Ch006-Fee Fi Fo Fun

“I cannot stress enough how much I recommend finding a party,” Shera said, blocking the exit with her small frame.

“I agree. A party is extremely important. They help to travel, they allow you to specialize without worry, and it’s way more fun with people around. Then there’s the added safety, added efficiency, and that a party can handle monsters, that none of them would be able to handle alone.” Sylver said, listing all the reasons a party was vital when adventuring. According to a book he once read at least.

“Right! So, you’ll-”

“For the 100th time, show me a rule against it. The quest giver is the guild, so I can’t be denied, and for the 100th time it’s ‘recommended’, not required.” Sylver repeated. The attention was endearing, initially, but it was getting into annoying territory now.

“Did you find anything?” Shera shouted at her coworker, who was very quickly trying to read through the large and dusty leather-bound book, desperately trying to find something to disprove Sylver. She stopped at a page, and her face lit up. She moved her finger down as she read through it, and frowned.

“I don’t see why you’re so concerned. If I’m such an idiot as to do something I’m incapable of doing, you aren’t losing anyone valuable. Fuck it, maybe I’ll nearly die and learn a lesson. And if I am as capable as I think I am, you’re getting someone extremely competent, and reliable. It’s a win-win for you.” Sylver explained, meeting the slightly shivering woman’s glare, and glancing at her coworker along with her. Now that there wasn’t a table separating them, he was quite literally towering over her, almost twice as tall as she was.

“Try wolves! Or goblins, or something that won’t kill you with one hit!” Shera pleaded, ignoring Sylver’s explanation.

“Can’t. Too far away, and I have a date in a few hours. Also, I’m better with slow monsters, than fast ones, right now. And once again, I know how to kill giants.” Sylver explained.

Shera’s concerned face turned into confusion. “You’re taking an extremely dangerous quest, just because it’s the closest because you are limited on time, because of a date?” Shera summarized.

“It sounds moronic if you simplify it like that. But essentially yes.” Sylver said, pretending to be unashamed in his reasoning. Maybe starting with something small would be a good idea. But on the other hand, high risk, high reward. And since he can’t die, there’s no real risk. Unless he gets eaten. Not to mention, he’s not about to lose to a bunch of giants. And while he wouldn’t say it out loud, Shera had bruised the few scraps of pride he had left, and now he had to go and kill giants to prove her wrong.

“Gods damn it. Mira, please tell me you found something!” Shera shouted to her coworker. A dark-haired human woman, who wore a light green guild uniform, and a silver name tag.

“If he had a track record of failing against this specific enemy, we could deny him, but there’s nothing about blocking a new member from doing it. It does say, recommended, not required,” The woman shouted back. Given how she slammed the book shut, and shoved it away in disgust, this appeared to be the only rule on the matter.

Raising an eyebrow at Shera, she stood her ground for a few moments, her eyes moving around quickly, trying to find something to say or do.

But after that, she sighed very loudly and stepped out of the way.

*

The building was slightly larger than the ones around it. On top of that, it’s building material made it stand out a whole lot more than anything else. Where the others were built out of wood, stone, or cement, this one was built entirely out of metal. The door looked very heavy, but Tom had no issue getting it open.

Inside the interior was that of a normal inn. Wooden flooring, wooden walls, and a wooden ceiling. The trick of course is that it was all fake, and simply just well painted, and sculpted metal. The reason for the metal casing became clear the moment he stepped inside.

The creature working the front desk exulted a palpable aura of dark energy. It would normally rot its way through the wood, cause the living to go blind, kill anyone with a weak constitution, and ultimately create an abomination if given enough time and left unchecked. But in Sylver’s and Tom’s case, it simply felt like a pleasant warm breeze.

Inside there was a small number of people, all of them wearing masks or wrappings around their heads and bodies, hiding whoever, or whatever, they were. The thing they all shared in common of course, was that they either thrived or had a strong enough immunity, to dark energy.

There was a peaceful silence inside, only a creature in the corner playing a stringed instrument Sylver hadn’t seen before, breaking up the quiet. The creature at the front desk disappeared from sight and reappeared right in front of Sylver.

“Sylver the necromancer, nice to meet you,” Sylver said, extending his hand out.

The creature cocked its head to the side, but extended its hand out to shake it anyway. It looked like a human was mixed with an animal of some sort, and then covered from head to toe in armor. The rough shape of the body was correct, but the proportions and length of limbs were just a little bit off. Its head was a metal helmet that had eye holes, which didn’t appear to have anything behind them.

“Ronald. Or Ron if you prefer. Owner and head receptionist of Ron’s Rest.” The creature explained.

“I just need to drop some things off for now and I’ll be on my way. How much for a month's stay?” Sylver said, turning Tom around and getting his purse out of the bag.

“60 silver. But you’ll be pleased to hear you get your own toilet, shower, and even a specially designed safe.” Ron said, lowering his hands back down.

“Great,” Sylver said, counting out 60 silver and placing them onto the nearby table. He then took all 4 daggers out of the bag, and handed Tom the sword, before closing the bag up. “Is there a room ready or…”

“It’ll take some time to prepare, but I can take your bag for you if that’s all that you’re leaving. I personally guarantee its safety.” Ron said.

Confusing the creature further, Sylver handed it the bag without any questions. Ron at first stared at the bag in his hands and then moved his gaze over to the well-hidden Tom.

When Ron continued to stare at Tom without saying anything, Sylver interjected, “He’s non-sentient. Or at least not enough to talk or communicate. I can store him in my shadow, he won’t be taking up any room.” Sylver said.

“Oh… No, sorry. I’ve just never seen a tamed one before. I wasn’t expecting it, with how low your level is, no offense.” Ron said, turning back to look at Sylver.

“None took. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Sylver said, walking out of the inn.

The whole interaction felt extremely uncomfortable, but Sylver couldn’t understand why. He decided it might just be his body reacting a little poorly to the dark energy.

*

Walking through the city, Sylver stopped to look at the sunrise. He’d seen it an unmeasurable number of times, but there was something different about this one.

It looked more alive somehow. Brighter, clearer, and in some way more beautiful than it had ever appeared to be before. For a single moment he just stood there and watched it, all his worries and fears alleviated for just the tiniest fraction of a minute.

*

“The strategy is pretty simple. You run in, cut their legs up as much as you possibly can, and I observe from a safe distance. After you’re inevitably killed, I revive you, and then rinse and repeat, until they’re all weakened from blood loss, and unable to walk. I’ll get closer and shoot them down from a safe distance. Any questions?” Sylver said to Tom as they two continued to walk towards the giant’s cave.

Tom still looked as unenthusiastic about everything, as he had been since the moment he was summoned. Sylver of course could order him to appear happy, or at the very least content, but this was fine for now. A good reminder he was just a tool to be used.

The cave full of giants was pretty easy to spot. Mostly because of the 4 giants sitting around a fire, outside of it, grunting very loudly to each other.

They looked vaguely humanoid, the biggest difference being that their torso was quite small, compared to how long and large their arms and legs were. Their heads looked like a human’s, except for 2 large horns, grey skin, and completely black eyes. Each one of the four had a dirty black beard, that was twisted into a braid of one sort or another.

“I wasn’t expecting them to sit together like this. And they’re a lot bigger than I remember giants being... Anyway. See that one? The one with the wrap around its arm. Try to get its Achilles tendon if you can. If not, stab it through the thighs as much as possible. It’s already injured, so we might as well take advantage of the fact,” Sylver said to Tom, pointing at the smallest giant.

[Vleborian Giant (???) – ??]

[Vleborian Giant (??) – ??]

[Vleborian Giant (???) – ??]

[Vleborian Giant (???) - ??]

So, they’re at least 10 levels higher than me… And I have no idea what Vleborian even means. Is it the name of their species? So, does that mean that Appraisal doesn’t function off my knowledge? Ciege doesn’t know any giant species names. So, it has access to some sort of mass database? Who or what determines, what an item or creature is called? This shit is giving me a headache, just thinking about it.

“Ready?” Sylver asked, after deciding that standing there and thinking about it was just wasting precious daylight.

Tom looked like he always did. Completely apathetic. Holding the short sword Sylver had given him, he looked blankly at the four giants and charged in silently. Hiding the sword behind his back, the giants simply watched the black and yellow figure approaching, and did absolutely nothing.

They made a new grunting noise to each other, and at Tom, and the largest one in the back pointed its club at him. Tom continued to run towards them, and with a single swipe, managed to completely chop off the foot of the smallest giant. Sylver flinched and gasped for some reason but kept his eyes glued to the fight.

The small giant bellowed with shock and pain, as Tom struck again, piercing his sword through the other foot and bone, barely managing to pull his sword out, before being crushed to death by the clubs. The sword was left on the floor, covered in blood and lying in a black and yellow puddle.

The giants were now in a frenzy, clubbing the pile of blackness to death, and one of the giants doing his best to stop the bleeding of the smallest one. It pulled the leg up to his mouth, and bit down on the severed limb, crushing it completely. But while Sylver was initially confused and disgusted at this, he quickly realized that this had somehow stopped the bleeding.

With the other leg, the same healer giant simply grabbed a handful of wet dirt from the ground, and filled up the hole with it, causing the wounded small giant to stop screaming. Watching this from a distance, Sylver was surprised to feel that Tom was already back in his shadow. He hadn’t even pulled him back yet.

Spending about three-quarters of his mana to completely solidify him, Sylver had a better idea.

“Great job out there. Did not expect you to be able to cut anything off, but this is much better. Bring me the foot you cut off.” Sylver told Tom. The recently dead, and alive again, shade simply nodded and ran full speed at the giants.

They backed away and got into defensive positions, guarding the entrance to their cave, and Tom managed to get the foot without any issue. He ran back to Sylver and handed him the awful smelling limb. The remaining 3 giants left the small groaning giant where he was since none of them had the strength to lift and carry him to safety. And the small one was still in shock from the pain, and if the pool of blood he was sitting in, is to be believed, probably close to passing out.

After waiting for a while to make sure the giant’s weren’t going anywhere, Sylver took his daggers and stabbed them into the severed foot.

Touching the disgusting appendage with his left hand, Sylver moved his right hand on top of it and touched the four daggers as he cast the spell.

The foot began to decompose and liquefy, bubbles of festering black blood, popping and burning the grass around it, nails and skin falling off, and after the rotten flesh became nothing more than a puddle of excrement like liquid, only the bones and the 4 daggers remained.

Their previously shiny metal blades were now coated in a dense layer of blood-red filth. Sylver was upset that this took the entire remainder of his mana but reminded himself that he’s weak right now and not to worry so much.

[Spell [Touch of Decay] added to spell list!]

[Touch of Decay: Tier I]

Cost: 10MP/S

-Cause a target you are in contact with, to decay at an increased rate.

*Targets with high resistance, or fast enough regeneration, may be immune.

[Spell [Festering Blade] added to spell list!]

[Festering Blade: Tier I]

Cost: 55MP

-Coat a bladed weapon with rotten flesh and blood.

-Any wound caused by the coated blade will fester and rot unless healed.

*Amount of flesh used determines the amount of coating.

*Will not work on blessed, or holy attribute metals.

*User is not immune to its effects.

“If I knew you had the strength to chop something off, I would have told you to go for the arms instead,” Sylver mused out loud, mostly to himself.

“But don’t beat yourself up over it, great job getting the foot. Now we are going with a different strategy. Take this dagger, and do your best to cut as many of them as you can. I’m going to hide a little better after this because I need to wait a while for my mana to come back. Now, just so you understand, it would be better if you cut all four of them, at least a little than if you stabbed one of them to death. Understand?” Sylver asked.

Tom nodded and took one of the daggers, and charged forward at the giants.

The three guarding the entrance to the cave raised their clubs in the air and were standing at the ready. On the way to them, Tom cut a deep wound into the stomach of the defenseless small giant, with the missing foot and a fair distance away from the other 3, and the wound immediately started to darken.

Stopping just out of their club’s range, Tom turned his body left, ran a step forward, and turned right, being missed by the giant’s club, by barely a hair. The ground shook and splintered from where the club hit the floor, but Tom managed to run underneath it, using the lowered club, as a roof to stop the other 2 from bringing theirs down on him.

He cut the giant in the middle in the stomach, and immediately moved to the left, and cut the giant on the left on its exposed thigh. Getting kicked and thrown by the leftmost giant, Tom was thrown to the right, hitting the wall hard, and getting stomped on by the remaining giant. He shoved the dagger under his armpit, and as the giant stomped on him, caused the dagger to enter the sole of the giant’s foot.

From his safe hiding spot, Sylver watched with delight as his shade managed to get all 4 of them. On his first try too! He felt Tom reappear inside his shadow, and simply sat and waited for a while.

The giants remained on guard, looking all over the place, and not a single one paying any attention to their wounds.

The small one was the first to go. The deep cut in his stomach was bloated, and filled with black pus. The darkening tone moved up his torso, and small bubbles of blood appeared on his soft pale stomach. The small giant was already passed out by this point, and when the infection finally made its way to his heart, his stomach had caved inwards, filled with shimmering pus, like a bowl of soup.

[Vleborian Giant (None) Defeated!]

[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 2!

+5AP

[Necromancer] has reached level 3!

+5AP

With not a whole lot more to do but wait, Sylver looked through his status again.

Total Level: 5

[Koschei-2]

[Necromancer-3]

CONS: 11

DEX: 1

STR: 1

INT: 21

WIS: 21

AP: 15

Health: 110/110

Stamina: 55/55

MP: 78/210

Health Regen: 1.65/M

Stamina Regen: 0.825/M

MP Regen: 4.41/M

Hmm…

Mana capacity is more important than mana regeneration. I can drain their mana from them, so if I have a higher capacity, I can store more of it. Regeneration, on the other hand, would work great if I’m in a fight of attrition. Tom dies from one hit, so there’s nothing to heal right now, but in the future…

I’ll work on strength and dexterity, once I get intelligence and wisdom up to 100. What about constitution? Will anything even happen if I hit 0? I’ll pass out, according to what Ciege was taught, but he’s never actually seen or experienced it. And with my [Deathless] thing, can I even reach zero?

If I get decapitated, does my body or my head retain my consciousness? Is it the part with the needle in it? All the trait says is that unless the needle is destroyed, I will not die… Since I’m already partially undead, would I still be ‘alive’ even if I can’t move or function anymore? Does it just mean it won’t let my soul move on?

In that case, hypothetically, if I have someone around who can heal me, I can get as destroyed as I want, and they can just grow me a new body…

Hypothetically.

I’ll need to somehow find out how this works, without killing myself by accident.

CONS: 11

DEX: 1

STR: 1

INT: 36

WIS: 21

AP: 0

Health: 110/110

Stamina: 55/55

MP: 104/360

Health Regen: 1.65/M

Stamina Regen: 0.825/M

MP Regen: 7.77/M

Sitting around and watching the giants, Sylver decided that they were weak enough now. All 3 were barely standing, and even the one with the graze was wobbling on his feet. Their eyes were closing for longer and longer, and the dumb beasts were sweating so hard it was making the dirt they were standing on change color.

With his mana almost full, Sylver took one of the daggers and walked out of the bushes. Deciding that the 10% boost wouldn’t be worth making himself stand out, he kept his [Deathly Aura] turned off.

As he approached the giants, 4 more Sylver’s walked alongside him. Each one a perfect copy, and holding an identical dagger in their hand.

The giants got ready quite quickly, and the one on the left charged forwards at him. It swung its club sideways, hitting 2 of the illusions, and its club passed harmlessly through them. They disappeared into a small cloud of grey smoke, as the giant continued to swing its club around at the newly appearing Sylver’s.

It kept swinging and spinning around, hitting smoke and air to no avail. It yelled very loudly when it felt something cut the back of its leg, and dropped to one knee. Throwing its club aside, it swung much faster with its bare arms, still hitting nothing but smoke and air. The giant felt something climbing up its back but had to focus on the Sylvers in front of it, raising their hands and producing streams of blood-red fire.

It shielded its face with its hand, screaming prematurely. The harmless illusionary flames disappeared along with the other figures, as the giant lost consciousness. Standing on top of the giant, and sucking out its health, stamina, and mana, Sylver looked backward at the cowering and barely alive giants guarding the cave.

[Vleborian Giant (None) Defeated!]

[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 4!

+5AP

[Necromancer] has reached level 5!

+5AP

[Draining Touch (I) Proficiency increased to 22%!]

[Optical Illusion (I) Proficiency Increased to 11%!]