Chapter 44 (2/2)

The centipede screeched and attacked. Randidly spread his hands wide, roots springing out of the ground to seal its movements, fire in his hands to cause it pain. A small smile played across his lips.

This was what he lived for now, this thrill.

Carefully keeping an eye on his stamina and mana levels, Randidly rushed forward, dodging closer. The centipede could spit acid and writhe its powerful body, but it couldn’t do much else.

Decklan stayed to the side and would rush in, severing one or two legs with his blades, then hurry away. If the centipede noticed this, Randidly hit in the mouth with a blast of fire, earning its ire.

The battle dragged on, minutes crawling passed. Minutes clumped together, until the total time they were fighting neared an hour and a half. Randidly continued to swallow potion after potion, maintaining a reasonable condition.

Every few minutes Decklan would stop and take a break, his chest heaving. Only after his stamina recovered did he rejoin the battle.

There were several large holes on the Centipede’s torso now, ichor oozing out. It’s hisses became more and more wrathful, however, as fury at its attackers overwhelmed any self-preservation instincts.

Eventually, after a battle so long that even Randidly was reaching the end of his potion fueled stamina, the creature swayed and fell, one of Lyra’s birds perched on its head.

Randidly collapsed. 2 whole levels of Physical Fitness, 1 of Spear Deflect, another 2 in Fireball, 2 in Haste and Empower, 1 in Running.

Just enough PP to finally finish off The Monster Slayer Path.

Congratulations! You have completed the The Monster Slayer Path! +10 stat(s) +5 to Health Regen, Mana Regen, and Stamina Regen. +.5 Health, Mana, and Stamina Regen per level. Although the path before you is long, you cannot stop. You can only drink the blood and bath in the gore. You may emerge changed, but you at least you will be alive.

A growth rate that includes regen stats…? Although this wouldn’t help him currently, the other bonuses were enough of a boost to his current abilities that he didn’t mind. It was a good haul. Randidly slowly got to his feet and grimaced, looking at the huge body.

Annoyingly, it looked like most of these points would go into Strength just so he could bring the thing back.

****

It started as a low noise, pretty similar to the usual bustle of activity at the Newbie Village, which people had begun calling Donnyton, a grunting and dragging. But it had a strange way of spreading. As if everything nearby the source of the noise went quiet.

All in all, it was extremely annoying to Daniel, who was working out schedules for the Dungeon. They had split their now almost 200 strong Classers into 20 person groups, putting veterans with some fresh blood, sending them into the Dungeon for tempering, as most of the nearby monsters had been pushed back by their expansion.

There had been a few casualties, which made Daniel regretful, but it was hard to take it too much to heart; so many people had died since the System came to this world, and more would die tomorrow. That was just the way the world worked.

And why this was necessary; they needed to gain strength to survive.

Now though, Daniel was stuck with the annoying task of scheduling it all. Theoretically, they could have it in use almost constantly, except for the 24 hour cooldown. But they would need more people for that. So for now...

Daniel looked up. Finally, the strange dragging reached the front of the village, and everything else seemed to have fallen completely silent. Annoyed, he walked out to see what all the lack of fuss was about.

The sight made Daniel just as speechless as the rest of them.

Randidly, walked forward, a veritable Atlas, carrying a huge, centipede body on its shoulders. He appeared to have looped it several times around himself, so he could carry a larger portion. The body of it was thicker than most men’s torsos, and stretched for 30 meters. The tail dragged on for about 20 of those, the rest on Randidly’s shoulders, a exhausted Decklan pushing from the back.

A lovely girl with blonde hair appeared to be napping on the middle section of that thing’s back, heedless.

Randidly looked at them all and grunted. “Dozer, give me a hand; Decklan isn’t pulling his weight.”

The joke earned a few nervous chuckles from the crowd, and Dozer walked forward, gesturing for several people to follow. Dozer went to the middle of the body and lifted. Immediately his expression changed. He shifted his stance and picked up again, taking the weight onto his shoulders. Two of Dozer’s men nervously approached the lovely girl, unsure of whether to help or leave her alone, but her eyes snapped open and she snorted.

Hopping off the Centipede, she blew a kiss at Randidly. “It’s been fun. Let’s play again, Doggy~. You take me the most interesting places.” Then she walked away.

As Dozer’s men came to the centipede, Decklan collapsed, grateful.

Randidly grunted again and began walking. “Taking this to Sam’s. Let’s see him complain about materials after I drop this on his fucking doorstep.”

Almost all of Dozer’s men holding the Centipede gulped and began to sweat.

It wasn’t a far walk, but…

But more importantly, how the hell far did you bring this thing, all by yourself?

Daniel could hear it too. The whispers.

Ghosthound… Ghosthound…

That’s the Ghosthound.

Slowly, those individuals who were new to the town looked on with bright, awestruck eyes.