Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Black Mucus

Stealthily weaving his way between the branches above the ground, Jack heard Velia’s scream. He quickly moved his feet, heading toward the direction of the sound. 

As expected, his companions had had the mishaps of encountering another monster. Now, besides the Shadow Lynx’ssneaky attacks, Velia had to struggle with a bear the size of the surrounding trees. Watching from afar, Jack reckoned he was as tall as the bear’s leg.

The boy gulped at the oversize creature and its long thick brown coat. Velia seemed she had little left in or on her, her armor already shattered after one swipe of the bear, her arms and legs full of bruises and scratches, and her face was much of the same.

Jack jumped into action. He knew he didn't have enough mana to take down the bear, so he made it clear in his mind that he only needed to lure it away and play for time, starting out with a wave of daggers sticking onto the beast’s back. That didn’t take away any of the attention the creature was giving to Velia, as if it seemed barely bothered by the blades on its back through its thick layer of fur and skin. 

Reckoning Velia was too exhausted and disoriented to actually notice her surrounding, with the exception of the two monsters hounding her, Jack cast Black Flame on his next dagger. This time, feeling the sharp pain and the heat of the fire licking onto its bulky back hair, the bear turned around, seeking the one who was dumb enough to poke it.

Jack smirked, continuing to unleash his barrage of blades at the monster. The bear let out a loud roar, which slowed down the projectiles, then waved his hands with his massive claws on them, blocking and deflecting the incoming weapons. Jack was impressed by its strength. 

Now, that’s some sub-Crusader level.

The bear snorted, saliva overflowing its mouth for unknown reasons. It bent its leg behind, then ran toward Jack.

Shadow Dance was immediately activated in response as Jack dashed backward with all he had. The bear might not be as fast as the lynxes, but that didn’t mean it was slow. One slap of its paws and Jack could be no more. Only now did Jack admire Velia’s capability of holding her own. One Shadow Lynx was more or less just a nuisance; this bear was the real deal.

Jack utilized the uneven terrain and trees to weave his way around. The encumbered and oversize beast was having a hard time catching up with the sharp turns of its slippery prey. Still, its roars grew more terrifying with each miss, gathering more speed to make up for its lackluster agility. 

The distance before the two shrunk by the second. And it wasn’t long until Jack found himself so tiny, so insignificant under the gargantuan shadow of the creature right behind him. Its paws moved downward, the sound of which was no less than an explosion, stirring the dust up everywhere. As it moved its paw and claws, still sticking to the ground, the bear couldn’t find that squishy and slimy feeling it usually felt from its prey. It raised its arm up, looking around, bewildered. The beast stuck its nose out, scanning his surrounding, but couldn’t quite catch any trace of new sense. Exasperated, it wandered off in an unknown direction.

Jack, who was using Presence of The Night, had left the bear for a while now. The force of the blow he had just avoided was no less than that of the Crusader bandit boss. Missed him, it had, but the aftershock had still given him a chill, so much so that his feet were still shaken right now. Thanks to the Identification Lens, Jack knew the creature was at level 19 with a Strength stat of 140. Jack was glad his plan hadn’t been about killing it.

Returning to his guide’s prior position, Jack saw an exhausted Velia sitting with her back against a tree. Her left arm was now full of dripping blood and scratches carved deep into the flesh. The Shadow Lynx was staring down from the branches above, its fangs protruding out, ready for the final blow.

“Hold it down,” Jack called out.

Velia turned her bewildered eye in his direction but didn’t have much time to figure out how he had survived and just follow the command. She lowered her head when the lynx pounced down, barely getting her neck out of the way of a bloody bite. She turned, then, with every bit of energy left in the tank, used her arms to grab the monster’s head, pinning it to the ground. The Shadow Lynx instinctively threw its claws around, trying to hook on the flesh of its holder, leaving behind some more fresh cuts on the girl’s arm. Velia, though, endured, seeing Jack running at full speed toward her position with his morphed arm blinking with a vague blue light.

Jack crouched down, sliding and grabbing the head of the creature with his left arm.

“Open its mouth!” Jack urged.

Velia, realizing Jack’s intention, immediately put her knuckles between the creature’s jaws, trying to pry it open. The lynx struggled even more fiercely, swinging its four sets of claws at the ones pinning it to the ground. Blood was spilled from all three participants, splattering on the nearby three into long red lines. With a deep grunt, Velia used the last of her strength to finally create a gap between the monster’s teeth.

Jack, having been waiting for the moment, put the end of his cannon arm into it and fired. The mana ball spun inside the creature’s head, tearing its skull apart, then its throat, its stomach, and finally came out of its back, exploding in the distance, leaving behind a hole of flesh and blood. What came up with the projectile quickly came down, as the lynx’s eyes rolled upward into a lifeless white.

Velia fell to the ground immediately before Jack could think of relief. He helped her sit up, then proceeded to first-aid his companion. She was on the verge of passing out, barely realizing what had just happened. With his guide incapacitated, Jack’s only option was to pick a hiding spot, make sure no apparent threat was around, and let her recover for now.

While waiting, Jack’s eyes passed by one of the lynx’s bloody skull pieces, as something odd about it caught his attention. He picked it up, staring at a blackened and slimy patch sticking onto it. This substance seemed to be permeating the hard bone, darkening the creature’s once-white skull piece. 

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His curiosity rose, but he was vigilant enough not to let the blackened part touch his skin. Jack used his Maester tools to take a sample, put it in a vial, then wrapped the rest of the thing up and returned everything to his inventory ring. He spent some time looking around but couldn’t find anything similar on the other parts of the creature’s body. Jack reckoned this could have something to do with the rampaging of lynxes tonight. With all of that done, he went back to Velia’s side to watch over her and did some meditation to both properly circulate his mana and revise the experience.’

 

About half an hour later, Velia finally opened her eyes. She panickily sprung up, looking around in terror. Her face was pale, her forehead soaked with sweat.

“Everything’s alright now,” Jack tried to calm her.

“How…?” Velia mumbled.

Jack raised his artificial arm up as a response.

“You really are the Artificer prodigy people say you are, huh?”

“Well, I’m good enough, I guess,” Jack said with a smile.

Velia frowned as she tried to move her body. She knew it was best not to dig too deep into it. Curiosity killed the cats. Holding more secrets only put more danger and complication into an already dangerous and complicated life of an adventurer.

Staring at the night sky with its clouds floating nonchalantly around through a small hole between the leaves and branches, Velia tried to estimate the time and told Jack.

“We should leave now. If we’re early, the Medical Center won’t be too crowded.”

“Can you walk?” Jack asked.

“Yes. Slowly, but yes.”

Jack helped Velia stand up. She spent a moment stabilizing the mana flow in her body, then signaled for Jack to go first toward the direction she instructed.

The two made it back to Oxdale at dawn. It took them twice as long due to exhaustion. Jack quickly took his guide to the Medical Center, paying for the treatment behind her back, then proceeded to treat himself and go straight to his laboratory instead of returning home. Sophie would disown him if she were to see him in this state again.

As the sun rose to its peak, Jack found himself in the mood to craft Washing Water. It was less of a challenge than the making of Lesser Mana Potion, so he reckoned it wouldn’t be long for him to finish designing and building another automatic crafter again.

 

After a lengthy night of chasing its prey around the forest in futile, the bear now dug its mouth into a Four-horned boar that had been crazy enough to attack it first. After a few chewing and tearing, the furry monster suddenly stopped, choking out a mess of meat, saliva, bile, and other digestive juices. It stood up in irritation, clawing into the head of the boar until its skull was exposed. From a small crack in the bone, a black gooey liquid came out, slowly dripping to the ground.

A while later, the giant monster’s eyes were bulging with red hot blood vessels. It straightened itself, letting out a furious roar, then dashed away in a rampage, much like the Shadow Lynx it had seen last night.

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