Chapter 54: 14 Days And 14 Nights (3)

Day 4 (In-game)

Somewhere in the draculkar highlands.

Somewhere in the southern end of the Urla Mountains.

*

Navigating by major geographical feature was harder than Krow remembered. The foothills of the Hallagons had a less sensational landscape than the draculkar highlands.

It was less populated as well. He'd been days in the wilds and hadn't come across a single village.

It was getting to him a bit.

Where in the damned name of Norge were the villages?

He missed the plains.

The fair yet boring plains where you could reach a village or town every ten or so hours of walking.

Even the view couldn't soothe him.

The high places looked close together, but navigating from picturesque feature to picturesque feature was an unexpected pain.

Krow was sure that by this time tomorrow, he'd have mastered Doublejump already.

It was the only way to gain ground with any appreciable speed.

He doublejumped twice to gain the top of the ridge.

"Finally."

Then his eyes saw the vista spread before him, even more dramatic and striking than the maze full of ravines, rock pillars, woodland, and peaks that he'd just traveled through.

He kicked a rock.

"It's even more of a mess!" he yelled to the vast beautiful sky. "What is wrong with just copy-paste?!"

His voice echoed against the many crags, mocking him by extending his indignation to the horizon. He glared at the Map.

The nearest town was still Nyurajke. The next one, the one he was aiming for, was still further down on the mountain range than where he was.

Towns followed rivers, right?

That was basic geo-sociology.

So villages, presumably, also followed water.

Why in blazing asses were the rivers not marked on this udrekk of a Map?

Okay, he'd been wrong to go in a straight line. But he'd been frustrated, alright?

He took a deep breath.

Studied the landscape below. If he kept to the ridge, it looked like he'd avoid most of the ups and downs of the geography for a time.

People on VRMMO-News who gush about Redlands geography having 'grand personality' evidently never had to deal with the immense bipolarity of the draculkar highlands.

Krow dusted his hands off and started bounding along the ridge. His STR and DEX were good enough that he could hurtle through mostly flat landscape on his own.

In places where it wasn't possible to run or climb, he used a grapplehook to swing past obstacles or doublejump to reach precarious handholds and footholds.

Like the one before him.

He bounced through two doublejumps in a row, used a grapplehook to run sideways on the side of a boulder then jumped from crumbling ledge to crumbling ledge, to flip to a stop on a sloping rock.

He exhaled an exhilarated laugh at the success of the particular tricky maneuver, starting to smile again, even more when he glanced down and saw rockspires hidden under an overhang that might have skewered him if he missed a step or the timing and slipped down.

He vaulted a hillock, did a somersault to gain air, landed on a soft mossy rock.

Ghk! –grooahw!

Krow yelped when the rock let out a sound and moved.

He unbalanced and fell backward.

Throwing a grapplehook to wind around a tree root jutting out above, he caught his weight on the rope and swung away. He looked back – a ram-type monster stood and roared at him resentfully.

He couldn't help but cackle. "Sorry!"

The monster looked familiar, in fact. But the name couldn't quite come to the forefront of his mind.

He spent a little too long wondering that he reached the zenith of his swing and the momentum swung back.

"Shkav!"

The ram lowered its head, glorious three-pronged twisty horn poised to skewer Krow. Other rocks around the ram started to shake themselves off and rouse.

It was a whole tribe.

Krow pulled himself hand over hand up the rope – closer to the hook was farther from the monsters.

The ram tossed its head as Krow swung past. Too close! He spread his legs, letting all six points pass between his knees, missing by centimeters.

He never thought himself so brave before.

He looked down.

[Lichenyak Herdleader Lvl 21]

[HP: 1000]

[MP: 110]

Oh! He remembered now!

The downswing had his eyes widen in alarm. He eeled himself higher on the rope, but still had to pull his legs up to avoid the horns.

Safe!

He let go, triggering doublejump to change direction and land on a tufty knoll.

He scampered away from the landing zone until he came to a tree he could hide behind, only then peering back warily.

The knoll was ram-free.

He leaned against the tree trunk and huffed out a laugh.

He was seeing more and more monsters he knew.

The nighteye caterpillars, then a flight of hundred-tail swallows the other day, and now the lichenyaks.

He only assisted on a lichenyak hunt once. Not a whole group though. They were one of the few animals that were floral elementals. He glanced at his gloves. The Bonewood used in them was from a floral-aligned monster.

Krow must have cracked a few ribs in that lichenyak ram, or it would have been using its famed circus-level jumping ability to follow and gore him.

Good that it wasn't.

His mood better, he surveyed the area.

It was a small grove of about twenty trees just under the peak of the ridge. The breeze was pleasant, ruffling through purple and blue leaves.

He rested awhile.

The sound of multiple lowing caught his attention. He cut short his perusal of the pretty bark patterns on the tree he was leaning on and edged cautiously to the knoll.

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Peering down, he didn't know whether to laugh or sigh.

It followed after all.

The lichenyak herdleader stood tall atop a boulder, head lifted in call, the low sound it made rumbling around the cliffs. The others of the herd were with him, on precarious ledges, rocks, trees around him.

Why?

He was pretty sure he was out of the monster's aggro zone.

The ram caught sight of Krow.

If he didn't know better, he'd say those eyes went red with rage.

It bellowed, a long foghorn-like sound.

The herd turned toward him, almost as one.

Krow lifted his hands, almost automatically. "It was an accident!"

The ram may not be able to jump, but the others weren't so constrained.

His heart started to beat faster at the sight of a dozen intense eyes trained on him. Predatorily, he imagined.

Norge, can your ruminants not be so bloodlusting?!

He readied his revolver.

Another time, and Krow would've admired the grace in which the herd leaped up impossible places.

Not when they were coming for him, though.

He aimed.

One darkspear wasn't enough to down the lead charger. Two wasn't enough. It was the third that knocked the monster down, enough for it to slip to its knees and scrabble at stone as it lost balance and toppled from the peaks.

[You've gained two (2) serpens from a monster!]

Even then, Krow knew it wasn't his bullets that finished it off.

Two reached the knoll. Krow shot as he backed away. They were not as tough as the first, seven darkspears downing them.

[You've gained two (2) serpens from a monster!]

[You've gained two (2) serpens from a monster!]

The fourth was smart, gaining the top of the ridge before jumping Krow from sideways and above.

2% HP gone.

[Lichenyak Lvl 14]

[HP: 550]

[MP: 30]

Krow retreated behind a clump of trees, downing the smart one in three shots.

[You've gained two (2) serpens from a monster!]

The distraction allowed three to charge Krow.

The first of them was on him before he could bring the revolver to bear. His left hand went to his leg, where as a First Apprentice of the Butcher subclass, he was allowed to wear butcher's knives as offhand weapons.

He slashed at the lichenyak.

It didn't buy him much space, but it was enough. Three bullets to kill it and the other two took advantage to ram him even as it fell.

[You've gained two (2) serpens from a monster!]

Krow crashed against a rock pillar.

5% HP gone.

Another lowed challengingly above him, while one other followed the two who got the hit in.

"Do you want to trample me to death?"

He leaped to higher vantage, knife slashing at the lichenyak above.

It didn't faze it.

They followed still.

"What did I ever do to you all, huh?"

He actually did want to know. Just jumping on their leader wouldn't make herbivores this angry, right?

He swept his gaze over the peaks, eyes quickly marking a trail.

He fixed the route his mind, then turned back to shoot.

The gun clicked on empty.

"Oh, come on."

Krow leaped backward, foot accurately coming down on a barely there jut of rock, braced and pitched himself upward. He triggered Doublejump, flinging himself higher still.

He dropped the empty cylinder, swapping it with another, before swiping the empty one out of the air and into his inventory.

He flipped, landing with barely a flail on a tree branch, grinning. "Did you see that?!"

Backwards hopping on these peaks was ill-advised. Doing that while swapping one cylinder out for another?

"That was pretty extreme, right?"

He flipped backward out of the way as a stubby horn slammed into the branch.

Krow laughed. The horns of the other lichenyaks weren't as magnificent as that of the herdleader.

He aimed, still following the route backward in his mind's eye.

He clipped a jutting root, losing balance mid-leap.

His shot went wild.

He doublejumped to a ledge, glancing down into a crevasse he almost fell into. "Okay, that wasn't as cool, but nice recovery, right?"

The lichenyak in the lead coming at him had its mouth open, tongue hanging out, eyes bulging.

Was it tired?

"No answer? Oh well." He shot the lichenyak out of the air as it jumped for him. "I guess you're not a conversationalist."

He smiled widely at the two of its compatriots following the first closely as he leaped onto a mass of roots.

"I don't suppose you could tell me why you all are stalking me? I'm minding my own business here."

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The crack at his feet was unexpected.

He looked down as the roots broke free of the cliff and tumbled out from under him.

He fell, debris all around him.

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