Chương 19: Chapter 18

Corin watched him go, the memory of Bran's face while holding that sword surfacing with an involuntary shudder. He hoped he'd never see it again. Instead, it was soon replaced with a much more welcome sight: [DEBT - LIONEL] Owed: 15gc Debt Forgiven: 15gc Remaining debt: 0gc He stared at the box for a long moment, half expecting it to change. He'd managed to get out of it alive - for now.

Corin headed directly to the armory, where he picked out an iron hammer - an actual, proper weapon this time - along with a set of dark, well-worn leather armor to replace the tatters he'd been wearing: a fitted coat reinforced with buckled straps across the chest and one shoulder, light enough to move in, offering just enough protection to be worth the weight. He kept it light, as mobility mattered far more to him than defense.

Then he went to the barracks, marveling briefly at his actual bed, before putting his paltry possessions into his locker. A Guild clerk holding an inscribed stone tablet soon arrived in the barracks, walking towards him.

"D-rank induction," she said briskly.

"Hold it 'til it warms. Only takes the once." Corin put his hand towards it cautiously, finding it cool to the touch. Heat soon bloomed against his skin, and for a moment the stone seemed to pulse in time with his heartbeat, before going still and cold again.

"That's it?" Corin asked.

"That's it," the clerk replied, removing his copper F-rank badge and replacing it with a bronze D-rank one.

"'Grats." He didn't feel any different, until something suddenly clicked. It felt like something in the back of his mind had unlocked, like an ethereal door swinging gently open. Inside it, he found greater access to the Substrate: bounty postings sorted and searchable, a proper ledger of his own kills and earnings, Guild announcements he'd normally only catch secondhand - and perhaps what excited him most: information for, and access to, Dungeons. Those terrific - and terrible - places.

He wondered why most of the D-rank and above adventurers still gathered and looked at the physical board instead of just directly accessing it through the Substrate. He figured that old habits, especially comfortable ones, died the hardest. Corin found himself to be no exception, drifting toward the bounty board all the same, lightly jostling against the more eager adventurers for a good look.

He had a general quest in mind, and soon, something caught his attention: [BOUNTY: OUTSKIRTS CULLING - MIXED] Reports of increased pest activity across the western farmlands. Rats, blight beetles, stirges, and worse. Culling required, any and all. Payment varies by kill. Recommended minimum level/tier: 10/E The perfect quest for farming up my new Quick Study passive. [Burrow Mole (Lv. 1) slain!] [New {unique} creature slain! +1% XP Quick Study buff!] [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +3%] Corin watched the readout pop up with brief satisfaction, marveling at how little blood was his own. The western farmlands were saturated with all kinds of low-level creatures that feasted on farmland, farmland critter, and each other. It was a bloodbath, really.

Finding his iron hammer far more competent at skull-delving, he'd already killed five low-level creatures, three of which - a rat, a blight beetle, and now this rather-unfortunate mole - had been added onto his Quick Study stacking buff. He hadn't chosen this quest for its (pitiful) reward. No, he was trying to build up a base of immense XP stacking bonus before worrying about money. God, it felt so good to not worry about money. Something rustled through the field, moving at him with not much alacrity.

He readied his hammer. [Grain Weevil (Lv. 2) slain!] [New {unique} creature slain! +1% XP Quick Study buff!] [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +4%] Corin tossed the shed adder skin into his Bag of Holding, mentally filing it under maybe a copper, if I'm lucky, then went hunting for more. He checked his Quick Study stat again, half convinced it would've reset itself out of spite: [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +6%] Already almost half of what it was, and this one will only grow.

After hailing another adventurer doing the same quest - a woman, he assumed, judging by her light frame - he headed in the other direction since she'd likely already cleared whatever had been in her path. He caught occasional glimpses of creatures he'd killed already (the farmlands really did have a blight beetle problem, in particular), but he paid them no heed. Instead, a buzzing soon filled both his vision and his ears, as half a dozen Husk Locusts flew overhead.

A quick cast of Spark caught four of them, and the entire group immediately turned and came at him. Some frantic hammer-swinging did a decent job of delaying their attacks, until Spark finally went off cooldown and hit five of them, a Bolt thereafter sending a violent shock arcing through them, and five of the six dropped on the spot. [Husk Locust (Lv. 1) slain!] [New {unique} creature slain! +1% XP Quick Study buff!] [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +7%] [Husk Locust ×4 slain!] This left him dealing with a single locust, which didn't seem particularly dismayed at the loss of its brethren - locusts weren't the type to dwell on loss, really. Conserving his mana, he let the locust mount his shoulder and try to burrow toward his collar, and gave it a good squishing. [Husk Locust (Lv. 1) slain!] He immediately regretted it, now amply covered in locust-insides, but figured it was better than having it burrow into his skin instead.

Thereafter he moved through the cornfield, pushing the stalks aside as he did so, until he once more heard a rustling ahead. Hammer in one hand, other hand outstretched ready for combat, he swiftly flung the stalks aside and moved to attack.

"Friendly!" the adventurer in front of him cried, Corin fortuitously able to stop his hammer's advance before it smashed into her skull.

"Shit, fuck, I'm sorry," Corin stammered, as the woman in front of him took a half step backwards, still gauging whether he was actually harmless.

"Really, I'm so sorry. I thought you were a creature." Then recognition hit: the same light frame he'd spotted from a distance earlier, apparently having looped back around the same field he had. She was level 20. Far too high to be bothering with a bounty this small, and something about that, strangely, made him like her immediately. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

He noticed a slim dagger strapped to the underside of her forearm, blade angled to drop into her palm with a flick of the wrist, and her eyes briefly darted to his Bag of Holding.

"Same," she said, letting out a breath of relief.

"Had any luck?"

"Plenty," Corin replied, finally relaxing.

"They're everywhere."

"Really? I thought there was just one," she said, a brief flicker of confusion crossing her face as she tried to peer out over the farmlands, her view swallowed by the surrounding stalks, before turning back to him.

"Corin, right?"

"Ah, you've heard about me?" Corin asked, suddenly sheepish.

"The 'Epic Failure'."

"No, it says so on your badge," she replied, her confusion only deepening.

"Ah. Forget what I said," he said, peering at hers and noting she was actually from Wyrmhale's Guild, the neighboring city, "Yssa." He had no idea if he'd said it right. She let out a little laugh.

"Too late, Mr. Epic Failure - just please don't ambush me again, ok?" Corin scratched the back of his neck, feeling all kinds of awkward. He was never particularly good with the ladies. At least he assumed he wasn't, as he'd barely spoken to any that he wasn't directly related to.

"It's a deal." She gave him a little smile - eyes flicking to his Bag once more, ever-so-briefly again - then took a right turn through the fields, her (surprisingly delightful) figure soon disappearing entirely. Corin gave himself a few seconds of thought. Well. That could have gone worse. Could have gone a whole lot better, too. He took a left, deciding to move as far away from her as possible, perhaps due to strategy, perhaps due to not wanting to subject her to any more of him than was strictly necessary.

A few minutes went by without incident, before he came upon a small clearing. An oversized chicken was idly pecking at whatever chickens peck at, seemingly out of place from its surroundings.

"Escaped the hen house, buddy?" Corin said, taking a few steps towards it.

"You might be worth a small reward, if I can find where you belong." The chicken's eyes darted to Corin, and it looked decidedly angry. [Angry Chicken - Lv. 2 {Common}] HP: 15/15 Threat: Minimal Ah. The newly-buffed chicken charged, and Corin met it with his hammer.

[Total Quick Study XP bonus: +8%] [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +9%] Corin rubbed the remains of the Bloatfly off his sleeve, largely unsuccessfully; the name, it turned out, was not false advertising, as whatever had been bloating it had now thoroughly seeped through his armor. At least, he was nearing his goal: he'd agreed on calling it quits after hitting +10%, so he just needed one more unique kill to be able to go home.

The sun was already waning, and he wanted nothing to do with a night-time farmland, as that was when the real bastards came out to play. Unfortunately, he seemed to have cleared out all the unique species, as everything he was encountering was things he'd already killed. He'd do his best to avoid them, but still, around half would come for him and he'd be forced to expend time and energy killing something that barely benefited him.

There was a massive XP penalty for killing things far below your level, which explained a great deal about why he'd spent two years grinding low-level bounties and still sat at only level 10, long before his Foresight had ever been revealed as anything worth mentioning. It really wasn't worth the time unless you were farming for something specific, or, as in Corin's case, simply trying to (and often failing to) survive.

He was just thinking that maybe +9% was a perfectly fine achievement, but then, he felt a vibration in the ground. It didn't feel like it was coming from the surface - it was coming from under it. Corin was not particularly fond of anything that didn't exist on the same plane as him. Ground, perfectly understandable. Air? Not cool. Under ground? Oh, just fuck off. Definitely time to go home.

Corin turned and started briskly walking in the direction of the city, pushing blindly through the brush, noting with immense relief that the vibration was fading behind him. He'd just about reached the end of the cornfields, and breathed a sigh of relief. Or, at least, was about to. A scream broke out in the distance, the voice thereof unfortunately very, very familiar. Yssa. Corin briefly stared at the open grass, the clear exit, the city even visible in the distance. It would be so easy to leave. Fuck it, man.

Fuck it. Fuck everything. He took a step out of the field - then immediately turned and ran towards the source of the noise. Sprinting madly for a few minutes or more, he soon no longer had screams to follow. Instead, he could just feel the rumbling vibration of something underneath the surface, moving with an alarming degree of alacrity. He struggled to keep up with it at all, until he eventually came upon a massive hole in the ground, like it had suddenly, violently opened up.

There's no fucking way I'm going into that hole. He went into that hole. It was only a few meters in diameter, meaning that Corin had to hunch to walk through it, the smears of blood underneath doing little to imbue him with confidence. The vibrations were growing both closer, and weaker, as if whatever the creature was had slowed. Eventually, he came across a second hole, burrowed into the floor of the first.

There's no fucking way I'm- He jumped into the hole, apparently figuring that once you've descended down one hole, that was now more or less a defining character trait. He cast Tether on the underside of it in case it was a long drop. This proved to be unnecessary, as he landed shortly thereafter on soft ground. He could feel movement stirring around him - a genuinely unpleasant sensation, given he couldn't see a single thing. Cursing the fact that he had nothing to light a flame with, he came upon a sudden idea.

He was completely unsure if it would work, but necessity was the mother, and often bastard father, of invention. Corin shot out a Tether from his hand, then cast Spark on it and his surroundings. This briefly bathed the entire burrow in light, and left a Charge directly on the Tether, casting a luminescent glow all around him. He had little time to marvel at his ingenuity, however, as the glow itself only carried a few meters - but the Spark's brief flash had already revealed what waited in the dark beyond it.

A massive Grubmother lay curled around Yssa like an anaconda, body directly covering and smothering her face, as a dozen smaller grubs all burrowed into her flesh. It's feeding her to its young. Corin could just make out the horrified, frantic, muffled cries of terrified agony coming from her as the grubs moved further and further into her. [Minor Heal cast!] The heal hit her directly, a small mercy that hopefully gave Corin enough time to figure out how to save her.

Now, the real problem was that Corin couldn't save her, a fact emphasized once the creature's description appeared in his vision: [Grubmother - Lv. 23 {Uncommon}] HP: 300/300 Threat: Near-fatal Corin doubted he could kill it alone, but the dozen grubs all around it meant that it was practically impossible. The heal worked, both fortunately and incredibly unfortunately, as it immediately drew the Grubmother's attention straight to him.

It slid its grip off Yssa, mouth stretching wide enough to swallow him whole as it charged at him. Corin shot his glowing Tether upwards just as it came at him, using its sudden pull to leap over the Grubmother, its glow revealing the many open, bleeding cuts it had - Yssa had not been taken without a fight. He landed with a clumsy roll over it then ran at her, noting that she was moving again.

The heal and lack of constriction had granted her some degree of respite, her dagger stabbing at the various grubs burrowing into her, her shrieking now tinted with rage instead of just pain.

"We need to get out," Corin said, and Yssa shook her head violently.

"Not a fucking chance," she said through gritted teeth, letting out another scream of pain as one grub forced its way into her stomach, the other grubs digging into her proving just as efficient. She pulled at her belt, removing a large healing potion from it. Corin had a sudden flash of an idea.

"You'll thank me later," he said, just as he saw her HP starting to fly up, and she looked at him in confusion."

"Why would I th-" [Spark cast!] [Bolt cast!] [Grub (Lv. 2) slain!] [New {unique} creature slain! +1% XP Quick Study buff!] [Total Quick Study XP bonus: +10%] Eleven more kill notifications popped up in his periphery, but the only thing he saw was Yssa's fuckin' fierce expression after her cry of pain.

"What the fu -" Corin felt a reverberating vibration crash across the burrow, as the Grubmother came at them again, enraged at the death of its brood. Corin glanced at the incoming Grubmother in resignation, then back at Yssa.

"Cut me out," Corin said simply, shooting an Empowered Tether between Yssa and the ceiling above and snapping it closed, flinging her up into the air just as the Grubmother opened its maw. She didn't have time to ask what the hell he meant - seeing as he dove straight down its throat, past the ring of its massive teeth, the Grubmother's mouth snapping shut a half-second behind him.