Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) (6 page)

“I see. You don’t have any survival skills right?” asked Rhea.

Scott frowned. There it was again. He had not developed his survival skill set. How could he? It required eighty thousand experience points! “I have a lore ring for it, but the experience requirement is high so I have not been working on it.”

Rhea nodded at him. “True, at our levels it is hard to give up that much experience. You might want to try it for the next few days, though. I require a lot of experience to gain a level compared to you. If you use the bonus, you might be able to gain the skill in a few days.”

“Good point. I’ll give it a try. If the experience seems too low, I’ll just level till the bonus ends.” said Scott.

The sorcerer equipped his survival lore ring. It was time to see what this thing would do for him. “Survival ring status.”

<<< * >>>

Mid’s Ring of Survival Lore

This ring contains knowledge of the survival skill set. By feeding your life experience into the ring you will be able to learn the skills that it holds.

EXP:
0/80000

<<< * >>>

“Right, let’s go find something to brutally murder for fun and profit.” said Scott.

Rhea patted him on the shoulder in a comforting manner. “There, there, such a sensitive soul.”

He laughed at her a little then smiled. It sucked that he had to give up so many beautiful experience points. Eighty thousand experience points would boost his level quite a bit. Still, he seemed to be missing out on a lot of things due to not having any survival skills.

Scott considered his recent thoughts and actions. They walked further into the old mine, but his thoughts were not on the monsters. His thoughts were once again drawn to how much he had changed. He had hunted in the real world, as he thought of his old life sometimes, but never to the extent that he hunted in this world. It was like he wanted to kill everything that moved. Honestly, who was the real monster here?

His thoughts and idle speculation were interrupted by the sudden arrival of rats, lots of rats. Scratch that, there were lots of really big freaking rats.

“Cave rat swarm! Be ready!” said Rhea excitedly.

Scott nodded to her then prepped his freeze spell. There had to be at least thirty of the waist-high rodents running toward them. What had they been eating all of this time to get that big? He did not have the time to consider it at the moment, but it was a question that he would ponder in the future.

The sorcerer fired off two freeze spells back-to-back in a wide dispersal pattern. Over a dozen of the oversized rodents were caught in the effect, and to the sorcerer’s surprise the damage was quite high. Little red numbers ranging from thirty-two to forty-six popped up atop each of the stricken creatures. Increasing the force of the spell had increased the damage potential greatly!

Rhea dashed toward the rats at an angle, her blade already surging with elemental lightning. That particular elemental spell was her favorite to use on her sword as it had a strong chance of paralyzing most enemies.

The elf maiden leapt upward and performed a hard slash in mid-air. She neatly hacked into the side of one of the rats that had chosen to try a jumping attack. The moment that she landed, she performed a spinning motion that allowed her to avoid an oncoming rodent while striking at its rear.

Due to the sheer number of monsters, Scott opted to go ahead and train his freeze spell. He ducked and dodged around the beasts before casting freeze three more times. Several cave rats froze solid due to the overlapping spells, but most continued on. Surprisingly, despite doing over a hundred points of damage to a few of them none of the rats had died yet. What level were they, anyway?

Rhea rushed in and performed a quick lunging strike, before twisting out of the way of another rat. Her defense was not perfect, however. A third rodent managed to reach her while she was repositioning and bit down on her left arm. She cried out in pain as a bright red number twelve floated upward.

“Rhea!” Scott heard her cry out, and immediately started to move toward her position. However, she called out that she was fine before she bashed the rat in the eye with the pommel of her sword.

The cave rat attacking Rhea let go with a squeal, but it was immediately replaced by three more rats that had been trying to get at what they considered to be the easier meat. Scott’s spells were devastating to them at the moment.

Scott leapt atop the back of one of the larger rats that he had frozen and began to repeatedly stab and slash it with his claws. The rat died quickly due to its already weakened state. The sorcerer swiftly moved on to the next monster, and then another one after finishing it off.

The elf hopped back and then to the side to avoid a leaping rat. She followed her evasive movement with a quick dash to the left. She had spied a rocky out cropping that she could use. Once she reached the bit of rock, she called out to her comrade. “Scott! If you have any mana left, try to herd them toward me!”

“I’ve always got a little for you, Rhea!” called Scott happily.  He could not see the girl blush from this distance, but he knew that she was probably bright red at the moment.

Several rats moved toward Rhea, but Scott was still closer. Most of them wanted to hang out with him in the hopes of catching a meal. He rewarded them with a freezing blast of magical energy that finished off three more of the rats, froze another two, and sent several more squealing and scrambling away.

He only had one more cast left in him, but that was fine. The rats were complying with Rhea’s plan anyway. Scott continued to hack, slash, stab, and annoy the rodents to the best of his ability. One did manage to sneak past his guard and bit into his side, but it did only a single point of damage. There was something to be said for the sorcerer’s agility and defense bonuses when combined with armor!

Scott elbowed the annoying rat bastard in the skull and it dropped away. He followed that attack by leaping forward to perform a powerful kick with his bladed boots that tore open the side of one of the rats, before he spun to the left and launched a powerful stabbing strike to the next closest rodent’s chest.

Rhea’s voice carried over the loud squealing and chatter of the rodents. She had begun to sing a litany, a short elven battle song.

~Long and long, the lonely road,

No one knows where it goes.

Dance and Dance till the end,

Get up on your toes...~

She continued singing, and after a few verses passed the rats began to act strangely. First the ones closest to her did it, and then others chose to do it as well. The rats had begun to dance against their will!

<<< * >>>

The cave rats have become slaves to the rhythm! While the song’s effect lasts they will be unable to do anything but dance, dance, dance!

<<< * >>>

Scott would have taken advantage of the effect sooner, but he was enraptured by the beautiful voice of his comrade. He had never heard anyone sing with such a radiant and clear tone. No one human could have made such a sound, he was sure of it.

He shook off the unintended side-effect of Rhea’s unadulterated awesomeness then set about the task of rodent extermination. Scott immediately began to stab, slash, beat, maim, and utterly destroy the dancing rodents with great zeal.

They screamed as they danced, blood poured from their hapless bodies. An agile whirl wind of death danced alongside them, tearing their lives away while they helplessly shook their furry little groove thangs.

Rhea continued to sing until her mana ran out completely. All but four rats had succumbed to their wounds. The remainder did not have much life left in them, either.

Scott and Rhea nodded to each other then set about finishing the battle. The sorcerer ran to the right. The arcane blade ran to the left. Together they performed quick slashing movements that continued to whittle down the health of the remaining rodents while preventing the furry little beasts from gaining a single hit.

After the final rat died and exploded in a shower of light, Scott surveyed the area while panting heavily from the exhausting battle. When no more monsters presented themselves, he looked at Rhea with a feral grin.

The battle music faded away and a somber song took its place. It was a song filled with quiet tones and soft scuttling sounds. The battle report displayed immediately after the change in the musical score.

<<< * >>>

Victory!

You have faced a thirty-two cave rat contingent and lived to tell the tale!

+0 EXP

+1152 Fayth

+32 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

Cave Rat Tail X 32

Small Cave Rat Pelt X 48 (
Poor Condition
)

Cave Rat Eye X 7

Cave Rat Fang X 3

<<< * >>>

“No experience points? Let me check my ring.” Scott looked to his survival lore ring and read the experience information.

After reading it for a moment he blinked then turned to look at Rhea. “Seven hundred eighteen experience points. Holy crap...”

“Well, it was a swarm and the experience is doubled. Do you still think that you won’t be able to gain the experience points necessary to gain survival skills?” Rhea smirked at him then tossed her hair around with a sudden twist of her head.

The sorcerer chuckled softly then happened to take in the sight of the blood and gore that had been splattered about on the floor and walls of the mine. The bodies had disappeared but the destruction had remained. Still, he did not care about that. His first instinct was something a bit more goofy than depressing. “You see that, rats! That’s the power of friendship, bitches!”

Rhea could not help herself. She threw her arms up and cried out in a feminine display of comradery. “Yeah! Friendship, bitches!”

Scott put his hand to his mouth and made a gasping noise. “Rhea, such language...”

She pouted at him. “You said it first...”

He could not keep pretending to be offended after seeing her devastating pout. He started to laugh. She laughed as well, and they enjoyed the moment. However, Scott decided to ruin it.

“So much blood.” He leaned over and wiped his hand on Rhea’s armor.

She squawked like an overly-excited chicken then asked, “What are you doing?”

He grinned at her, “Sharing the spoils...”

“Eww, stop that!” she cried. Rhea backed away from him with a horrified look on her face.

Scott advanced on her position, “Comrades should share everything, even a bed. You remember that right?”

She immediately turned and fled, her hair streaming behind her. “No, that sounds like something you made up!”

“Stop running away and become my towel!” Scott laughed when his overly dramatic statement caused her to cry out. He gleefully began to chase the girl around the mine. Was it stupid to be playing around like this in a cave full of monsters? Yes. Still, there was something about the moment that he truly enjoyed. Maybe he was just designed to be an asshole? Either way, the moment felt nice.

“Nooo!” wailed Rhea while she ran for the cave exit. They would need to rest a little to restore their mana anyway. They might as well head back to the tent and get cleaned up.

Scott took off after her as his laughter filled the air. He had not had this much fun with someone in quite a while.

--

Three days passed as they hunted in the Red Rock Mine. Due to the absurdly high number of monsters that appeared whenever they entered the cave system, they had never had to go in too deeply. The tent proved to be invaluable during this time.

Scott had thought that it would only last for twenty-four hours, but it turned out that his information had been wrong. The tents actually lasted twenty-four hours after each use. They could not be taken up and used again, but as long as you kept using the tent it would not disappear for one full day after each rest period.

There were limits, however. A simple tent like the one that they were using degraded over time. It would stop working after a week at most, even if the tent did not disappear. That was more than enough time to fight and rest for training. They could purchase more in the future and never need to worry about having to run back to town to rest.

Rhea was extremely happy. She had finally reached level seven after their third hunting trip. If Scott had not been focused on developing his survival skills he would have gained several levels. However, once the bonus period ended he could just fight the monsters for normal levels of experience. He would still gain levels at an accelerated rate compared to fighting back in the Victory Station region.

“I’m close to gaining another level, Scott.” said Rhea, excitement obvious in her tone. They had managed to find places in the early portion of the mine where they could use the terrain to their advantage. After that, they had found it much easier to deal with monster swarms, though the goblin parties they fought had been decidedly harder to deal with than the rats. Goblins also gave much more experience, however.