“This is going to happen every time I wake up, isn’t it?” I grumbled as I tried to remove a larger Inkler from my chest. He didn’t seem too keen on the idea, shifting and rolling in that way only cats seem to manage and getting even more of his bulk on my chest. “Ooof! Come on bud, time to get up.” I managed to weeze. He cracked an eye to look at me, then closed it again. Getting fed up a bit, I grabbed ahold of him and practically threw the both of us off the bed.

Finally free of the beast, I was able to head to the door and see that there was a covered tray of food for me and another cassowack leg for Inkler. Once he had polished off his food, and I mine, we headed out for some more hunting. Once again we hit the lizards fairly hard, but tried to avoid other fights. We easily cleared the first oasis, and harvested ten canteens of water from it. I tried for more, as there was plenty of water, but I got a popup informing me that I had reached the limit for that oasis for 24 hours. Annoying, but probably a good thing.

Scorprican

Lvl 70

Those who live with the desert know to fear these armored creatures. You can accurately judge their strength based on the number of tails, at least one of which will always have a paralytic poison. They have a tendency to strike their victim in the legs, preventing them from fleeing.

Annoying pests. The tops of the tails of the smaller ones came up to mid-thigh, and there were never less than three at a time. The stronger ones did tend to gather in smaller groups, but that was their only redeeming feature. I was guaranteed at least two kills right off the bat, as piercing their armor with my arbalest and the [Arrows that pierce the day] was child’s play. Inkler made himself known by severing the legs along one side, crippling one. We made a good team, though I was frustrated with my stone manipulation. Sand just didn’t respond the same way, and stone grasp just didn’t work. The hand would form, but it would burst apart with ease.

Instead of that, I made a whirlpool of sand. The shifting caused whatever was in it to bog down, at least until they unburied themselves. The experience was rolling in, and I ended up sacrificing any scorprican that had more than three tails to Thanatos, as they counted as champion monsters. They only dropped varying poisons along with some armor plates anyway, and none of it was any stronger than what the weaker ones dropped.

The second oasis we came to was actually the one furthest from town, and we really only wandered this way because it was so far off the beaten path. As we crested the last dune before it, I stopped with Inkler to admire the view. Lush grass covered the area of two football fields, and in the middle was a lake of crystal blue water. There were palm trees as well as some red and blue flowers that I was interested in. Perhaps this desert was concealing some hidden alchemy reagents?

Just outside the oasis, was the largest scorprican we had seen all day.

Malignatalis

Scorprican king

Level 85

This king of beasts rules a large portion of the desert. The strongest of the scorpricans, retreat should be both plan A and plan B should you encounter him, especially if you lack a detoxify spell.

“Awesome, boss fight!” It was looking to be a good fight too. His pincers were at my head level, and his black and red armor gleamed in the moonlight. “Ok Inkler, here’s how we’re gonna play it. I’ll distract, I want you underneath his body. Stay near the edge, just in case he drops and tries to crush you. As soon as you can, I want you to keep using your [Reality slash] on his joints, taking out the legs on one side.” He headbutted me in the hand, giving me a raspy lick from his tongue before trotting off to one side. I lined up a shot with my arbalest, and fired a bolt right into the creature’s mouth.

“SKRRRREEEEEEEEEE!!!” It shrieked and clicked it’s pincers in annoyance, appalled that a creature smaller than itself would dare to cause it pain.

“I got more where that came from! Come and get it!” Changing my aim to the joint in one of his pincers, I chanted, “Arrow of darkness, cleave your way. Beware the danger, of [Arrows that pierce the day].” The bolt sheared through a portion of the claw, damaging it horrendously. It wasn’t shorn completely off, but it was closing much slower than the other one. That didn’t do anything to slow down those tails though!

“[Dancing shadow steps]!” I hurriedly activated the skill, as all nine tails came down in a roughly square formation. Had I not had a movement skill, at least one of them would have skewered me instead of a shower of sand. Instead I had an up close and personal view of the injured pincer as it headed towards my neck. Unfortunately for the creature, I was hoping for just that reaction. “[Overcharge].” I calmly activated my skill, unleashing the blow onto the already weakened joint. With a loud crack and an accompanying screech from the scorprican, the pincer lost the mobile part. I tried to move away from the injured beast, but it had much better traction on the sand and sent me flying with a backhand from its injured claw.

Rolling with the landing as much as I could, I saw the creature had turned from attacking me and was trying to get to where it could attack Inkler. He was holding on to one of the back legs. “Hold on Inkler, I’m coming!” I charged in again, and somehow amid all the twirling of the creature ended up on the same side as Inkler. As I saw a leg coming to plant itself near me, I wound up for the mother of all home run swings. “[Keen edge][Rocket slash]!” I had no idea if those skills would stack together, but it was worth a try. As the leg hit the ground, my scythe shattered the armor it hit so hard. Without the armor to support the weight, the leg buckled. This happily coincided with Inkler finally managing to savage his way through a second leg, further weakening support on that side.

“Clear out Inkler, he’s dropping!” I shouted, though I didn’t have to worry. Inkler was already clear of the leg, but had instead leapt onto the base of the tails. It would have been a brilliant idea, as they couldn’t strike near their base, but he forgot about the lack of grip on the armor. Damnit, as the creature started to right itself, Inkler fell off and bogged down in the sand. I had to do something fast.

“[Arrows that pierce the day]!” I fired another bolt into the creature’s face to get his attention, distracting it enough for Inkler to get away. It tried to smash me with an overhand blast from one of its pincers, and though I managed to dive out of the way it still knocked me on my face.

“Gyaaaaaahhh!” I cried out in pain as my back was pierced by one of the stingers. Thinking me out for a while, the scorprican started looking around for Inkler once again. I downed one of my few remaining health potions, cursing myself for not stocking back up on them and mana potions. Inkler had hooked his claws into one of the joints, and was hanging on for dear life. “Hold on buddy, I’m coming.” I said, reloading my arbalest. Once again the scorprican took a bolt to the face, dropping its health into critical range. This triggered a rage, and it started slamming its tails and pincers into the ground in front of it.

“[Dancing shadow steps]!” Desperation tinged my voice as I made it underneath the creature where Inkler soon joined me. “Let’s let this pass for a bit, then we can take out the remaining legs, ok bud?” I asked, patting his head. He rubbed against me, and as the blows slowed we darted out from underneath the boss and started on the remaining two legs. I let Inkler have the one near the back, and used another [Overcharge] with the last of my mana on the front leg. We didn’t manage to get through both legs, but we damaged them enough that as soon as it started to move, the weight was too much and it toppled onto its side.

“Hang back Inkler, those tails are nasty.” I shouted at him, happy to see him dart out of range. Meanwhile, I charged in and started attacking the arm joint of the working pincer. With a few well-placed blows from my hammer, the joint was locked in an unusable position.

“That, was a fun battle.” I said while panting. The scorprican tried to stab me with its tails, but I was too close in for them to be effective. It couldn’t move, only gnash its mandibles in annoyance at me. Not wanting to prolong its suffering, I managed to make my way on top of the head and smash down with my hammer until the armor plating cracked. Once I had it starting to flake off, I flipped my weapon around and started blows with the point of the scythe, and soon enough the boss perished.

The results of the battle were fantastic. I had jumped up to level 58 from the battles with the smaller scorpricans, and fighting a level 85 boss monster solo brought me up to 62. Inkler was rapidly closing the gap, having jumped up to level 54. At some point I had crossed the 500 mark for higher level enemies killed, adding another percent to my damage and unlocking the next tier at 5,000 kills. But the high point was the loot drops.

Scorprican king’s hardened cuirass

Set item (1/4)

Crafted from the armor plates of Malignatalis, this sleek black armor will instill fear in any foe.

Defense: 375

Durability: 10,000/10,000

Self repairing: recovers 100 durability/min outside of combat

Fear aura: Generates a fear aura around user.

Adds 15% poison resistance

Scorprican king’s chitin bracers

Set item (1/4)

Crafted from the armor plates of Malignatalis, the spines on these bracers add to both offense and defense.

Defense: 70

Durability: 6,000/6,000

Self repairing: recovers 100 durability/min outside of combat

Poison booster: poisons used last 45% longer

Thorned defense: Melee attackers take 8% reflected damage

Weapon skills evolved!

Your living weapon has evolved new skills!

Limb Lopper: When using an edge enhancing skill, increased chance to remove limbs when striking a joint

Poison infusion: Your weapon has consumed the venom glands of a king scorprican. Increased chance to inflict random poisons on strike.

Boss bane: Deals an additional 15% damage to boss type monsters

Auto repair: Weapon will automatically initiate repairs. Essence taken from health regeneration when out of combat, from damage inflicted when in combat.

Bloodsteel and Shadow mithril Hammerscythe (Soulbound, Scalable) lvl 102 (40 kobold +62)

This weapon was specially commissioned for a neophyte of Thanatos. Infusing the steel with his blood and certain herbs, along with the heart of a creature slain by his own hand has inexorably linked the two. It will grow with its owner, and has branching potential trees that can be unlocked depending on its usage.

Living Weapon: Durability can be repaired by sacrificing the life force of either the wielder or enemies.

Soulbound: Can’t be stolen or dropped upon death

Scalable: Stats dependent upon the level of the wielder

Executioner: +10% increased chance for decapitation when striking the neck of an enemy.

Holy Strike: 20% of damage done will be added as holy damage

Heavy Armor Bane: Ignore 10% of opponent’s armor if heavily armored, Enemy heavy armor takes 50% more durability damage

Undead bane: +15% damage to undead, +15% critical chance vs undead.

Voracious: Can absorb materials to improve itself.

Piercing intercept – Your weapon has a chance to intercept and negate damage from a piercing attack. In exchange, it will lose 10% durability.

Limb Lopper: When using an edge enhancing skill, increased chance to remove limbs when striking a joint

Poison infusion: Your weapon has consumed the venom glands of a king scorprican. Increased chance to inflict random poisons on strike.

Boss bane: Deals an additional 15% damage to boss type monsters

Auto repair: Weapon will automatically initiate repairs. Essence taken from health regeneration when out of combat, from damage inflicted when in combat.

Damage: 992-1007 Crushing, 957-997 Slashing

Durability: 500000/500000

Achievement

Action

Bonus

Next level

Who’s the boss now?

Solo a boss 25 levels higher than you

-10% damage received from boss fights

Solo 3 bosses 25 levels higher than you

I wasn’t even that mad that my weapon ate one of my rewards. As it stands, I still had one more ability it could achieve. It was just a pity that the armor set I received was plate armor. Between that and the fear aura, I wouldn’t be doing much ambushing if I equipped it. Instead I hoped to trade it in for a high end armor set that I could actually use, the ones made from the tunneling worm hide was starting to get a bit outleveled.

“Pity it didn’t drop any meat, right Inkler?” I asked as I plopped onto the sands. “I bet it would be great dipped in butter. Scorpions are just like desert crabs, right?” Poor cat had no idea what I was talking about, but took the initiative to knock me over with his head. “Gah, blasted cat. You’re going to do a bit of growing tonight, aren’t you? We should probably hit up the oasis and head back.”

There were no enemies as we entered the oasis, which was good since I was exhausted. I grabbed our ten vials of water and started collecting flowers. Sunlight flowers, blue moon blossoms, and dripping heart’s blood. Interesting names. The blue ones actually had a silvery white core with blue tinges on the edge of the petals, and resembled a lilac with clusters of smaller flowers. The dripping heart’s blood opened up like a lily, and the petal tips formed a bright red drop. The palm trees we had seen didn’t have anything worth harvesting, and the grass was useless.

“You about ready bud?” I asked with a yawn. We had spent nearly half an hour relaxing around the oasis. Well, I did. Inkler was pouncing and rubbing among the flowers, apparently having the time of his life. Reluctantly he headed over, and we slaughtered our way back to the city. The scorpricans seemed a bit more scarce, something I wasn’t about to complain about or bring attention to. Bad luck to notice things like that.

As we walked into the city, I took a look at our gains. I was at level 63, Inkler was at 55. We had nearly 200 armor plates, 150 various poison vials, 350 sunlight flower pollen, 225 lizard plates, 103 dripping heart’s blood flowers and 78 of the blue moon blossoms. In addition to all that, arrows that pierce the day had jumped to beginner level 8 and reality slash was up to beginner 4. “Inkler, tomorrow I’m going to have to do a bit of alchemy brewing in the afternoon, do you want me to let you sleep at the inn? It’s going to be boring when I head out.” He seemed to ponder it for a bit, then gave a single nod before plodding on. “Alright. I’ll leave you a cassowack leg to enjoy.” That got some purring, and a happy nightliger plastered to my hip. Entering the inn, we silently made our way to the room to log out for the night.