, brittle things. No, that was far from the truth, minds could bend, warp, split, and even fight back. For now, it appeared that crushing the minds of his foes may be beyond Jason's abilities, as well as understanding. This is why mental repetition was important for a warrior of any kind to practice, it allowed them a better understanding of how each motion, strike, and decision, on more than just a physical level.
The slime continued to ponder, he needed a foundation on which he could build his psychic abilities... Though his telepathy was certainly a promising candidate, in it's current state, it just wasn't enough. Jason's mind began to wander, eventually settling on the memory of him first developing Tremor Sense. Of course! Tremor Sense was seemingly the foundation of all earth-based magic, as it allowed it's user to familiarize themself to the magic energies of the earth. Thus, assuming all magic schools had a 'base ability' akin to Tremor Sense, Jason could easily use his current magical knowledge to apply new elemental affinities to skills he already knew.
Jason was ecstatic, he'd possibly just made a breakthrough. Hopefully, by combining traits of Tremor Sense and Telepathy; both skills of level II, he could easily create an entirely new one. Clearing his mind, he began his final pre-battle experiment.
Clearing his mind, Jason activated [Tremor Sense II], focusing it not into the ground, but into the space surrounding him. Carefully, he felt the flow of his mana, the way it reverberated, and interacted with the space around him. Once comfortable with his understanding of how [Tremor Sense II] behaved, Jason carefully gathered psychic mana from [Telepathy II] in his core. Slowly, he began to use the gathered psychic mana to sustain [Tremor Sense II]. Jason poured all of his willpower into this attempt to create a 'psychic field'; which, if his theory was correct, would provide a building block for new psychic skills to be formed upon. As his mana and mental strength began to wane, Jason used [Magic Analyisis I] to see the fruits of his labor, and ceased channeling the experimental magic.
Consuming the last crystal in his inventory, Jason flopped over to the stash and snatched up three more before heading back over to his 'grenade', readying himself for the fight ahead.
"Scientifically speaking, the gullet is the esophagus." Ash replied in a mildly irritated matter of fact tone, frowning and giving Naji a mildly displeased glare as he rested on her back. "I'm assuming if its a skill then that means you could have an ability to eat a lot of...unpleasant things." She cast a glance back to the goblin corpses as she limped along. It was a good assumption to her, at least considering what he did. "English, though? I am native to the United states, though I learned several different languages when I was alive. Parents made me." She grumbled, shaking her head. That was neither here nor there though. They had arrived at the small campsite she had made with that goblin the other day.
"Well that was tiring." Ash sighed. She wanted to rest and recollect her thoughts. Taking it easy after a fight like that would be good, but she'd be negligent too. Night was falling and if those goblins thought they were clever then they'd be attacking right now under the cover of night. It was a good plan, after all. The longer either side took to attack, the longer the other side had to prepare. Objectively, the goblins should have the upper hand here, too, but she could always count on a human being to fuck things up and do the unexpected. First things first, she should try and heal.
"I would advise against wasting Mana, Danny." Ash commented. "Its good to practice but with the threat of danger heading our way, it'd be best to save your energy for when you need it." Funny, coming from her and considering her history. "Naji, I'm going to attempt to heal myself with the stone Scott made me. See if I can gain anything else from it in the process. Keep an eye on Colchain would you?" She was hoping the lizard wouldn't run off, but at the moment she still couldn't be sure of his loyalty. He was still 'Dominated' after all, and according to the system they would only stay as such under certain circumstances.
Regardless, Ash vomited up the healing stone, resting her wounded claw over it.
She slowed her breathing, focusing on the stone under her claw, trying to feel that same undercurrent she had felt before and redirect that energy from the stone to her injured arm.
Orchid let out a quiet huff as the badger fled. She had hoped to tame it. Hopefully however the next time she'd see it, it would remember her and learn not to mess with her. And since that problem was dealt with, it was time to deal with the second problem. As the girl was climbing down Orchid put her shield away, holding her club with both hands as she slammed it into the other goblin's back, keeping her pinned against the tree. "If you make it back. Since it's just you and me here... I think I'm going to kill you. Turn you into a 'fancy stick'." Orchid says threateningly as she pressed harder into the goblin girl's back, one hand pressing into the elbow of the arm holding the sticks so she couldn't use those to try and swipe at Orchid.
"It's getting dark too. We have to go fight soon. No more time to work on weapons. All you got is a stick. Think you can fight monsters with just a stick, you idiot?" In an act of heated cruelty, slammed the crown of her head into the back of the other girl's skull. "You're going to die Because you're stupid and you're going to fight strong monsters with a stupid stick!" Orchid headbutted the girl again, making sure that her face was getting pressed into the tree. She bit the other girl’s ear and gnawed the tip off, spitting it into the bushes. The goblin screamed shrilly and tried to kick backwards at Orchid's knees and shins, but from this angle she didn't have enough reach to get a solid blow.
”But the stupidest thing you did was piss me off.” Pushing the goblin against to tree even further, Orchid viciously slammed her knee right between the other goblin girl’s loins, even using her Smash skill to make it hurt even more. Right after she did that, Orchid tossed the girl to the ground, and as she did so she’d tear off what little clothing she had, cutting it with the stone tip of her spear. Orchid didn’t care if that would end up hurting the other girl too; she wanted her to suffer.
Orchid approached to continue her assault on the girl, but when she got close she swung her stick, giving Orchid a shallow cut across the arm. Despite the beatdown she was still strong enough to fight, even as her face bled and tears streamed down her eyes. The face of a scared child. Orchid snarled. ”We could have helped each other. I wanted to keep you all safe. But you didn’t listen to me. First mistake. Then you tried to steal from me. Second mistake. You won’t make a third mistake.”
The girl roared and charged at Orchid, trying to stab her in the face with the wooden stick. Predictable enough that Orchid was easily able to block the attack as she pushed against the other, smaller goblin. Still, fear and anger were powerful motivators, and it made this other goblin girl capable of holding her ground against Orchid if only for now. "Even if you boss, you not gonna make it long! Gobs got to help other gobs--and you only ever been helpin' ya self! Big pile of fancy shit not gonna help--ya only got two hands!"
Hearing this made Orchid really angry, angry enough that she slammed her club down towards the ground, breaking the other goblin girl’s stick in half. Then Orchid kicked her to make her stumble back as she made herself look bigger and roared at the other girl. ”I am helping! When Crispy got attacked I helped him even when he was too weak to fight! I made weapons and shields for other goblins! I even came here to find you because we’re going to go fight soon! But you are stupid. Whenever I try to help you, you spit back at me, try to steal from me even. I even gave you a chance to let me help you.”
The other girl still held onto her two shorten sticks like daggers, circling around Orchid waiting for her to open herself to an attack. Right now Orchid’s club had a longer reach than her two sticks, so if she tried to get closer she’d just get smashed or stabbed. “Nu uh, you said you was gonna make me into s'ords and gut-ropes! Crispy and da Boss kicks da dums around, but at least none o'dem ever killed other gobs!" Orchid scoffed. ”I said that because I need to be strong! If I wasn’t strong and just let you take stuff, I would be weak. Rattle is big, Crispy can make fire, but me… I gotta be real mean, cause if I don’t, it’s going to be bad. Especially for goblins like you and me.” Orchid honesty wanted to avoid this subject, but frankly it was the whole reason she even wanted to kill Rattleskull in the first place. She’s seen the horror stories of young girls in tribal cultures like these goblins. She wasn’t going to end up like that, not while she draws breath.
”When we get older and bigger, Rattleskull is going to make us have little goblins in our stomachs. He’s going to stick the meat between his legs into our holes until it spits into us, and then we’ll get fat and sick. It’s going to hurt a lot worse than getting stabbed with sticks. We will get weak and can’t fight. And because he’s big and strong if he’s going to do that, you can’t beat him. Other goblins won’t help you. They might even fuck you too.” Orchid says harshly as she glares at the girl. She wanted to see what her reaction was, or if she even knew how babies made.
“You not strong! You just pretendin' to be! You just said so!" Rather than understanding the real point of Orchid's conversation, the female seemed more emboldened to fight back now rather than let herself be dominated. "You tryin' to boss me around, and we all borned da same day!"
“You dum! We da girls, dat's what we do!" The female goblin's voice wavered for just a moment, but she swallowed and set her jaw. "If we don't have younglings, pretty soon won't be no goblins in da cave! It might hurts, hurts a lot, but dat's why other gobs got to help! Rattleskull and Crispy and da others kept all da monsters away when we was born! Dey fights, and we fights, and dey helps, and we makes more! If we didn't do all dat, dere wouldn't BE no gobs ANYWHERE!"
And she said that like she meant it. Orchid had seen quite a lot of goblin behavior over just two days, but had she truly understood it? Did she realize just what she was dealing with now?
It was almost painful for Orchid to hear this. Sure, she’s seen stuff on TV and sort of spoken about in school, where woman in these sort of societies simply accept and even assist in these sort of twisted patriarchal systems. Orchid always thought if she was there, she’d be able to change it. Use her enlighten knowledge to change things for the better. How naive she felt now. How she forgets that for this goblin girl, the idea that she could be her own leader and do more with her life than just make babies and do what other men tell her to do.
The life of a goblin wasn’t the sort of life Orchid wanted to live. She was going to be different. ”Is that all you want? Fight, have babies, and keep fighting until you die? Because that’s all Rattleskull will do. All he can do is fight until he dies. Because all he can do is fight! But I’m different. I know we can do more than fight. Things I know how to make, I didn’t learn from Crispy. I learn from monsters. They know how to talk too. They don’t want to fight, but they have to, because Rattleskull fights them! I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to live and make things. But because Rattleskull keeps hurting other monsters, now the monsters all work together, to kill us!”
Orchid approached the goblin, weapon in hand ready to slay her. ”You stay with Rattleskull and you will only fight and have babies, and it’s going to hurt. Hurt worse than when it hit you down there, it will be bloody. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do more! Make new things, make powerful friends, make it so we don’t have to keep fighting just to survive! I will make sure we can live.” All of this was likely going over this goblette’s head, so Orchid was going to wrap it up.
”I’ll make this simple. Join me and be different; be more than baby maker. Stay with Rattleskull and you’ll die.”
"Can't have none of dat other stuff til there's more gobs, and til it's safe for all da gobs!" the female said resolutely. "You talkin' bout...bout the stuff the older gobs knows? They seen Humies that makes plants and animals grow and eats 'em? Builds places to live and has lots of shiny round things?" She didn't lower her stick, but the fight seemed to be draining out of her. Her argument, however, still seemed genuine. "We gots to fight! Can't do nothin' else--ain't you seen it? Mobs attacks sometimes for no reason--they just huntin', even if you just walkin', or they wants the same things! Crystals, herbs, water! Ain't enough for everybody! Playin' nice is dumb! Rats and Lizards can't even talk like we can!"
Suddenly "random encounters" seemed like they held a lot more weight in this odd, gamey world. And it was true--the Cave simply did not hold enough resources for every creature living there. But with creatures like that Armor Badger, and Adventurers, and who knew what else out here, they couldn't just flee from the only safety they knew. And things like industry, agriculture, and society could not develop overnight.
"And what's wrong wif baby gobs? Dey can't fight yet...but I likes dem, dey chubby and cute. And I wants more gobs like me in da world. What wrong wif dat?"
Orchid was not arguing with an oppressive society or a tyrannical government. She was arguing with an intelligent and slightly sophisticated animal--with a caveman. With primitives. With a tribe surrounded on all sides by potential enemies and in control of precious few resources for whom survival meant taking harsh conditions in stride and not allowing weakness in anything but their offspring, of which they needed many in order to simply not die out. They didn't know enough to even understand her argument in its fullest capacity. That was why she had chosen force and bravado at first, after all...but in doing that, she herself was killing the same creatures she wanted to rule over.
Orchid was getting angry, but for reasons unrelated to the goblin girl personally. More anger directed towards herself. She had dismissed these goblins as simple creatures, and in a way they were. But they were simple for the same reason her own life back on the farm was simple; she was only concerned about what was necessary to make due with the life she had, rather than do more with the life she could get. That is to say, before in her human life, Orchid never had any further aspiration than living and taking care of her farm. She never had these crazy dreams of taking over a group of people and trying to turn them from a primitive society to a modern civilization that she’s used to. Orchid was way in over her head.
But has she gone too far to back out now?
Orchid lowered her weapon. She let out a sad sigh; as much as she hated to realize this, but she had let her own anger blind her to the obvious. Of course it did; she was here in some unfamiliar place, scared, panicking like an animal despite her attempts at being a thinking human being. Forcing her opinions down the throats of people who, despite their differences, were more or less people too. Just green, small, and unfortunately low on the food chain. ”Fucking ironic. How’s that quote go, stare not into the abyss less it stare back at you?” Orchid thought bitterly to herself. Putting these thoughts aside for a moment, she tried to talk to this girl again, with less anger in her heart this time.
”There’s nothing wrong with that… I’m sorry.” Orchid says quietly. ”I’m just scared too. Scared of what Rattleskull wants us to do. I’ve talked to those monsters. They’re smart. They’re strong. They know that we goblins are the biggest threat because there’s more of us and we work together. So now they’re working together, to kill all of us. I want to stop that, but that won’t happen if we fight. If we fight then that’s it; either we kill everyone or they kill all of us. And there’s more of them than there are goblins, and even if we win, a lot of us are going to die. Even Rattleskull and Crispy. I know you don’t believe me, but that’s why Crispy got hurt, and why I had to run away with him instead of fight.”
"I'm not scared!" the female snarled. "Bein' scared is bein' weak, you dum! Why you scared when you makes all dem weapons, and when you can even Smash stuff like da boss can!?"
Orchid looked to the other goblin girl, her resolve renewed. She remembers what she was here to do; not to conquer, just to survive. And survival meant cooperation not subjugation. Orchid lowered her club and extended a hand out to the other goblin. ”It’s fine if you hate me now. I was stupid and angry. I tried to be smart but I was just selfish. So… Sorry. But I do care about us goblins, even if I think we do stupid things sometimes. I wanted to have some goblins listen to me so I can keep them safe when we have to fight; I want to try and make sure we don’t run into a trap in the cave. I was angry at you because… Because no one knew what I knew. Things are different now. And I think it can be better, but we need to work together. Not just us goblins, but everyone in the cave. I just need Rattleskull to not fight, so I can talk to the monsters. And I need your help to do that.”
But the other female stared at Orchid's outstretched hand, then looked at her with confusion that seemed to turn back into anger.
"You talks too much, and you talks about all dis weird stuff." She held her own stick in both hands closer to her body, as if wary of even brushing contact with Orchid. "You acts like you knows all dis stuff even tho you don't listen to da other gobs like I does and you only been borned...uh...dis many suns!" She wiggled her toes, since her hands were occupied. "You dun make no sense!"
She turned, and headed back towards the camp.
"Just do whateva you gonna do, as long as it helps gobs! Rattleskull and Crispy smart too, but dey not weird like you! I don't wanna be friends wif monsters! Only like Goblins!"
Orchid sighed. Now that she’s let her petty anger go, she was able to focus on the task at hand. She needed to somehow talk to those other monsters before this ended up in a bloodbath. Chances are Rattleskull won’t cooperate unless Orchid can at least pretend to follow his orders. She had an idea for that. So Orchid would return back to the goblin camp, and along the way she’d pick up some more stones too. Smaller ones that would be easier to use with her sling. She used what was left of her fibre string to turn her big leaf into a small sack which would hopefully be able to carry a few stones in it. By the time she’d reach the camp she’d finish. First thing she did was find her minions.
”Oi you three, wif me. Sorry fer being late.” She just noticed that she was starting to pick up on the other goblin’s accents. She cleared her throat but kept it up. ”Time ta fight. I would’ve taught ya how to use yer spears but… Eh. You’ll learn. Anyways I’m gunna talk with Rattleskull about letting us go first, since we got da big shields dat’ll let us block stuff.” Orchid didn’t bother actually waiting for them to agree or not as she went over to Rattleskull, shield in one hand anda loaded sling in the other.
”Hey, Rattleskull. I’m back. Let me and my boyz go in first, scoutin ya know? Plus I’ve fought em before. I know dere tricks.” Or rather, Orchid suspects they have tricks. Lying in ambush or setting up traps. She vaguely remembers the pixies hiding in the stalagmites and some of them hidden underground or in the walls. Chances are they’re going to be doing that again. ”Just need one or two more lads ta carry torches, an my team will be ready.”
Health - Mostly Full Magic - Full Stamina - Mostly Full
Skills - Use Light Equipment (--) Pacify Animal I (1.0) Stronger I (1.4) Crafting IV (4) Material Analysis I (1.15) Monster Analysis I (1.0) Smash I (1.0)
Inventory - Raw Dire Rat Hide (Equipped) Loincloth (Equipped) Stone Spiked Club (Good) (Equipped) Wicker Shield (Well Made) (Equipped) Rawhide Bag (8/12) (Equipped)
Skill Rank Up: Mana Orb I > Mana Orb II Magic damage increased. MP Cost increased. As an Active Spell Skill, this skill may be used at any Rank of power you possess. From Full MP, you have enough to cast Rank I (2) times, and Rank II (1) time with leftover MP. You currently do not have Full MP.
As Ash and her party made her way through the rocky outcrops and around the stony walls of the cave's edge, they soon returned to the makeshift camp she and Orchid had created. The fire here had long burned down, and now only cold ashes without even a smoldering ember remained. However, the smoky smell lingered somewhat. Maybe that explained why they hadn't seen many other creatures on their way here. The camp seemed relatively safe, then, and perhaps the group could rest here for the night...Provided whatever happened in the rest of the cave didn't spread this far...
As Ash used the Healing Stone, the light and the symbols Scott had placed upon it glowed brightly for just a moment, then faded into Ash's injury. The stone itself became lifeless and dull colored once more, but a system message informed her that her HP was back to full. She didn't get any mention of a new skill, but she could tell by feeling it out that she had a better sense for just what that energy was now...Maybe repeating this process, or getting the Pixies to show her more, would help...
Bonfire Party
25 Mana Crystals remain. 2 Flame Touched Crystals remain.
Momma Slime quickly snatched up the Dire Rat corpse that Asura threw her way, and unfortunately what happened to that corpse was not only indescribable, but also completely visible through her gelatinous body. At least the cloudy blood floating inside her soon hid it from direct view.
As Ardur made his preparations, he still neither felt nor saw any result from his prayers. And yet, had he ever really "seen" the effect of prayer? No one ever seemed to suddenly see the clouds open up and pour radiant light down on them in his past life, had they? Then again, maybe it was just because he had prayed to a sun god...just after the sun itself had gone down. The cave was beginning to grow darker as time went on now...except for some flickering lights that might have been mistaken for wisps near the cave's entrance, until you saw the smoke... ((No problem, I'll try not to do anything out of character but I'll make sure he keeps in the loop. Thanks for making preparations and letting us know ahead of time!))
As Rain experimented, she found that by essentially blowing a raspberry after filling her mouth with poison she could get a kind of spray-mist, but it was a quick spurt akin to a squeeze of a Fabreeze bottle. The drops of venom did, however, noticeably dissipate more quickly in the air, leaving behind a faint purple haze. Still, it didn't seem to have enough force behind it, and the amount of actual poison was too low. It probably wasn't any good for battle. Another test fire in which she simply pooled poison in her jaws and then tried to blow outwards--almost like wafting a belch, if she had ever participated in such vulgar behavior--caused purple fumes, but these too didn't have enough oomph behind them and she couldn't hold the poison in her mouth as long as she would like without swallowing it--much like the difficulty of gargling for too long. At least she was immune to her own venom. What other methods could she perhaps try...?
As Asteria rested, Mother Rat finally returned from...wherever she had been. From the blood and gristle around her snout, it seemed like she had been eating some of the Fanged Lizards that had attacked them. And now she circled Asteria and Ed, whuffing them with her nose until satisfied, then laying down. She stayed closer to Ed, somewhat protectively, her larger body shielding his own. She could probably sense that he was more vulnerable than her own offspring, but it was a little bit odd how she behaved towards a non-pack mate. Then again, maybe she had started to see this entire group as her pack? That big blue slime had started to act differently as well, after all, making unusual sounds as if it were trying to speak.
When Jason attempted to access the Source Crystal, he found that nothing happened. It seemed that only things he could look at fully through the crystal as a lens would be analyzed. Maybe if he used a pool or something else that could reflect his image. His Magic Analysis on his own Telepathy Skill, however, didn't tell him anything new--it only directly stated what he had already learned from the System about the first and second ranks of the skill, and then a few other things that he had figured out for himself about its qualities. Still, the sensation of using the two skills was somewhat a new experience--after all, Telepathy was not something he could see like a glowing orb or a ball of fire.
Using his Soil Manipulation, he created a divot in the ground. After a messy bit of work, he managed to empty two Poison Sacs. However, the amount of poison remaining in these sacs was much more than the single dose a Lizard would use to spit or bite, and Jason had poured it all in at once! The acid sizzled like boiling water, releasing a noxious purple fume, and Jason began his experiments like some sort of mad scientist...
You used Material Analysis! Lethal Fanged Lizard Venom Properties: Liquid. Exothermic. Lethally Poisonous. Extremely Acidic. Vaporous. Volatile. A compound of the neurotoxin produced in the Fanged Lizard’s internal sacs and elements of the atmosphere. Highly caustic. Larger quantities of venom have made it much more effective. This particular batch of venom has progressed in concentration from Potent > Toxic > Baneful > and is now Lethal. A target infected with this poison will need high levels of Poison Resistance, and if the resistance fails this Poison will not wear off without using a more advanced level of antidote or curing magic.
You created an Item! Mana Crystal + Lethal Fanged Lizard Venom You don't have the Alchemy Skill. This mixture may be dangerous... You don't have the Crafting Skill. The quality of your item has degraded.
You created: Potent Tainted Mana Crystal! This Mana Crystal has been tainted with a potent poisonous substance. If it is ground into powder, broken, or otherwise forcibly used on another creature, the tainted energies will deplete their mana rather than restoring it. This crystal is also potent--it may cause Poison damage. This crystal is Highly Unstable, it may release poisonous fumes or break easily if tampered with...
You created an Item! Flame-Touched Crystal + Potent Tainted Mana Crystal + Fanged Lizard Lung Sac You don't have the Alchemy Skill. These volatile materials may be quite dangerous... You don't have the Crafting Skill. The quality of your item has degraded.
You created: Gristly Tainted Bomb What a disgusting item, made from flesh and magic turned perverse! This Bomb contains an explosive and a source of poison. On detonation it will produce a blast comparable to low rank Fire spells and a cloud of poison gas comparable to low rank Poison skills. It has a small Area of Effect. WARNING: THIS ITEM IS VOLATILE.
Afterwards as the newborn slime mage experimented with his magic, he could feel the various different energies changing through his manipulation. Earth, Psychic, something that didn't seem to have any specific quality he could point out--just a plain sort of Energy--and then...At one point, when he tried to use Tremor Sense alongside his Telepathy, his first attempt felt...Odd. It seemed almost the opposite of the Earth energies, in fact, much like holding something warm in one hand and something cold in the other. It felt light, almost...airy? Breezy? Further attempts, however, eventually seemed to match the feeling he was going for, aligning with the same sort of energy fluctuations that he felt from Telepathy.
Ultimately, however, he didn't get the skill he was aiming for. Not yet anyway.
Skill Gain: Focus I By spending at least 30 seconds focusing before using an offensive Skill or Spell, you can increase its damage. At this rank it is comparable to increasing the power by one rank (eg Mana Orb I to Mana Orb II) while also increasing the MP cost by half again (spend 1.5x Mana Orb I's cost).
Orchid and Goblin Party
((Orchid is wearing her Raw Dire Rat Hide, her Loincloth, her Wicker Shield, and her Trench Club. Her bag's 12 slots are taken up by 2 Hard Stones, 3 Herbs, 1 Fern, 1 sling pouch, 1 sling, 1 garrote, and the handful of sling stones (5), so she has 2 slots left. 10/12))
Orchid's three minions, in the time she had been gone, had been busy. The first one who had obeyed her the easiest still had the Good Wicker Shield, but the second one who had been more suspicious and curious about her had held on to the Excellent Stone Spear. They had made two more Wicker Shields that barely looked like they were holding together, and two more Stone Spears in similar condition--they had obviously paid attention to Orchid's lessons, but simply didn't have the skill to fully imitate her. Still, they were better off than a large number of the other goblins.
With this pack at her back as she approached Rattleskull, the Boss gave her an appraising look with one furry hand scratching at his chin.
"Dun get cocky, youngling!" he growled, before gesturing to the cave entrance. "But awright, you goes on ahead. But listen good!" He pointed at her with his Stone Celt. "Make sure ta check EVERYTHING all 'rounds ya before movin' on, bit by bit! Look in da cracks, in da tunnels, up on da ceilin', everywhere! Kill EVERY mob ya see so long as it ain't a gob!" He now jabbed a thumb at all the other goblins gathered behind him. "If it ain't safe enough for dem to sleep there, you stay til it is! We ain't gonna fight twice for any terry-stories!"
The Boss moved up to the archway, gazing inside for several moments, then called over two of the smaller looking Goblins. One was a female and one a male, but both of them were practically trembling--they were probably from the same generation as Orchid but hadn't had nearly her experiences. They were holding Torches in one hand and Sharp Stones in the other--they hadn't been given the more effective equipment that Rattleskull and Crispy had worked on, whether because there wasn't enough to go around or because they couldn't keep it.
"You goes wif dat one and her bunch! Stay behin' der shields and hold yer torches high so's dey can see!" That gave Orchid's team a membership of 6, including herself. Rattleskull pointed into the cave. "Heads for that area there first! ((A-6 on Cave Map)) Push forward when it's clear!" Then he gestured to the other goblins as Orchid began to get her group moving.
A group of three goblins, two holding Wooden Clubs (the bats Rattleskull had made earlier) and torches and the third holding the Stone Hammer the Boss had given him, would go in after Orchid's group, on her left flank. The next group had the broad-shouldered Goblin with the well made Wooden Spear, along with the female that had given Orchid so much trouble--who now had a hastily made Stone Spear of her own along with a torch, and a third goblin who only had the Club and torch. These two went in further to the left, and now the goblins had established a line all the way across the entranceway.
Behind them, getting ready to go in, Crispy assembled his own party. The variant goblin held a torch in one hand and his well made Stone Knife in the other. Two other goblins, one holding both a Stone Knife and a Wooden Club and the other holding a Club and a torch, were going to accompany him. They stood in an inverted V, the two in front and Crispy at the back no doubt so that he could cast his magic without interruption.
The last one to go in, would be Rattleskull himself...but it didn't seem like he was hiding behind his troops out of cowardice. The Boss seemed to be closing his eyes and taking deep breaths...he flexed his powerful arms back and forth, gripping the haft of his weapon tightly...
As Orchid's group made their way in, they soon saw a place where the ground had been disturbed and something had made a rather bloody mess, as if something's throat had been cut and they had bled out.
"Dis is where them two earlier died!" said one of Orchid's followers. "Somethin' got 'em, but they never found out what!" Apparently confident that whatever had gotten those other goblins was no longer around, the first minion strode forward--only to have the blood on the ground seemingly surge up under his feet!
It was a red-colored slime, which had apparently been feeding on the blood left here! With a gurgle, it slammed its weight into the minion--but he blocked it on his shield! The blow still knocked him off balance, but the other two minions ran up and thrust at it with their spears. The slime squealed as both weapons pierced it, their hafts crossing on the inside of its body in an X. It wasn't dead, but it seemed like it had taken more damage than usual--probably owing to the quality of these better weapons.
"Mini-boss! Smash it!" yelled one of the minions at Orchid while the two struggled to hold the wounded Slime in place.
There were the sounds of battle off to their left as well, accompanied by a shrill, child-like scream...was that one of the goblins, or a monster they had found and slain? Either way, the scream was cut off rather quickly...
Even further away, there was a battle cry that might have been that brawny male goblin, and the torches there were waving back and forth violently for a few moments. Then that battle too, seemed to calm. Were the goblins off to a good start?
ORCHID'S TEAM - A6 HAMMER TEAM - A7 BRAWNY TEAM - A8 CRISPY TEAM - NOT ON MAP RATTLESKULL - NOT ON MAP 16/16 GOBLIN FORCES REMAIN --- JASON AT I-11 ASH AT F-29 OBERON AT K-11(?) MOURNINGSTAR AT ??? ASTERIA AT I-11 RAIN AT H-13 ARDUR AT I-11 (ceiling) DANNY AT F-30 ASURA AT ??? DIGBIE AT ??? ED AT ??? SCOTT AT ??? NAJI AT ??? REOTH AT ??? OROCHI AT ???
Asura watched momma slime eat the rat. He had seen the own nastiness occur within himself but on a smaller scale. He wasn't nearly her size but he still tore off half of the rat to eat and left the rest for anyone else who needed something to eat. While he digested he kept trying to compress himself into what was basically a rubber Super Ball. Despite being a solid those things still had some give and he had hit them with various things when he was a kid and little damage was left behind.
While he practiced his, hopefully, new ability he kept an eye on the only entrance they knew of to the cave. He was too far away to see much of anything but he could certainly hear. Caves had that lovely thing called acoustics. Goblins were yelling and then he could see blips of light that would be their torches. "Goblins are coming." He stated to the others who could hear him. When he 'turned' to look back he saw Jason pull something out of the ground that looked about as safe as a hug from Rattleskull. "If that thing blows up...I'm going to live through it and smash your face." He growled, knowing full well that explosives were not a joke and that no one here had any experience with them.
While Jason potentially murdered everyone, himself included, Asura touched M.S's side and told her they should hide. Goblins were coming and the entire group was outnumbered and possibly out equipped. No point just being out in the open when one could ambush. He let that thought slide across the link. Ambush Goblins if they come.
As Mourningstar stared at Oberon delivering his own apology, she suddenly felt even worse than before. Of course this was just her blowing it all out of proportion, nobody hated her. The only one who really hated her was, well... her. So she projected that onto everyone else, assuming that everyone hated her just as much as she hated herself. She was silent for a while as she noted Digbie heading over just as Oberon gave his advice. Just be herself? No, she can't be herself. Herself is weak, herself locked herself away from the world in an attempt to cope with her myriad issues. "I know what you're saying sounds good but... I can't be myself. I don't like myself, that's why I'm trying to be someone different. Mourningstar is bold, she tries to lead others and protect her friends. I'm sorry if I came off as bossy, I'm just trying to figure out who the new me is. I can try to be nicer, but I can't be myself anymore. If I do that then I'm definitely going to die. That's a fact." It was a weak argument, but it was all she had. Digbie finally made it over, asking if she was going to be leaving. Mourningstar shook her head as best she could, looking towards the Wisps she had located with what appeared to be confidence. Only Oberon knew the truth now, hopefully he would be able to keep a secret.
"Don't worry, I have a plan. You know how every single species seems to have a progenitor in the cave? The Mother Slime, the Momma Rat, the big goblin that's getting all the other goblins together to attack us? Well I think there's probably a Mother Wisp too, I might know where to find her as well. I'll be back quickly, but for now I need you guys to get ready for war. It's gonna be a tough fight, but we'll all make it through this." Mourningstar began to float up towards the Wisps, but stopped and looked back at Oberon. "And to clarify. I'm not the Demon King's General. We all are. We were all chosen by him for this second life, so we must have some importance. Just saying." Perhaps it was something to reassure herself, perhaps it was something to try and make her look a little nicer. Regardless, Mourningstar flew for the wisps in hopes of finding her mother.
While he had no way of knowing how close meditate was to becoming usable Danny did manage to get Mana Orb to level 2, even though that meant ignoring Ash's sensible warning. As he wondered if he could ever get any combat skills that didn't rely on mana the eyeball eating pixie asked what a gullet was which quickly explained. "Huh, I always thought it was some kinda slang for stomach. English is not my first language though, I am...was Dutch."
He still saw himself as mostly the same person as when he was alive, though he never imagined him killing other sentient creatures or even animals. But on the other hand having all been born in the same cave the group could technically be considered the same nationality.
"snrk!" Ed let out a shocked snort when a bit of Mother Rat's fur grazed his tail when she chose to lay near Ed. He let out a quiet groan as his body felt more sore than the time before he had passed out. Doing his best to blink away the sleep from his eyes and tried to focus on the source of his awakening. It seemed that Asteria's mother had decided to lay near Ed. Ed needn't be a zoologist to know that this was a sign that she was concerned for his well being. Ed offered the adult dire rat an affectionate nuzzle; a means for him to communicate his message of gratefulness and thanks. After thanking the mother rat, he gives the area around him a quick once over. It seemed that the group had managed well enough on their own and dealt with the sudden ambushes and were doing their own thing...minus one person or so; Ed wasn't too sure. Though he was shocked to see that Jason had a different appearance from before. "How long was I out..." He murmured to himself but was unable to answer his own question as he heard Asura yell out that the goblins were approaching. 'So soon?!' A panicked thought ran through his mind, the goblins were on the move and he was still not ready to face the greed horde.
Ed was no longer exhausted; the rest had returned a good chunk of his stamina, but did little to help his burns other than dull the constant pangs of pain. He moved towards the corpses of the three dead lizards and saw that numerous bones were either missing or eaten. He grimaced slightly at the grisly scene but went to work. He began observing sifting through guts and gore, trying to identify which and what parts of the lizards were mostly untouched or undamaged and were suitable for his needs. He let out a huff of dissatisfaction as some bones were simply too small to be turned into weapons and the more suitable ones were either gone or too damaged to be of significant use. He lets out another sigh before going to the nearest lizard corpse and began using his front paws to extract the jaw bone. He hastily repeats the process to the rest of the bodies and soon cast his gaze upon the gory materials he had. Three jawbones meant that he could afford to fail at crafting a dagger or stabbing implement six times if he broke the bones lengthwise properly. With little time to spare, Ed begins working on creating a weapon for himself, and if he was lucky enough, a weapon for another.
The onslaught was coming. The horde of Goblins on the way was about to completely assault the group at the Bonfire. It was time to prepare, and time to fight. He knew what to do if the situation was dire, but he needed to prepare for the assault. It was time to move, dangit!
Digbie grabbed as many rocks as he could from the ground as he looked at Mourningstar. "Well... I wish you luck. Please hurry back, Mourningstar!" His voice was just as silly and jovial as he normally was, despite the pressure of the situation bearing down on the goblin. Immediately after, Digbie ran towards the rest of the group and went to a small area, where he dropped all the rocks he had picked up. He went over to the bonfire pile afterwards and grabbed three Mana Crystals and ran back towards his little area that he had, placing the crystals down there beside it. He ran around the area about him and got a few more rocks before he just ran back to the alcove, even stopping by the <Stone SpikeTM> he threw a bit earlier to use one final time. It would probably crack afterwards, but he was ready to use it.
Hopefully he wouldn't have to use more than he had to.
Stacked up a bunch of rocks in a location to fire away with (Specifically 15 rocks at J-9 on map). Put three Mana Crystals next to the ammo pile (also on J-9). Ran to get the <Stone SpikeTM> back to use as a javelin once more.
And now it was time to begin the attack. Rattleskull was thankfully not so thick headed as to not let Orchid and her goblins take the lead for scouting, though this was merely a pretense; she just wanted to get into the cave and find her lizard friend before the rest of the horde does. Adjusting the straps to her shield and giving a few tested thrusts with her club, Orchid leads her troops inside. But before she goes too far, she also preps her sling; she puts a stone in her sling and has it in her shield hand. This way she could easily drop her club, take out her sling, and hurl a stone if she needs to hit something far away.
When they got into the cave the first thing Orchid noticed was the smell of death. Something was killed here recently. Sure enough one of her goblins reported that one of the other goblins tried to go inside and got killed. ”Must be from the monsters… No doubt they’ve set up a trap here. Move carefully.” Of course just as she says this they were attacked by a red slime. Fortunately her goblins managed to survive the initial attack, and two more stuck their spears into it to keep it in place. Orchid scanned it with her Monster Analysis ability while she moved in to attack. She had no time to waste dealing with these small fries.
”SMASH!” Orchid shouted as she slammed her trench club into the slime, careful to avoid smashing her weapon against the spears of her fellow goblins, but still hitting a sizable portion of the slime. ”You younglings! Smash him with you torches!” She barked orders as she looked to the goblin who was knocked off balanced. ”You! Watch out for traps or ambushes. Poke the ground with your spear, make sure there’s no spikes or holes.” Orchid remembered how she managed to lure some goblins into a makeshift caltop trap the day before; she wasn’t about to fall for the same trick herself.
”Keep your shields up! Don’t drop them or you will die!” And sure enough Orchid would show them how to do that, covering a vast majority of her body with her shield while she smashes the slime. Only her arm and weapon was exposed, and she made sure to utilize the full reach of her weapon so that even if the slime would try and lash out at her, Orchid’s arm would already retreat back behind her shield.
Health - Mostly Full Magic - Full Stamina - Mostly Full
Skills - Use Light Equipment (--) Pacify Animal I (1.0) Stronger I (1.4) Crafting IV (4) Material Analysis I (1.15) Monster Analysis I (1.0) Smash I (1.0)
Inventory - Raw Dire Rat Hide (Equipped) Loincloth (Equipped) Stone Spiked Club (Good) (Equipped) Wicker Shield (Well Made) (Equipped) Plant Fiber Sling (Loaded) (Slung) Rawhide Bag (8/12) (Equipped)
Jason lightly chuckled at Asura's comment, fortunately for the group, this highly unstable explosives were extremely common in his home country. 'Don't worry Asura,' he responded through [Telepathy II], 'I have MUCH more experience with dangerous explosives than most.'
As his 'brother' headed off into the shadows with M.S., Jason heard a faint, child-like scream off in the distance. What it was, the slime mage couldn't tell, but one thing was certain: the goblins were on the move.
As of now, it appeared as if the goblins were only at the entrance, and making slow forward progress. Good, this meant he still had a tiny bit of time to work on his psionics. With how close he was to finishing the development of his 'psychic field' ability, Jason figured that he had just enough time to complete the skill.
Focusing his mind, Jason began channeling [Tremor Sense II] and [Telepathy II] from where he left off; where the skill had finally started aligning with the same sort of energy fluctuations that he felt from Telepathy. Then, as if slowly turning a dial, the slime mage gradually continued to further the alignment.
The warlord was determined to continue channeling until one of three things happened;
1- He got the skill
2- The light from the torches drew too close for comfort (about row E)
3- Attacked by a 'random encounter'
As Jason poured all his will and mana into his 'psychic field', he desperately hoped that his gamble would be worth it, if not, this could be the end of both him, and his allies.
(In the event that he runs out of mana before any of the three conditions are fulfilled, Jason will consume one of the mana crystals in his inventory)
Oberon did not get in Mourningstar’s way this time, letting her fly past him rather than try and block her again. Though he didn’t like the idea of her heading off alone, he sensed that their conversation had come to an end and unless he was willing to physically keep her from leaving or go with her there was little more he could do. Besides, if she was going to be spending time with the other wisps in the cave then she should be fine; she was just trading out one group for another, assuming that the other wisps accepted her. With a sigh he turned away from Mourningstar’s retreating form and began the walk back to the bonfire, grabbing her discarded sack of mana crystals as he did so.
3 Mana Crystals added to inventory. 1 Flame-Touched Mana Crystal added to inventory.
During the quiet walk something that the wisp had said kept repeating itself in his head, about how if she stayed who she was before she was sure to die; something about that idea made him uneasy, probably because it applied to him just as much as it did to her. “It’s not like the rest of us are doing any better. My old life didn’t exactly prepare me for this kind of situation.”
In his absence the bonfire seemed to have experience a flurry of activity. The corpses that had been strewn about from their earlier battles were mostly gone, one of the lizards was practicing with their poison spit, the rats were grouped together to one side and the green slime he had healed earlier… well, he seemed to have changed considerably. Now sporting a wizard hat-shaped protrusion and a gel flap cape the only thing he was missing was a staff and he would look the part of the classical wizard class, just in slime form. How or why such a change had occurred was a mystery to him, one that Oberon sought to solve by using Magic Analysis on the slime.
Otherwise, as usual, there didn’t seem to be anything of urgent importance for Oberon to do; no-one seemed to be dying at the moment so his healing abilities weren’t required and everyone looked to be getting along perfectly fine with whatever it was they were working on.
Setting down his sack of mana crystals near to the bonfire, as well as the ones he was still holding from earlier, Oberon sat down next to it with his back to the fire pit and considered what he should do. Continue his experiments was the obvious answer, but with an attack from the remainder of the Goblin’s imminent it was important to prioritise and think about what he could accomplish in the time he had to work with that would benefit him and the rest of the group.
He could potentially develop a working version of the Minor Regeneration skill in that time, but with his various Shield spells and Minor Heal it was probably redundant at the moment; though still something he wanted to work on later. Beginning his experiments with the flame-touched mana crystal was potentially more useful if it resulted in a fire-based spell that he could use in the upcoming battle, but given that he would be starting from scratch he likely wouldn’t have enough time to make anything workable.
No, increasing his offensive options was the right way to go about this but he needed another way to do it that he could manage in a short time frame. Given that he now had Mana Shape in a complete form to work with it was probably best that he continue trying to create a version of Mana Orb with piercing properties.
With that decided Oberon wasted no time, quickly forming the spherical shape of a Mana Orb between his hands before attempting to warp its shape using his new Mana Shape ability. He flattened and lengthened the mana, stretching it thin as he had tried to do before, finding the process much easier now that he had a spell to help guide the process. When he had a long and thin bar of mana formed between his hands, thicker in the middle and rounded at each end like a stretched out oval, he attempted to sharpen the end that was not pointed at himself. Once this was complete he let the attempted Mana Arrow fly.
Collected Mourningstar's discarded sack of crystals Returned to bonfire Used 'Magic Analysis' on Jason Returned to practicing 'Mana Dart' by combining 'Mana Orb' with 'Mana Shape'
Rain frowned internally, mildly disappointed at the failures but pleased at what she'd figured out. She needed to figure out a way to put more.... Breath?.... Into the blow, but she didn't really know how to go about that.
Glancing at the flickering lights that could only be Goblins torches, Rain made a choice.
One last experiment, and then she'd wait for the attack.
She would try her techniques from before, but try moving her head at varying moderate speeds when she blew out to see if that got the needed oomph behind the venom.
Perhaps she just didn't have the breath capacity needed yet....a concern she couldn't help but note as a possibility.
Asteria snapped her eyes open at an ominous loud sizzling, disturbed from her attempts at familiarizing herself with her mana, to find Jason fiddling around with several dozes of lizard poison and some of the mana crystals. He created something so dangerous looking that she preferred not to contemplate it too much. But she was interested in the small leftover poison pool though, and took one of those broken bone needles to it. Carefully, she grabbed it at the blunt side with her paw, dipped the end that should have been pointy into the pool of poison, quickly took it away in case it would have wholly melted otherwise, and dropped it to a patch of ground to observe how the poison affected it. If the bone happened to turn into a more useful variant, she would do the same to all the rest of the broken-off bones. Otherwise, she’d just leave them be as they were.
When she next turned around to wake up Edward, Asteria noticed he was already up. It appeared he was making a crafting attempt of his own, disassembling the lizards’ jaws and trying to shape them into something. Asteria watched him do it, curious enough if he would succeed or not. When Ed was done, Asteria took the two sharpest and the other average bone needles, bundled them into a heap, and tied her own tail around them. She then awkwardly dragged all the functional bone needle weapons towards Asura and dropped them off in front of him. “Hey, if you think you could use this, go ahead. I thought of making a trap, but I have other plans for that one hole we dug out, now. Maybe you could use them as a projectile, like Jason supposedly does with earth?”
Finally, Asteria went back to the hole they had made for hiding the mana crystals, still empty, and observed it critically. She jumped into the hole and out of it, judging its depth. It didn’t look like she could comfortably lie in it and still see over the edge as it was now, so she pushed some of the dug-out earth back in. In as short as time as she could, she basically turned the hole into a small part of a ditch, the kind that she thought soldiers used for exactly what she was about to do. She lied into it, and was now able to see over the edge as well as not be quite as visible as she had been simply standing on the level ground. To try and heighten the effect of being hidden, she used her tail to push a very light layer of earth over herself, now regretting having cleaned her coat earlier, as the earth might otherwise stick to her better. Once her body was kind of covered, she spit into her paws and mixed some earth to her saliva, applying the mud to her face in an approximation of a camouflage. Her coat was naturally grey and so good for night-time ambushes, but if the goblins had a light source, which was likely seeing as they had had a bonfire, perhaps trying to look like part of the ground from the distance (and hopefully not look too suspicious from close-by) would help.
“Ed? Mother? If either of you finds the time, could you check how my camouflage looks like? I’m thinking of making an ambush, and if this seems effective, perhaps the two or three of us could all do it.” Asteria spoke, including Mother Rat on purpose just to test if she understood basic commands directed at her or not. Then, her head already in position to watch the cave's entrance comfortably, Asteria simply focused her gaze forward. She squinted a bit, so much so to try and conceal the gleam of her eyes, which she thought she heard to be one of the most easily apparent things besides teeth from a distance, as it was to try and see farther into the distance. She had already heard the goblins approaching, and perked her ears to try discerning their position by sound as well as sight.
”That seems unfair...” Naji pouted as Ash cast her gaze to the goblin corpse pile, obviously offended at the accusation of his clearly refined tastes. ”Eyes are nutrition and flavor dense. Second only to tongues.” He added from his perch atop Ash, but pushed it no further. If they ever got out of here, he’d have to get together some ingredients and see if he could replicate his mothers fish stew. If good old fashioned experiance had not taught these people the value of good meat, then being lured in with roasted fish in gravy with potatoes and other mixed veggies would.
A lull of silence fell over the group as they headed towards Ash’s camp, Naji silently taking the time to figure out how to navigate the menu. Firstly putting two points into iron gullet and putting the rest into Minor heal 1. With that out of the way, he tried to pull up any sort of options menu, somewhat hoping to find anything that could be called a language setting before giving up with a grumble.
The camp smelt of ash (the noun, not the pronoun he thought with a small chuckle) and faintly of Ash (Now the pronoun, not the noun)’s own lizardy....musk for lack of a better word. He hops off of Ash’s back with a dainty huff as the lizard settled into the small circle of dirt that comprised her sleeping quarters. He couldn’t stop himself from looking over the coals of the dying fire, sniffing experimentally at them. Acrid, woody, and the faint hue of burnt mold or lichen hit his nose. No good for hookahs, he noted almost automatically though he wasn’t sure why he even bothered checking. The likelyhood of anyone HAVING coconuts down here was slim enough that the idea of anyone burning their husks should have just been assumed to be impossible. Still, the smell of warmed over carbon drifting through the air was strangely comforting. All they needed now was the wafting tones of mint, mixed fruits, and cardamom and this cave would smell just like home.
Ash’s order for him to keep an eye on Colchian stirred him from his musings, causing him to pull back from the embers and back into the unreality of the cave-dream. ”Ah...uh...Sure.” He says, standing quickly before approaching the other lizard calmly. Col wouldn’t try anything with Ash around and, frankly, Naji wasn’t particularly worried if he did anyway. ”Hey buddy..” He says softly, tip toeing his way to the lizards face, hand out stretched to pet the scaled ball of muscle. ”You did good today pal. Whose is a good lizard?” He offers quietly, using a voice one might reserve for a small dog. Naji had no real idea how smart these lizards were generally, but he seemed a great deal less smart than Ash. So maybe the affectionate approach would be a good idea.
Well, she had managed to heal herself, but still no skill. Hm. She'd likely have to attempt it by herself then. She opened her eyes, taking a brief look around to check her surroundings. The sound of goblins shouting, a faint scream. The fight had started then? She wondered how the others would fare. Oh well, not a good thing to get distracted. Nothing seemed dangerous towards them so far at the moment, and she wanted to see if she could acquire this skill.
Glancing briefly over to Naji to make sure the other lizard was behaving, Ash focused back on her own spell casting. She could ask the pixies for more help, but...call it pride. Or just distaste for asking for help. She was used to doing everything by herself after all. No need in involving anyone else. She could do it. Breathing in, she focused on that undercurrent she had felt earlier. Gently at first, she tried to take control of this current, trying to guide it towards the area where the previous wound was. It likely wouldn't have any physical effects since her HP was full, but she could hopefully get a system message of a new skill.
With a huff, Scott set down the meat and unwrapped it carefully. Despite his best effort, he'd only managed to tear off a few mangled strips - he didn't have a knife or anything, after all, and the slipperiness of the blood hadn't really helped. He divided what he had into a few small portions - one each for himself, Naji, Ash, Danny, Colchain and Ardur. It probably wouldn't be a filling supper, but it was really better than nothing.
He looked up at Ash, who appeared to be using the stone he'd given her. He nodded, though it was mostly to himself. Danny was practising that magic attack of his - Scott would probably ask him about that. Naji was-
Scott jumped up and dashed over to the other pixie, grabbing at the other's arm, and trying to wrench it away.
"Are you serious, Naji?!" he whisper-shouted. "Don't you remember last time?!"
During the fight, Reoth had looked about to figure out which target, or targets, to help fight against. It had seemed to be that the trio of dire rats would be well taken care of, and while he thought of which enemy to go after the slime was lifted into the air. Surprisingly, the three pixies were able to combine their flight to get the slime off the ground, a little bit... for a short time. When they finally dropped it, it fell upon a batch of stalagmites and was both hurt and stuck. Well, as stuck as a slime would be.
Then the call came to bombard it with everything they had, poison spits and magic attacks, among other ranged attack. Reoth launched a couple poison spit shots of his own. It didn't take very long at all before the large blob seemed to deflate as it died, releasing its gelatinous and liquid insides onto the floor. Reoth was still hungry, having only taken a bite out of a goblin leg when they were attacked, and so while the others talked made his way over to the dead slime. While a lot of it was in puddle form and polling out, he he reached out and grabbed any parts that hadn't liquefied yet and swallowed them. Hopefully it would taste alright.
He made sure to avoid the dead rat it had been digesting, of course.
Finally the group decided to move out and away from the carnage they produced, and Reoth had no problems following along with them. He actually fell into step beside Colchain as the party crawled, or flew, to what looked to be a small campsite. It must be Ash's home or camp, whichever she said it was.
He more or less stood there awkwardly, not really sure of what to do until he watched Ash's interaction with an odd stone. Well, he knew magic existed since he witnessed what the pixies and wisp did during the fight. So with that in mind he approached the other lizard, "Mind if I ask you how you did that? I know magic is a thing after the last fight now, but I don't know if I can use it."
