Crystal Sunrise

Ellis instinctively used Identify. At this point, it had almost become second nature for him to use it at the first sight of danger.

The lowest level of the monsters surrounding him was around level 13 and the highest was 21.

The bugs were a dark mossy green color and shaped like beetles. Each one had long pinchers and each of their legs ended in a pointed tip almost like a spear. With each step toward him their spear-like legs pierced into the ground ripping up the grass beneath them.

The HP of these insects is only around 600 so it shouldn't be too difficult to dispatch them. I still want to get some rest after this. Lightning would be the fastest and easiest way to get rid of all these bugs, but I don't want to create any bright flashes of light or loud explosions that might draw in more enemies to the area. The best way to get rid of all these beetles without making too much noise would just be to use my halberd. Ah, what if I combine the two? I just hope the noise won't draw anything else into the area.

Ellis quickly willed the anima inside him to flow threw his hands and into his halberd before electrifying the anima. His weapon glowed and buzzed slightly but not enough to draw too much attention. Now he could kill the monsters quickly without creating any bright, loud explosions that might pull in unwanted interest.

Ellis quickly ran forward to dispatch the insects swarming him. Each beetle only took one hit from his halberd before their bodies spasmed and fizzed as they died. The beetles had hard carapaces, but all his halberd needed to do was barely cut through it and the lightning would do the rest, boiling their goo-like insides.

He honestly felt sort of bad for them for a second before he remembered that they had disturbed his beauty sleep.

As he swung his halberd around, he noticed an unexpected benefit. The weapon coated in lightning seemed to move almost twice as fast as when he swung it normally. He quickly realized that this must have been because the properties of the lightning had been imbued into his hands as they passed through them into his halberd.

Maybe this benefit can be applied elsewhere, like on my body as a whole. I could increase my power exponentially. I will have to experiment with the idea later.

Ellis thought to himself as more insects continued to assault him. He soon realized imbuing his weapon with lightning used up his anima quickly. It had only been a minute and he had already gone through more than half of his reserve. He was going to have to hurry up and finish the rest of these bugs quickly.

Soon the ground around him lay littered with the slightly smoking corpses of beetles. The smell of burnt insect goo wafted into his nose. Ellis wiped a small bead of sweat from his brow as he relaxed his guard.

I wonder why this large group of beetles are moving through the meadow together. They seem to have come from the mountain range. Could something be forcing them to migrate?

As Ellis thought, he moved the corpses of the beetles a good distance from his camp leaving them all in a big pile. He didn't want the corpses too close to his camp in case something else was attracted to the smell of fried beetle and wanted a midnight snack. The process took him a couple of hours as there were at least one hundred beetles. As he dropped off each beetle, he would pull out its anima gem and crush it in his fingers to replenish his anima. He thought about harvesting some materials from them, but he couldn't be bothered to dig through their green goo filled body for anything other than anima gems.

Now hopefully if anything comes it will go to this pile of beetles for a free meal instead of to me.

Ellis nodded his head as he dropped off the last beetle. After checking his area was clear and making sure there was nothing coming, Ellis laid down on his bedroll and quickly drifted off into a half-sleeping state still staying aware of his surroundings.

The rest of his night he was undisturbed. He did make out the sound of something at one point, but it seemed to have wandered off toward the pile of beetles. Ellis's eyes only squinted opened when the crystals above began to shift from dim blues and purples to warm oranges and reds. Ellis sat up on his bedroll and watched the crystal sunrise as he rubbed his eyes. He then got up and scouted around the area. There were a few small monsters around the pile of beetles, but they were easily taken care of by his halberd as they were occupied with stuffing their faces with beetle goo.

Ellis looked up and off at the mountain in the distance.

It looked to be at least twelve cycles of the crystals away by his judgment. Ellis packed up his bedroll and the rest of his portable campsite neatly into his backpack. When he finished, he started on the long journey toward the mountain on the horizon.

Ellis walked for almost an entire crystal cycle, only stopping to take out some wandering monsters or for a quick munch of jerky and glug of water.

It was almost dark out aside from a couple of red twinkling crystals. As Ellis walked, he heard ruffling in the tall grass beside him. He took a step back as he readied himself. A monster the size of a small dog leapt out at him bearing a mouth full of sharp teeth. Ellis lifted his halberd to his chest which stopped the creature from biting his face off before he threw it to the ground. It scurried onto its feet, but it was too slow, Ellis plunged his halberd into the creature's chest. It let out a small whimper and then fell limp. Ellis knelt down by the monster and pulled the sharp skinning knife out of his pack that Droven had given him. He quickly cut a few fillets of meat off the monster and wrapped them up with some cloth before putting everything away. He stood up and looked up at the crystals above.

I should probably set up camp here for the night. It's getting too dark to continue and the monsters are starting to get more active now.

Ellis quickly set up his camp. After performing his new nightly routine of weapon and armor maintenance he laid down on his bedroll. As he was laying down, he gazed up at the twinkling crystals in the sky before he went to sleep.

Six cycles of the crystals went by as he made his way closer to the mountain. Most of the way was just grassland with the occasional boulder or bush peppering the landscape. As he walked, he came across various monsters while he progressed toward the mountain. Most of them didn't require too much effort to kill. There were a couple that were difficult fights but only because they traveled in packs of eight to ten. Individually they weren't too hard though.

Ellis made his way through the grassland when suddenly the tall grass opened up into a small plot of dirt and stone. Giant boulders were scattered about the area. As he made his way through the area, he noticed one of the boulders was shaped funny. He walked up to the boulder and inspected it. It took a few seconds before he realized what was odd about the boulder. A face was carved into it.

Wait! This is a statue!