Chapter 33: Man vs Beach

Grinding high-level monsters turned out to be a little harder than expected.

“Shellgirl, shoot the bird down!” Basil shouted from behind a tree, his voice booming over the sound of falling rain. He peeked out from his hiding spot and immediately ducked to avoid a lightning bolt to the face. The electricity hit a bush near him, setting it ablaze. “Goddammit Shellgirl, shoot the fucking thunderbird! I can’t move otherwise!”

“I’m trying!” Shellgirl frantically bombarded the skies above the marsh. “Doing my best!”

“Mister, I’m losing him!” Rosemarine frantically healed an unconscious Plato among the reeds. The cat’s guts had spilled out of his stomach, but curative pollen stabilized him enough to prevent another death. “I need a greenie!”

The black triceratops that gutted Plato was still engaged in battle with Bugsy alongside a spiky ankylosaurus. Fallen trees and burning grass surrounded the fighters. Kuikui shrieked from atop Bugsy’s head, strengthening the centimagma with his Brave Howl whenever his buffs ran out.

Bugsy truly needed the help. He was holding his own, dodging a charge from the triceratops with Agility Up and keeping the ankylosaurus at bay with his fiery breath, but he was clearly out of breath. The rain didn’t improve matters. Droplets turned to steam when they touched Bugsy’s heated body and slowly whittled at his HP due to his water vulnerability.

“Boss, I’m almost out of SP!” Bugsy shouted in panic. “I can’t hold out much longer!”

“I’m coming!” Basil shouted, only for the sound of thunder to drown out his words. A mighty lightning bolt fell from the heavens to strike Shellgirl. The clam mimic screamed in pain before retreating inside her carapace.

The perpetrator, a mighty blue falcon the size of a horse with burning yellow eyes, expanded its wings and roared in victory. Its feathers absorbed electricity from the rain clouds it had summoned and illuminated the skies.

Thunderbird

Level 18 [Avian/Elemental]

Why lightning? Why do they all use lightning?! Basil cursed. And the whole thing started so well!

The corpses of five raptors, one beheaded stegosaurus, and another thunderbird littering the ground near his position attested to the party’s early successes. The latter avian hadn’t caused the team much trouble; Plato sliced its throat while it was swooping in to eat a velociraptor carcass Basil purposefully laid out in the open as bait.

Unfortunately, the first thunderbird was apparently in a committed relationship with a second one. Upon finding Basil’s party dismembering its mate for crafting material, the beast swore vengeance and half the dino neighborhood answered its call!

How was Basil supposed to know birds had friends and families?

Worse, the thunderbird had identified Basil as the party’s leader and noticed hisvulnerability to lightning. Now that Shellgirl was down, it snapped the trunk behind which Basil was hiding in half with another thunderbolt.

Deprived of cover, Basil raised his halberd like a javelin. It was a risky move, but he sorely lacked long-range options. If he survived today’s fight, he swore to get his hands on an AK-47.

Basil threw the halberd at the thunderbird’s heart with all his might. His enhanced strength allowed him to launch the heavy weapon at an arrow’s speed, even though the rain reduced his visibility. The thunderbird dodged the lethal strike, but the halberd’s axe blade cut through its left wing. The beast shrieked in pain and lost altitude as Basil’s weapon fell into the marsh.

“Yes!” Basil rushed after the thunderbird, searched his pockets, and brought out two small knives he kept as emergency weapons. “Fire Rune, Ice Rune!”

Flames swirled around his left knife and snowflakes around the right. Basil closed the gap with the thunderbird, weapons raised for the kill. The ferocious monster did not try to run. Instead, it lunged at Basil the moment it landed. Lightning coursed through its body.

Basil grit his teeth as the thunderbird’s talons slashed his chest deep enough to reach the bones. Yet his anger was stronger than the electricity coursing through his veins. He stabbed the thunderbird through the neck and gutted it.

“You’re going extinct the way of the dodo!” Basil hissed as he pinned the thunderbird to the ground and kept applying pressure. “Through the oven!”

The two knives’ blades reached each other deep inside the thunderbird’s neck. Basil beheaded the creature with a swift motion practiced over many botched rooster executions. He was already on his way to help Bugsy by the time the bird's head hit the ground.

Basil made his presence known by flanking the triceratops threatening his friend. He threw his fiery knife at the dinosaur’s left eye and pierced it. The beast roared in pain and abandoned Bugsy to face its new foe, leaving the centimagma to the ankylosaurus.

The triceratops charged at Basil, its three horns sharp and deadly. Basil didn’t slow down. He instead leaped in the air right before the collision. He jumped over the triceratops’ head and landed on the back of its neck.

“Let’s see how cold-blooded you are!” Basil stabbed the creature in the spine with his ice-infused knife. The blade cut through the dinosaur’s scales and spread a frigid cold in its blood.

The reptilian equivalent to a rodeo followed. The triceratops desperately attempted to throw Basil off his back while he grabbed the beast’s neck. Basil would have found it funny if not for the blood flowing out of his wounded chest. He briefly glanced at Bugsy, who was coiling around the ankylosaurus and breathing fire at the dinosaur’s exposed eyes. He seemed to have the situation well in hand, and Kuikui occasionally helped him with a stray thunderbolt.

“The bird is going to the oven…” Basil removed his knife and stabbed the triceratops again, this time in the neck. “And you to the freezer!”

Basil struck the triceratops in the back of the skull once, then twice, then more times than he could count. He kept stabbing the dinosaur until it collapsed under its own weight, its half-frozen blood spilling all over the grass.

The rain summoned by the thunderbird above their heads dissipated, letting sunlight pierce through the clouds. Covering his chest wound with a hand, Basil stored his ice knife in his inventory and traded it for his last green medicine.

“Rosemarine!” Basil tossed the healing potion at his plant, who immediately administered it to Plato. He then checked on Bugsy, who was incinerating the strangled ankylosaurus to death.

After confirming no other dinosaur would come to finish them off, Basil allowed himself to fall on the ground and breathe.

Your party received 155,000 experience (15483 for you). You earned 3 levels (total 23).

The level penalties were starting to show their ugly noses again.

Bugsy sighed in exhaustion as he crawled away from the ankylosaurus’ burning corpse. “Is everyone alive?” he asked. “Everyone?”

“I’m alright…” Shellgirl emerged from her carapace, her gooey body threatening to spill out of it. “We got the exp… at least…”

“Why?” Basil clenched his jaw in rage. “Why do they all pack Lightning Bolt? Birds and dinosaurs shouldn’t shoot electricity from their asses!”

Was that Musk’s master plan? Lightning-powered birds to fuel the Tesla energy grid?

“It’s why… you shouldn’t let a bird live to adulthood,” Plato said as he emerged from unconsciousness, a paw on his healed stomach. Rosemarine helped him get up with her vines. “They learn.”

Basil glanced at the mated thunderbirds’ remains. Their feathers still surged with electricity and would make for excellent crafting material. So would the dead dinosaurs’ body parts. With his party exhausted and no more healing supplies, Basil decided to call it a day.

“Enough grinding, we’re going to the beach.” Basil rose to his feet and let Rosemarine close his wounds with healing pollen. “Did somebody see where my halberd landed?”

“I think it dropped into the lake, Boss,” Bugsy said. Kuikui nodded in confirmation.

“Did we kill all the plesiosaurus infesting it?” Shellgirl asked with a tired voice.

Basil sighed and prayed to God that no dinosaur had absconded with his weapon. He had had his fill of reptiles for today.

Basil hadn’t visited the ocean in many months, but he could never forget its song.

The noise of waves crashing on a shore; the whistling wind blowing across the sand dunes; the distant cries of seagulls. All these sounds formed a slow, peaceful symphony that could soothe any man’s soul.

The elves had agreed to help Basil carry Steamslime’s shell close to the house and unlock the holomachine on his behalf, but they politely asked not to stay in contact afterward. “Please understand, Lord Bohen,” Estrid had apologized. “Our camp is close and your presence will bring dangerous attention to us. I would rather keep our interactions to a minimum.”

Basil had taken it in good grace, stored the remains of today’s prey in the trailer—what they could carry at least—and drove to the Atlantic’s shore. It took the party a few minutes to climb the dunes on foot and watch what lay beyond it.

“My…” Shellgirl put her hands on her mouth, astonished. “Is that…”

“The sea,” Basil replied with a smile. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

The Atlantic Ocean stretched out before them as far as the eye could see, pure waves of blue water crashing against beaches of luminous white sand. The auroras from the dungeon nearby reflected on the clear surface and illuminated it like the night’s sky. Towering dunes cast a dark shadow on countless shells lost along the shore. The concrete ruins of a German blockhaus laid half-buried in the water, a bygone age’s remains.

Basil removed his shoes and basked in the sensation of warm sand slipping between his toes, of the wind blowing on his skin, of the salty air of the sea on the tip of his tongue. After everything he had learned over the last couple hours, it just felt good.

“I’ve never seen so much water…” Bugsy glanced from one side of the horizon to the other. “I thought the lake was big but this… how far does it stretch on?”

“It’s hard to represent the Atlantic’s size mentally,” Basil replied. “Our home, the Barthes, they’re but a droplet compared to this sea.”

“No way!” Bugsy snapped his mandibles. “You’re kidding, Boss? It can’t be that big!”

“I heard of the lands beyond,” Shellgirl said with a low whisper. “The great kingdom of America, where all humans grow rich by eating junk for food. I thought we could see it from the shore.”

“We can’t even see England,” Plato replied with a shrug. “I expected bird monsters around, but it seems the beach is all ours.”

Basil nodded. He didn’t detect any threat nearby and neither did Bugsy’s Tremorsense. Fish monsters might inhabit the sea, but the party should be safe so long as they stayed close to the shore. And if any aquatic creature tried to hunt them down, they would earn a one-way ticket to the freezer.

“Mister, can I drink the ocean?” Rosemarine asked naïvely. “I will grow big enough to eat the stars!”

“Saltwater is bad for your health, sweetie.” Basil patted her on the head. “But you can swim.”

“Kui first!” Kuikui rushed down the dune with excitement. “Kui first!”

“Wait for me!” Rosemarine ran after him, followed by Plato and the rest of the gang. Basil participated in the race for victory, tossing his clothes aside as he climbed down the dune. By the time he only had his boxers on, Kuikui had beaten Rosemarine to the water by an inch.

Basil dived into the warm sea with relish. He didn’t care that his boxers weren’t meant for swimming. As saltwater washed over his skin and hair, Basil felt his worries slip away. The Apocalypse Force’s threat, the Unity’s vengeance, the remote possibility of Earth’s destruction… the sea let him forget them all, if only for a minute.

I missed this. Basil floated on his back with his eyes closed, letting the waves gently carry him around. He enjoyed the peaceful moment and heard Shellgirl swimming at his side. No fighting, no worries, no nothing.

“Kui.” Kuikui floated on the water nearby the way a duck would, a scene which drew a smile from Basil. Rosemarine kept her body half-submerged, her vines anchoring themselves to the sand and her head staying above the surface.

Bugsy was building a sandcastle on the shore. He used his firebreath to turn sand grains into pillars of glass, which he planted on the beach to serve as a solid foundation for the construction. Plato, ever the opportunist, rested in the shade of his teammate’s new building.

Bugsy had turned out to be a surprisingly talented architect and engineer for a giant centipede. Basil wondered how much of it was instinct or raw talent.

A splash of water hit Basil in the face, much to his surprise. He turned to face the source of the treacherous attack: Shellgirl, whose carapace floated like a raft.

“Got you,” she said with a grin.

“Let me show you a secret technique, passed down to me by generations of swimmer warriors.” Basil pivoted in the water, his feet pointing at Shellgirl. “Water Splash Overdrive!”

Basil moved his feet up and down at high speed. His System-enhanced strength allowed him to unleash a mighty wave of water right in Shellgirl’s face. “Cheater!” she accused him with a laugh. “You have legs!”

“That’s why it’s a secret technique.” Basil smirked at her. “Not everyone can do it.”

“That was just a dick move!” She pointed her cannons at him. “Now this means war!”

Shellgirl opened fire at him, although her barrels unleashed streams of water rather than ice pearls. Basil dodged the attack by diving below the surface, then grabbed Shellgirl from below and dragged her underwater.

“I win,” Basil said upon emerging. “By K.O.”

Shellgirl returned to the surface, right under Kuikui. The velociraptor soon found himself sitting atop his teammate’s floating shell, much to his confusion. “Guys!” Shellgirl called to the rest of the team for reinforcements. “Wanna play? We can form teams!”

“I’ll cheer for you from the sidelines,” Plato replied without enthusiasm. “Fight for my entertainment.”

“If you’re wounded, you can retreat to my home base!” Bugsy replied as he finished raising a tower of sand and its outer wall.

“I’m here, Mister!” Rosemarine struggled to float in Basil’s direction. However, as a plant with vines for legs, a wave soon carried her away. “Help!”

Basil grabbed Rosemarine and let her sit on his shoulders. “Here,” he said. “You focus on attack, and I on defense!”

“Kuikui, as my new employee, I order you to dominate the water splash market!” Shellgirl shouted to her own partner. “Let’s kick their ass!”

“Kui win!” the velociraptor replied as he expanded his wings. “Kui rule!”

An intense duel followed as both teams tried to drown the opposition. Rosemarine’s many vines provided better range for water splashes, but Shellgirl provided a stable attack platform for Kuikui to launch waves from. In the end, the conflict ended in a tie.

“You know, I thought we should focus more on monster hunts,” Shellgirl said. “But I changed my mind. This is fun.”

It was. Basil dealt with stress in two ways: either by beating the shit out of someone or drowning his fears with mindless entertainment. He wouldn’t have developed his video game addiction without his money troubles.

What Estrid said… Basil tried to think of it as like global warming. A phenomenon so large that he could only contribute so much to halting it. He needed to focus on the small stuff he could influence rather than dwell on existential dread. Small moments of happiness mattered more to Basil than world-saving quests.

“If I had evolved, we would have won,” Rosemarine said grumpily.

“We can have a rematch after you transform,” Shellgirl replied with confidence. “What do you say, Partner?”

“Sure.” Basil opened his menu and checked his classes available; particularly the new ones.

Druid: A versatile magician combining natural magic with the power to shapeshift into powerful werebeast forms. STR (B); AGI (C); VIT (B); SKI (D); MAG (A); INT (D); CHA (C); LCK (C).

Dragonknight: A mighty fighter class imitating the power of dragons; whether to ride them or slay them. STR (A); AGI (A); VIT (C); SKI (B); MAG (D); INT (D); CHA (B); LCK (C).

Both classes were interesting, but Basil decided against investing in them for now. He was more interested in the teleportation Tamer Perk Kalki had told him about. He was only a few levels away from it, and so spent all of those he kept in reserve.

Level 8, 9, 10, and 11 Tamer Stat Gains: +4 STR; +3 AGI; +2 VIT; +3 SKI; +3 MAG; +4 INT; +4 CHA; +2 LCK. You earned 120 HP and 65 SP.

Monster Cure I (Active): 20 SP, [Support], [Life]. The tamer heals a small amount of HP for all monster members of his party (HP recovered: Tamer Levels+MAG); the Tamer and other Players do not benefit from the healing, but the effect applies regardless of distance.

One for All I (Active): If you are a party’s leader, you can teleport your party back to your designated Lair at will. Additionally, you can spend 1 SP x Level of a tamed monster to summon them at your current location; this ability works even if you have no Lair selected, but you can only call one ally at a time. Neither teleportation effect works in dungeons or magically warded areas, and they cannot cross dimensional boundaries.

The pleasurable power thrill that followed the stat increase couldn’t compare to Basil’s joy at obtaining his new Perks. Teleportation at will would make his party’s life so much easier.

Now that he had reached level 23 total, the System showed him Rosemarine’s metamorphosis choices.

Killaplant Rosemarine Eglantine de la Barthe can transform into:

Gunflower (Plant/Artificial). A living artillery whose seed bullets and flower turrets can inflict ailments and devastate the entire battlefield.Tropidrake (Plant/Dragon). A tropical plant dragon combining miraculous healing abilities with the power of the sun.

A dragon? The Gunflower choice made sense considering Rosemarine’s fondness for firearms, but Basil couldn’t imagine her as a giant reptile. Did she unlock that metamorphosis path after they defeated Steamslime? Come to think of it, what factors influenced the choices available to a monster? Stats? Affinities? The System wouldn’t answer his questions, much to Basil’s annoyance.

“Rosemarine?” Basil asked. “Gunflower or Tropidrake?”

“Tropidrake!” she replied with enthusiasm.

“Really?” Her choice surprised Basil, especially considering her love for firearms. “Don’t you want more guns?”

“I already have guns, Mister!” Rosemarine replied candidly. “Miss Shellgirl’s barrels are big enough for us.”

“Mine can fire more than seeds,” Shellgirl added with a coy grin.

“As a Tropidrake, I can heal everyone and eat the sun all at once!” Rosemarine chirped. She pointed a vine at Basil’s heart. “You fed and protected me when I was small and weak, Mister! Now it is my turn to protect you!”

Touched by her concern, Basil gently grabbed Rosemarine and lifted her above his head, Lion King style. “Tropidrake it is then.”

No sooner did Basil utter these words that Rosemarine began to glow. Her size and weight increased to the point Basil had to drop her mid-transformation so as not to sink.

Well, looks like she’ll give Bugsy a run for his money, Basil thought as Rosemarine’s glowing form grew as large as the centimagma… and kept going. Basil’s joy turned to surprise and terror. Wait, she’s not stopping?!

Rosemarine expanded by many meters in the blink of an eye, pushing back Basil, Shellgirl, and Kuikui. “Kui!” the velociraptor shrieked in fear as he was nearly tossed overboard from Shellgirl’s back. “Kui!”

“The hell!” Shellgirl complained. “Stop!”

But nobody could interrupt the metamorphosis process. Rosemarine’s sudden growth sent a colossal wave crashing down on the beach. Plato let out a shriek of surprise upon seeing it and hastily climbed up Bugsy’s tower of sand to escape the flood. As for the centimagma himself, he burrowed under the beach to avoid contact with water.

Basil was thrown on the shore alongside Shellgirl and Kuikui. When he rose up to his feet and turned his head around, a colossal beast stood in place of Rosemarine.

The creature dwarfed every other member of the team. Basil estimated her height as around five meters and her length at three times that amount. Although she didn’t match Steamslime’s titanic size, Rosemarine was now larger than any land animal he knew of before the apocalypse.

The ground trembled as her four legs walked on the beach, each of them ending with swirling roots rather than claws or paws. Her varan-like body had multicolored leaves for scales, with fruit pustules growing at various places. Her long tail ended in foliage, and the head…

Rosemarine’s head made even Basil pause. A flower made of dozens of large petals stared at him, literally; for a yellow, reptilian eye nested within each of them. A colossal, circular mouth with at least three rows of fangs let out a heavy breath at the flower’s center. A forked purple tongue came out of this hungry abyss to lick Basil on the chest.

She was…

“Beautiful,” Basil whispered.

He had found the hedge of his dreams.

Congratulations, [Killaplant] Rosemarine transformed into a [Tropidrake]! Rosemarine gained the [Sunflower], [Sunbeam], and [Harvest (Tropidrake)] Perks! Her existing Perks have been altered and strengthened!

Rosemarine rose on her back legs and let out a roar to shake the heavens.

Bugsy’s unharmed head emerged from the sand after the water receded. “Everyone, are you alright?”

“Bugsy, you saved my life!” Plato remained atop the tower of sand, trembling in fear of the water. It was a testament to the centimagma’s talent that his sandcastle survived Rosemarine’s transformation. “One of them at least! When anybody asks who my favorite bug is… I’ll say your name! I’ll say Bugsy!”

Rosemarine looked up at the skies, rose on her feet… and jumped in place. Her sheer weight prevented her from rising higher than a meter, but she blew out a cloud of sand upon landing. Shellgirl grabbed Kuikui and hid him inside her carapace for protection, while Basil covered his face with his hands.

“Rosemarine, what are you doing?” he asked after coughing sand.

“I’m trying to eat the sun, Mister, but it’s too far away!” Although Rosemarine’s appearance had changed greatly, her voice did not. She glared at the sun with her many eyes. “I will get you next time…”

Basil smiled and checked Rosemarine’s new stats.

Name

Rosemarine Eglantine de la Barthe (Tropidrake)

Type

Plant/Dragon

Faction

The Bohens

Experience

47,418/51,000

Immune

Resist

Weak

N/A

Fire, Wood, Life, Water, Earth, Light.

Plantslayer, Dragonslayer, Corrosion, Metal, Frost, Lightning, Darkness.

Level

Health Points

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Special Points

20+3

2540

525

Strength

Agility

Vitality

Skill

39

(A+20%)

25

(C+20%)

35

(B+20%)

28

(C+20%)

Magic

Intelligence

Charisma

Luck

36

(B+20%)

10

(D+20%)

27

(C+20%)

32

(B+20%)

Physical

Mind

Soul

Corrosion

Metal

Wood

Life

Support

Ailment

-

-

-

Weak

Weak

Strong

Strong

Strong

-

Fire

Water

Earth

Wind

Frost

Lightning

Light

Darkness

Mythic

Strong

Strong

Strong

-

Weak

Weak

Strong

Weak

-

Passive Perks

Active Perks

Paralyzing Touch

Sunbath

Bugcatcher

Fire Seed

Sunflower

Sunbeam

Harvest (Tropidrake)

Rosemarine had gone from the party’s weakest member to probably the strongest. Her transformation had altered her Perks and some of her elemental affinities.

“Boss,” Bugsy whispered as the party gathered around their new heavy hitter. “I don’t think Rosemarine will fit inside the house anymore.”

“Gee, you think?” Basil replied. Bugsy had a point though. Basil had been so floored by Rosemarine’s newfound appearance that he forgot the logistical problems involved. “She could fit inside Steamslime’s shell though…”

“She would make a nice pack mule too,” Shellgirl said with a whistle. “Imagine the stuff we could transport on her back.”

“Mister, can I carry the house?” Rosemarine asked candidly. “That way, we can eat chicken everywhere!”

“Kui new house!” After a moment of hesitation, Kuikui leaped on Rosemarine’s back and nested among the leaf-scales. “Kui warm! Kui not move!”

“Are you abandoning me?” Shellgirl pouted and pointed her barrels at the velociraptor. “Traitor!”

“Treachery is the wages of those who trust bir—” Plato stopped halfway through his sentence, his ears turning. He looked up at the skies with his eyes wide open in shock. “Basil, do you see what I see?”

Basil glanced in the same direction as his cat and noticed three black points in the skies. Three winged forms observed the party from afar high above the sea. Basil squinted until he distinguished green exoskeletons, hornet wings, and crimson compound eyes…

“Fuck…” Basil whispered in astonishment as he recognized the creatures. The phantom pain of darts piercing his flesh flared in his chest. “Megabug?”

Apollyon Drones

Level 10 [Bug]

Realizing that they had been spotted, the three bugs flew north.

“Shoot them!” Basil ordered Shellgirl. “Shoot them down!”

“Partner, they’re too far away!” she protested. “I don’t have that kind of range!”

Rosemarine glanced at the bugs. Her petals glowed, first brightly red and then a luminous yellow. Her mouth closed as her flower of a head shone like the sun. Particles of light gathered within the tropidrake’s body. “Sun…”

Basil and his teammates covered their eyes to protect themselves from the brightness. “What the—”

“BEAM!”

Rosemarine opened her mouth wide and sunlight poured out of it.

A golden ray of energy pierced through the cloudless skies in a straight line, its radiance illuminating the ocean’s surface. The beam crossed the enormous distance between the beach and the bugs in an instant. Two of them were immediately vaporized, but the third managed to dodge the attack. Rosemarine moved her head to orient her beam, yet her enormous body made her movement sluggish. By the time she ran out of sunlight to breathe at him, Megabug’s clone had already escaped behind the horizon.

“I’m so sorry,” Rosemarine apologized as her petals returned to normal. “I tried.”

“Hey, you got two out of three,” Shellgirl comforted her. “It’s a win in my book.”

“Why didn’t we receive experience?” Plato asked in confusion.

“Too low-level,” Basil replied, his jaw clenching in frustration. One of the drones had escaped. “With such a large difference, the experience penalty reduces our gains to zero.”

“Kui got experience,” Kuikui said, but nobody paid attention to him.

“Mmm.” The cat wagged his tail. “On one paw, it pleases me that the guy who took my first life is now as weak as a goblin compared to us. On the other paw, seeing that hornet again worries me.”

“It should.” Basil’s jaw clenched. Megabug was only a vanguard, a grunt, and the other scouts had followed in his wake. From the direction in which the survivor had flown, Basil assumed he was moving to Seignosse. “Seems like the Apocalypse Force took over the closest dungeon.”

“I have enough grinding for the day,” Plato complained. “Can we skip this one?”

“But Mr. Plato, if we wait they might attack us first,” Bugsy said. “Shouldn’t we seize the initiative?”

“I could devour them all,” Rosemarine said with enthusiasm.

“Personally, I’m spent,” Shellgirl said with a sigh. “Not all of us are close to metamorphosis.”

Basil shared most of his party’s lack of enthusiasm. Attacking the dungeon before its inhabitants could mobilize made sense, but the Apocalypse Force was no mindless horde of goblins. They were organized, deadly, and could potentially teleport troops to defend the dungeon. An attack on it had to succeed on the first try.

That, and the party was in no position to launch an assault now. They were SP-exhausted, tired, and out of healing items.

“We’ll prepare first,” Basil decided. A little reconnaissance wouldn’t hurt either. “And bring explosives. Lots and lots of explosives.”

They would give the Apocalypse Force the Steamslime treatment.

“Yo dog, I hear somebody else coming,” Plato warned. Another form flew straight at the beach, but came from the east rather than the north.

Basil summoned his halberd, only to lower his weapon when he recognized the newcomer.

“Hello there,” Vasi said while landing her flying broom on the beach. “Did you miss me?”

“Vasi!” Shellgirl immediately approached the witch and gave her a high five. “You’re back!”

“About time,” Basil said. He was relieved to see Vasi back in one piece. “I thought something bad happened to you.”

Vasi playfully put a finger on her lips. “Am I dreaming, or did you just say that you were worried about me?”

“I was,” Basil replied with a shrug. If Vasi wanted to embarrass him, she had miscalculated. “No news usually means bad news.”

“My, you are so sweet Basil, but you had nothing to worry about.” Vasi put a hand on her waist and glanced at Rosemarine. “What fertilizer did you use to make her grow so huge?”

“Blood and guts,” Rosemarine replied with a joyful voice.

Vasi chuckled. “Why do I have the feeling that I missed a lot?”

“You did,” Basil replied. “How did your meeting go?”

“Pretty well. I met with this Tye, expecting a talented merchant…” Vasi grinned ear to ear. “And then he turns out to be one of the greatest magicians I’ve ever encountered! He might be even more powerful than Mom!”

“Your mother?” Shellgirl gasped. “Didn’t you tell me that she can cast Tier X spells?”

“She can,” Vasi confirmed with a nod. “So imagine my surprise when I met an archmage of her caliber. We ended up discussing spell optimization and magical theory.”

Basil raised an eyebrow. “For nearly two days?”

“What, you never debated spellcasting past midnight? My poor Basil, what am I going to do with you?” Vasi smiled. “If you want the full story, I told him about my plan for Samhain and he helped me smooth out my transformation ritual. I also informed him of your interest in the multiverse, and he said he was eager to discuss it in person. He even gave me a trinket so we could teleport to his shop more easily.”

“What, like right now?”

“Basil, meeting an archmage is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” Vasi teased him with a chuckle. “I’m kidding, but we shouldn’t make him wait too long. From experience, ancient spellcasters do not deal well with lateness.”

“Oh, can we go?” Shellgirl grabbed Basil’s arm like a child eager to go to Disneyland. “An archmage merchant could teach us so much! Come on, come on!”

Basil rolled his eyes, but he didn’t have the patience to argue. “Give me time to test my new teleportation Perk,” he told Vasi. “And let’s meet this Tye.”

He had so many questions to ask him.

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