Chương 15: An Affront to Nature

The sickness brewing in her head made Veronika feel right at home. She didn't need to see properly to keep going. Her mothers imaginary words acted as a whip to her feet, driving them up to higher footholds. It was a stark contrast from the way the system's soothing voice melted her drive to continue her mission. Once her hand settled at the top of the wall, she hauled herself up on instinct alone. She lay back on the path. Her vision slowly returned and revealed the sky above. It was blinding. It was beautiful.

Wait, why was something starting to block it?

"Hello?" LOA poked Veronika's side..

"Are you okay? Do you need to rest?" Veronika sat up.

"I was just looking at the view." She shoved LOA's hand away.

"And do not touch me again. Disrespect like that will get you executed no matter how useful you are."

"I just wanted to make sure you were conscious…"

"Mission accomplished. Now can we get back to our real mission? It looks like we only have about eight kilometers to go." LOA perked up.

"That's not bad at all! We'll be there in no time."

"That's not the issue. I knew it wouldn't take long to climb up, but just getting there alive isn't enough. We can't trust that these people won't be gunning for us the second we step inside."

"I guess. But what are we gonna do? I doubt there's any witches lurking on this mountain for us to hunt."

"System," Veronika called, hoping a simple summon would get the thing to talk, "does hunting wildlife give any XP?" It depends. If your role was [The Hunter], then yes, killing any animal would count. Otherwise, you won't get much from killing a little bunny-rabbit unless it was somehow related to your role. I suppose a chef or groundskeeper could get more XP from killing harmless animals. Since your role involves being skilled with a gun, you could get XP from impressive shots against anything.

And of course, if a dangerous animal attacked you, winning a fight against it would be a real source of XP. With that said, there's no shortage of curious critters on Ring. The magic that keeps this environment thriving has a bit of a… mutating effect. So, lucky for you, there should be a bear or two you can fight. Veronika looked to the sky and saw two avian figures flying in circles around the mountain.

They blended into the background earlier as normal fauna, but it was impossible to tell if they were ordinary birds from so far away. She didn't think to check earlier. She pulled the sniper rifle off of her back and mounted her scope to it.

"If those are normal birds of prey, they shouldn't be too far away." She pointed her gun towards one.

"Too close to see clearly with this scope." She followed the bird with her scope until it came into view. The raptor had mostly black feathers with a brilliant splash of white on both wings. Its wingspan was magnificent; it reminded Veronika of the Steller's Sea Eagles that nested near her childhood training camp. They were already fierce creatures without magical intervention, though they posed no real threat to humans. These however, were no ordinary eagles. The image of the bird was clear under her scope.

A sea eagle that far away would look like a dot to the naked eye, not the clear figures she saw gliding around.

"A giant Steller's Sea Eagle. I almost feel bad about shooting it down. I learned a lot from them as a kid." At least they were the devil's sea eagles — tainted by demonic magic. No woman had the right to alter such glorious creatures. Magical mutations could be painful. Taking them out was a mercy. She repeated that in her head as her blood fueled the shot. It's too bad the bird didn't see it that way.

The blast of light went straight for its head, but it twisted its body around and avoided the quick death Veronika was trying to grant it. The energy clipped through the edge of its wing instead, earning a pained screech from the creature. She could see feathers flying through her scope as the bird's flight path became more erratic. It tilted towards the injury and started flapping the wing harder. A normal sea eagle would've fled, but this one stared straight into Veronika's scope and descended towards her.

"Perfect. LOA, be ready for a battle. We don't know what this thing is capable of." Veronika focused on the eagle's right talon. She sent a lighter shot into the center of the foot before the scope's view became too blurry. The same talon ran into her scope and knocked the rifle out of her hands. God, the thing was larger than an ostrich. Its beak had a razor sharp edge, and it looked like it was… salivating? The bird was either sick or just plain ungodly. Probably both. Finally! It's time for a [RINA RUMBLE].

Remember little Pajiri, you only have half of your max resistance points at the moment. The impact was enough to make Veronika lose her balance. She stumbled backwards and let her left hip hit the ground before rolling out of the way of the bird's landing. LOA was standing to the side and let out two shots from the guns built into her forearms. They hit the bird square in the chest, but that wasn't enough to bring the beast down. Its pained cries rang through Veronika's ears.

The beast took a few blind stabs at the ground with its beak. It managed to graze Veronika's left hip as it waddled closer. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. That's gonna be eight points of resistance drained from my little puppy. She quickly pushed her body back towards the mountain wall and pulled herself up. She pulled both of her pistols out of their holsters. It was time to see what the system cooked up for her.

You've just equipped the special artifact [Second Nature]: two pistols that you wield as an extension of yourself. At your current Pawn I rank, these babies do 50% extra damage to heretics and 100% extra damage to witches. Oh, and they also merge into your arms, where they can be called upon whenever you need them. But be careful, using them nonstop will do a number on your resonance reserve.

"Wait, what?" She felt the pistols sink into her skin. It wasn't painful, but the metal invading her hands sent a chill up both arms. She had thought about the witch hunters turning her into a robot earlier. She didn't think a demon woman would start the process first. She wanted to scream at the system and demand it take its filthy magic out of her body, but it was far too late for that. She had accepted the magic that came with her role. Her soul was already damned.

Veronika would take solace in killing the woman with her own enchantments. She tried wiggling her fingers. They moved enough to still be able to squeeze the pistols' triggers. She focused on channeling her life-energy into them, and found that it transferred out of her veins seamlessly. Usually it took a bit of effort to push the energy out into the metal gun. This just felt like nutrients diffusing from a vein to a different part of the body. Fuck. Fuck "Rina" and her fucking system. Fuck everything!

It turned out her fingers didn't matter. Her own rage made the weapons start firing. The barrage of light was more fragmented than her normal shots. Each piece landed just below the bird's neck. Blood sprayed forward onto Veronika, LOA, and the wall behind them. As if the mountain needed anymore blood stains. At least it wasn't Veronika's blood. The bird took two staggering steps forward and lunged at her. It had taken too much damage to move quickly.

Veronika dodged to the side and let it wedge its beak into the mountain wall. She then placed the barrel of her gun-hand against its neck and released one last pellet of light. It tore through its feathered skin, and the once-majestic bird fell to the ground without a sound. Before she could collect herself, she heard LOA yelp. Her escort was being lifted into the air by the second eagle. It was likely the other bird's mate, just as pissed off by Veronika's attack as the actual victim.

She lifted her pistols once again, but the energy reserves she used to fuel them were running thin. The transfer was so efficient that she used up more energy than intended. Sorry boo, you used up five resonance points with that first attack. You only have two points left. Don't worry, you can still fire normal bullets while your blood recovers its life-energy.

"How am I supposed to load these things?" She flapped her gun hands around.

"Eat the bullets?" Exactly! Look how smart you are. I'll give you +1 [Learning].

"I thought I had a few more years before I started literally consuming ammunition." The guns retreated into her arms. She threw her backpack down and pulled out a box of bullets.

"Ugh…here goes nothing, I guess." She poured her little cache into her mouth and tried to think about anything else. They went down surprisingly easy. Fucking demon magic. The bullets didn't make it to her stomach. She felt them pushing through her throat's mucosa and the rest of the flesh that stood between them and the guns hiding in her arms. She wished she could say it hurt, but it just felt intrusive.

"And this is the only way to reload? I can't just let the bullets sit on my arms until they seep through?" When did I say eating was the only way? Of course they can penetrate your skin directly. Geez, you're lucky I don't make a habit of taking attribute points away…

"Shut up!" For the first time in her life, Veronika was what she ate: a weapon. She shot at both of the attacking bid's talons, which reflexively opened up and released LOA. Her pistols retreated once again, and Veronika turned around to goad the bird into chasing her. She reached a rocky ledge she could easily jump onto. The bird was now flying just below her, and she jumped off of the ledge onto its back. She wrapped her arms around its neck and yanked it back towards the mountain wall.

The bird slammed into it face-first. It reeled its head back and then clamped its beak around Veronika's hand. The gun returned to her hand. She didn't need to fire another bullet. The barrel itself carved through the bird's neck as she summoned it.

"Ok, it sounded horrific, but gun hands are pretty useful." Veronika grabbed the wall and let the bird fall. She gently slid back down to the path. Two massive eagle corpses lay in front of LOA, who was still prone on the floor.

"We really just killed them for XP," she whispered.

"Don't sulk. We won't waste the bodies. Start setting up camp."

"So you did need to rest!" Veronika scoffed.

"Don't get too excited. I just want to recover the resistance I used up with my skill. I don't want to march in unprepared, remember?"

"Got it… I'll start defeathering the birds." What a fine way to end an afternoon. You get +160 XP for defeating two of my giant sea eagles! Which means… [Rina Ring!] You've reached level two. You get +2 [Brawn] and +1 [Motility]. You also get to choose a new skill! [Purgation] lvl 1, or [Question Extraordinary] lvl 1 [Purgation]: Consume resonance to choose one pawn you have met before and witnessed indulging in anything you consider a vice.

The pawn is informed that they are being watched by your skill, and must refrain from indulging for 24 hours. If they fail, they are consumed by a purifying light and take damage equal to 3x your [Resolve] score. The purifying light will heal all onlookers an equal amount split from the damage done to the target. [Question Extraordinary]: Consume resistance and resonance to choose one pawn with the [Guilty] condition. The target is transported to a torture chamber with you. The target is immobilized.

You have access to an array of tools that you can use to "question" your target with. If they admit to being a witch, they will die. If the target persists for two hours, they lose the [Guilty] condition and receive the [Absolved] condition, which prevents them from ever being marked [Accused] or [Guilty] ever again. Veronika couldn't use either skill at her current resonance level. Question Extraordinary seemed like a witch hunter staple given its connection to Trial by Ordeal.

It was probably best to hold off on taking it until she got a handle on the witch hunters she'd be working with.

"I'll take Purgation." Veronika Pajiri-Li learned [Purgation] lvl 1. Now get resonating so you can actually use it.