Moonlighting 5 (1/2)

Xera had spent a good half hour climbing up the narrow passage inside the Hylt tree’s root. Thankfully it got a bit wider as she got higher up, though not wide enough to let her fly up it on her wings. Eventually it stopped going upwards and evened out a bit, allowing her to crawl rather than climb. She really had no idea what her position relative to the ground was, as her entire world consisted of nothing but the chewed up walls of a lumber tunnel.

A few minutes later, the tight passage opened up into the side of a large, hollowed out chamber that was vaguely cylindrical in shape. It was mind-bogglingly tall, as it went so far straight up that she couldn’t even see the top. As for the shape itself, it was irregular to say the least. The termites had eaten away at the insides of the mighty tree with reckless abandon, leaving the walls of this tall cavern riddled with numerous ridges, cliffs and caves. In fact, the passage that Xera was currently poking her head out of was only one of what appeared to be hundreds of tunnels that lined the walls of this space.

Looking down from her tiny perch, she saw the uneven bottom of the hollowed-out tree trunk some 40 or 50 meters below her. Well, she assumed the bottom was down there, but she couldn’t actually see it. What must have been hundreds of large insects crawled all over it, completely hiding the ‘ground floor’ from view. The walls surrounding the succubus were also thick with the creatures, easily putting their numbers in the four digit range, possibly beyond that.

The seasoned succubus cast her gaze further upwards and noted that, thankfully, the writhing mass of termites did not extend all the way up to the top of this place. The extra-large-sized colony appeared to have been steadily eating their way downwards over the course of a long time, so the vast majority of the swarm was concentrated here. And while the succubus wasn’t sure what her current altitude was, she had a sneaking suspicion these guys had started at the very top of the tree.

“Master, I think I’ve found the nest,” she reported with a hint of sarcasm.

“Can you take care of it out yourself?”

“Probably, but… are you sure? I mean, using fire in a cave made out of wood is a little…”

“It’ll be fine. That timber is resistant to magic so it won’t catch fire. The elves do this sort of thing all the time.”

“Understood. What about the enemy? There’s quite a lot of them you know.”

“So?”

“So… wouldn’t they be good fodder for your Job Levels?”

“Those termites are barely Level 3 or 4. I’d just be wasting my time on them.”

If there was a huge gap between Levels, then practically no XP would be given. There was nothing to be learned from stomping on a few defenseless ants, which was exactly what would happen if Boxxy did things personally. Okay, maybe this particular hive counted as more than ‘a few,’ but that was besides the point.

“What about your Ranger Job?”

That one was a different story altogether though. Since the Mimic’s newly acquired Ranger Job was still relatively low Level, it was bound to go up significantly with this much prey.

“Can’t let it grow too quickly, otherwise that Faehorn guy will realize something’s up.”

As expected of a seasoned elf Ranger, he had sharp intuition and easily spotted things that were out of place. Boxxy had to hold back immensely whenever that guy was around, and performing down to those other apprentices’ Level was surprisingly difficult. However, the monster learned quite a bit by doing so.

It was ironic, in a way. Faehorn’s teachings about being able to control one’s power to the utmost were intended as a way to maximize a Ranger’s effectiveness when fighting monsters. Yet a monster in his care was applying that approach in order to minimize its power in an attempt to blend in completely with a group of Rangers. And it seemed to be working out beautifully.

That wasn’t why it enlisted as a Ranger in the first place, but it was a welcome boon. It wanted to be one because those nimble hunters were unmatched when it came to stalking, tracking, pursuing and cornering down their target. Not only that, but it was a Job that benefited greatly from the monster’s already high Dexterity (DEX) and Agility (AGI) Attributes.

The bow was also a very useful and versatile weapon. Even if it lacked the destructive power of Spells and required expendable ammunition, it was perfectly silent and had a far greater range. There also existed the possibility of using special arrowheads in order to produce a variety of effects, and it had several plans in that regard that involved its slowly growing Artificer Job.

“So I should take them on by myself?” asked Xera for confirmation.

“That’s right.”

If the summoned familiar were to take them out, then there would still be some improvement regarding Boxxy’s Warlock Job. That particular occupation could grow as much as it wanted since Spell-related Attributes and Skills had no way of interfering with a thoroughly non-magical bow and arrow. It also had no intention of revealing its identity as a Warlock to others. At least, none of the people that knew its identity as a Ranger. It still didn’t have to go down there personally, though. A termite’s weakness was fire, and its favorite Snack, who had currently grown to a Level 39 Succubus and Level 28 Pyromancer, was more than suited to the task at hand.

“Wipe them out,” it ordered.

“Yes, Master!” she replied with an oddly enthusiastic voice.

The succubus did not particularly enjoy violence like a certain four-armed sex friend of hers, but she did have an intense desire to set the world on fire. And while making the literal world go up in flame was beyond her means, turning these blissfully unaware insects’ reality to ashes was the next best thing. Her pyromaniac side hadn’t been given a chance to shine in a long while, so being able to incinerate so many squishy things at once practically made her giddy.

To begin with, she crawled out of the small tunnel she was in and spread her wings, allowing her to take flight. She then snapped her fingers, causing her fake staff to appear out of nowhere and float idly next to her for a moment before she grabbed it out of the air. This wasn’t really a magic item, but more of an empty shell she held onto out of habit. Gesturing with it while casting her Pyroclasm Spells just felt… right. It was only natural to hold onto her long and hard thing while spraying a hot load all over-

*Ahem*

Xera cleared her throat in order to help reign in her errant thoughts and focused on the task at hand. The termites were bound to notice her presence soon, so she had to take advantage of the element of surprise. She floated down to the bottom and pointed her imitation staff towards the writhing mass of insects beneath her and activated one of her Pyromancer Skills.

“Summon Molten Guardian!”

An intense red glow flashed for an instant within the crawling abyss, followed by an explosion of molten rock and flames. Numerous termites were sent flying everywhere as the Molten Guardian quite literally erupted from beneath them with a deep roar. It was a fearsome creature in the vague shape of a 1 meter tall lizard. Its thick torso and short, pudgy legs were made up of black, smouldering rocks with red-hot molten lava dripping slightly from the gaps between them, giving off the bizarre appearance of blood vessels filled with liquid fire. Its long, thick tail and short, flat face on the other hand were pure fire given form. It had a row of white-hot stone spikes running along its back, right where its spine would be if it had one of those.

“Get ‘em Smokey!’ commanded the succubus who had inherited her Master’s naming sense.

The Molten Guardian obeyed with a roar as it leapt into the swarm that had noticed too late there was an intruder in their nest. However, their instincts were torn between repelling the intruder and not getting roasted alive, so the termites had fallen into disarray. ‘Smokey’ wasn’t going to give them a choice in the matter, though. Its fiery jaws and tail, burning claws and incinerating breath washed over the defenseless creatures with the heat of a miniature volcano. Smoke, steam and disgusting juices flew everywhere as the pests quite literally popped open en masse from the intense heat.

“Flamethrower!”

A cone-shaped torrent of flames erupted from Xera’s staff at her call, bathing the chamber’s wall in an almost literal sea of fire. There was an ear wrenching squeaking and intense hissing as dozens of termites were burned to a crisp in a matter of seconds. Their flaming bodies fell down to the ground, causing Xera’s Devouring Flames to spread even further.

Noticing the airborne threat, the insects attempted to leap off the walls and latch onto the succubus. At least this was a target they could sink their mandibles on. Or so they thought.

“Blast Wave!”

A pulse of intense heat erupted from the winged demon, sending the termites who were about to envelop her flying in every direction while also setting them ablaze. She turned her attention to another section of the wall and doused it in a Flamethrower Spell, followed by another Blast Wave. She then threw her trademark Inferno Spell towards the ground, right on top of the rampaging Molten Guardian.

Rather than being harmed by the roaring tornado of flames, the lava lizard actually absorbed them into itself, causing it to grow slightly in size. It gave off a gut-wrenching roar before flying into yet another bug stomping spree, only this time with much more speed and ferocity than it had displayed until then.

A Molten Guardian was an elemental, a mindless golem-like construct conjured out of raw mana and imbued with a composite magic that was attuned to both earth and fire. Much like other summoning-type Skills, it was a manifestation of the caster’s magical power. It fed off magical flames in order to momentarily grow stronger and was impervious to physical attacks, but the downside was that its summoner had to constantly supply it with MP in order to sustain it. Even Xera’s impressive capacity of nearly 4,000 MP would only allow it to exist for about 6, maybe 7 minutes before she ran dry.

Which actually raised a troubling question. The succubus looked at her surroundings carefully, gauging how much of the pests she and Smokey had managed to clear out over the past minute or so.

“Slow. Too slow!” she complained to nobody in particular.

No matter how many termites were squashed or burned, more of them just kept pouring in from the tunnels that lined the walls. They just kept coming, seemingly without end. Even if they were pathetically weak, there were just too many of them. If things carried on like this, she’d run out of MP before she could deal with all of those critters. The staggering amount of work it would take to fully clean up this place made her wish this blasted tree would just explode already.

“... Yeah, that’s a thing I could try,” she mumbled.

An idea had formed in her mind while she stared upward. It was a stupid idea, but one that might just work, given the size of the place. Well, she was sure to enjoy the outcome, even if it was a failure, so she decided it was worth a try. She lowered her altitude and touched down on the charcoal-like ground. She gave the order for Smokey to keep those things away from her and started chanting. It was a long incantation, one that went on for a good 6 or 7 seconds before she finished it.