Chapter 237: It’s Not About Killing Monsters (1/2)

They heard the monsters before they saw them. It began with the sound of something moving loudly through the thick jungle, pushing its way roughly through the undergrowth. Humphrey had them turn around and go back the way they came, making for one of the defensible points he had been looking out for as they travelled.

He had picked out a construction that had held up better than most, due to being a solid, flat, stone platform. It was only around chest high, far from enough to stop monsters, but was at least an impediment they could work with. It was also sized fairly well for the team, giving Sophie and Humphrey the chance to move about while staying close to the more vulnerable party members.

Shade returned to his normal form, gently depositing his riders on the ground. The others took a moment to begin calling up their summons and familiars while Stash turned from a riding lizard into a giant marsh hydra. At bronze rank he could take the physical form of bronze-rank monsters but could only use the full magical powers of iron-rank monsters. He could use some minor magical abilities of bronze-rank monsters, but certainly nothing as powerful as the hydra’s potent rapid healing. What he did get was the hydra’s strength, toughness and multiple, teeth-laden heads.

Jason directed Gordon to stay with the main group as the familiar’s direct damage would be more useful to the team than it would for Jason in the fight to come. He was about to leave when Humphrey held him up.

“Jason,” Humphrey said. “We’re going to lean on you heavily for this, but I know you can do it.”

Jason chuckled.

“Humphrey,” he said, shaking his head, “you still don’t really understand adventuring. It’s not about killing monsters.”

Jason tugged casually at his new, bronze-rank battle robe.

“It’s about how you look while you’re killing monsters. And you have to admit…”

Jason’s shadow cloak manifested around him.

“…I make this look good.”

“Dear gods, you’re insufferable,” Neil called out from where he was setting up a summoning circle. “Also, good luck and please don’t die.”

Jason slipped the hood of his magical cloak back, giving Humphrey a rare smile completely devoid of smirk.

“Don’t go getting it into your head that you have to do all the work,” Jason warned him. “Don’t go thinking that you’re the one who has to save everyone, to make the big sacrifice. Remember when I got it into my head to go of and kill all those bandits alone? I was wrong to do that. Be the beneficiary of my mistakes. It’s not just about you. Or me, which I need to be reminded of, from time to time.”

“Happy to help!” Neil called out, still pouring the salt for his summoning circle.

“Thank you, Neil,” Jason said flatly, then turned his attention back to Humphrey.

“Trust the team, Humphrey. Rely on the team. We’re pretty good. Well, Neil’s okay. But the rest of us…”

Jason slipped his hood back up and lightly ran off, vanishing into the jungle. He was stronger when he was free to run rampant, but would remain in contact with the team through the voice chat.

There were ropey vines all over the platform and Clive handed Sophie and Belinda vials they used to rapidly wither the plants and give themselves clear footing. It was a concoction of Jory’s that Clive had acquired a supply of before returning to the jungle-covered city. They didn’t have enough for it to waste on pathfinding through jungle scrub, but to give them some much-needed solid footing in a crucial moment it was perfect.

As the two women cleared off the plants, Clive started drawing out ritual circles. He started with a large one in the centre of the platform, his battle platform ritual that would enhance the wand and staff attacks, as well as any damage spells of the group. Then he moved on to circles attached to the end of his weapons. The glowing lines moved with the weapons as he waved them about.

The advantage of staff and wand weapons was that they were highly mana efficient, compared to combat magic. The disadvantage was that they were also weaker, but Clive’s ritual circles would help remedy that.

The circles he was using would refine the ambient magic of the area and feed it into the weapons, providing additional power without requiring additional mana from Clive’s own pool. The impact this would have on the ambient magic once he started using his weapons meant that any further rituals in the area would be tricky to use for a while, but that was hardly a concern with what was about to happen.

Clive decided to get in before then and try something he had been working on. It wasn’t related to his essence abilities, instead being a work of pure ritual magic. Ritual magic designed for combat some exceptionally rare, and it was something Clive had developed himself.

He started drawing ritual circles in the air, one after another in a line, like a tube. He poured large amount of his own mana into each one, largely depleting his mana pool by the time he was done. It ran from the centre of the battle platform circle directly toward the jungle where the sound of rushing monsters was growing louder by the moment.

Humphrey and Neil, in the meantime, were calling up their summons. Neil’s chrysalis golem looked different at bronze rank. It was just as tall but the formerly chunky, ogrish form was now more refined, like a powerfully muscled giant.

For his own summon, Humphrey hesitated before throwing the summoner’s die. He ultimately decided to use it, knowing that it could provide a crucial advantage in what would be a punishing battle. Hopefully, even a bad role would be mitigated by the new ability it had gained on reaching bronze rank. At first, Humphrey had thought there was no change to the function of the die, as there was little change to the description.

Item: [Summoner’s Die: Form] (bronze rank [growth], legendary)

An eldritch tool for altering the nature of summoned creatures (tool, die).

Requirements: Summoning power.Effect: Rolling this die while enacting a bronze-rank or lower summoning power will randomly alter the form the summon takes.Can be used in conjunction with [Summoner’s Die: Element] and [Summoner’s Die: power]. Using more than one die of the same kind will negate the effects of all dice.

What he had only later realised was that three of the faces on the die had changed. It had only been the day before when he used the die and one of the new faces rolled up. After stopping, the symbol that lit up was not that of an animal, but one that Clive quickly translated as meaning ‘power.’ The die had then rolled again, on its own, landing on the symbol for wolf. The result had been Humphrey’s summons turning into werewolf like creatures, larger, more powerful and standing on two legs. They were still made of dragon bone and had the conjured equipment generated by Humphrey’s storage power, in this case, bronze-rank armour perfectly tailored to fit their unusual body shape.