On The Lookout

I absorbed the Wersok into me, rejuvenating my body and healing my wounds, while Euca stood there in horror.

"What kind of monster are you," she whispered.

"Excuse me. It's just a skill." I defended my actions.

"Of course it is, you dummy. But don't you feel grossed out by the sight?"

"No?"

"Well good for you, because I certainly am." 

What is so disgusting about this?

"Well one thing is sure, that is a pretty handy skill." Euca said after a while, "How did you get it anyway?"

"I don't do anything special that I know of. Just got the skill after I leveled up for the first time."

Her eyes went wide for a second, "Really? That's all it took to get that skill? Good Gods, the system is broken."

Her reaction was very surprising. Are skills that hard to get or is there something else that I'm missing. Seeing my confused look Euca explained.

"Skills are uncommon. And what makes it even more valuable is the fact that sometimes you get skills which have nothing to do with you. So to get a skill related to your craft is very difficult. If skills are hard to get in general, you could imagine how harder it is to obtain a good one." Euca sighed.

"Just look at me for example, I've had to work on my sword training for many years to get a skill related to it."

Thinking back I did see a skill during our first encounter.

"The white light thingy you did before?" I asked.

"Yes that one," she replied.

"My point is your skill is pretty good from what I've seen. So make sure you train it properly."

I nodded. So that's how it is. Skills are really rare. So no wonder none of the villagers had any. All I ever saw was the extra knowledge they had in their respective fields. The class herder allowed dad to be better at rearing but I never heard of any skill he could use.

I refrained from discussing my second skill because even I didn't know what it exactly was. Also because of the fact that Euca might have even more questions to which I didn't have any answers to.

"To some extent I'm relieved. I won't have to look after you," Euca said with a smirk. "Even if you get injured you could heal within minutes."

"Yes I can." 

Once again we started our journey into the forest. The rashness we displayed before has now totally disappeared from our movements. Not wanting to draw attention to ourselves, we were careful in our movements. 

Euca said she knew where she was going but she never told me where this place was. I didn't have any use for that information, so I never asked. The more we went deeper into this cavernous forest the more I grasped its shape.

It was quite wide and it stretched as far as I could see. The small specs of light that provided illumination in this place could only show you so far.

There were trees in all sizes and shapes. Some were just bent down so much that it would be mistaken to be lying on the floor. The tree's huge trunk arching over the ground. Some trees had twisted trunks while others split in the middle and rejoined some metres up. Just like the creatures here the trees too we're not normal. 

The unfamiliarity I had with the tree could be extended to everything inside this place. The very air we breathed felt different, as if it was energizing me. We kept moving through the undergrowth, killing a  monster or two from time to time. 

With all these killings I believed I would rack in good experience. And yet I haven't leveled up. That seemed strange, because I used to level up pretty easily before but now it seemed to have slowed down.

"Do you get any experience from killing the monsters?" I asked Euca. She could answer some of the questions that I had.

"Not at all. These low level monsters won't provide much experience. That's why I hate coming down here. Once you rank up it becomes very hard to get anything out of these guys except their essences."

Crap. She is using unfamiliar jargon again. Rank up? Is that what my evolution is?

"So how many times have you ranked up?" I asked, trying to fish out some information without being obvious.

"Just once. I got the sword fighter class." She said, her eyes constantly surveying for any sign of monsters.

"That sounds like a strong class."

"It is. But only if you work on it tirelessly. I can't afford to leave my mother alone. That is why I decided to stop venturing into the labyrinth and tried to help my mother, while my brother continued delving." She said, a bit of regret filling her voice.

Improving yourself is really great but having to risk your life every time is not worth it, I guess.

"And here you are searching for your brother in the labyrinth huh." I said.

"Yeah. Quite ironic isn't it. The one who decided to stop delving has to save her brother."

"Ironic indeed but quite valiant too." I said.

Euca chuckled a bit hearing that.

"It's only valiant if I can save him. If not all this becomes futile."

That's true. But I didn't want to say so. I didn't want to reinforce her fear of not finding her brother.

Once again we silently moved. Taking short breaks in between for her to rest and for me to absorb the monsters. The only plus point in this journey is that my pure energy reserves have reached eight. I didn't want to use the skill in the beginning but since she found out there was no need to hide it anymore. So I was able to keep up with her because I healed my wounds often.

Two more pure energy and my skill will be ready to be used. I'm pretty eager to find out what it is. I am hoping it will be some offensive skill. What I lacked the most right now was a strong attack. If I could get hold of something like that it would really boost my chance of survival. It's just wishful thinking at the moment but I will soon find out.

From time to time Euca inspected the walls and the rocks trying to figure something out . in the light of the observation from her inspection, she would often change the course of our movement. We had been on the move for a few hours and we had travelled quite some distance from the hideout.

"How long till we reach our destination?" I asked.

"We are almost there," she replied.

Right now we were walking, both of us on the lookout for any signs of monsters.

"You said you have a hunch about where your brother might be. How sure are you."

"Ninety percent," came her reply.

"So ten percent for not finding your brother, huh"

"Yes. If that is the case then he is already dead."

The indifferent nature of her reply was surprising to say the least. 

"Don't get me wrong, I love my brother with all my heart. I want to see him alive. But there is only one place in this forest where he could be overpowered by monsters. And even though I told him many times that he shouldn't take on something stronger than him, he never listened to me. That is the only logical reason I can think of for why he hasn't returned."

"So going there is our best chance to find your brother?"

Euca nodded.

"Your brother has defeated the monsters here a lot of times and he s probably stronger than you. So how can we defeat the monsters your brother couldn't?"

She didn't show any concern nor did she respond to my question.

Oh crap. Is she on a suicide mission? I just want to help not die alongside her.

"I have a plan," she said after a while.

"And that is?"

"I'll throw you into the maws of those filthy creatures and while you get eaten I'll save my brother and escape."

"What?" I jumped back a few feet reflexively, unable to believe my ears.

She stopped her movements and turned to look me straight in the eye. She stood there for a while and burst out laughing.

OOOHHH.

She kept laughing for a good five minutes and when she was able to control herself she apologized.

"I'm so sorry. I couldn't help myself. And boy was that spot on. You should have seen your face-" and the laughter started once again.

She has a very weird sense of humor. 

I sat down on a nearby rock and once again waited for her to finish. 

While I waited, I thought about what she said. The thing about stronger monsters was bugging me to no end. I didn't want to face off with an enemy I couldn't handle. I don't owe Euca that much. And yet I had promised to help her. If only I were stronger, I could have easily helped her. Heck if I was stronger I wouldn't be in this place to begin with. I couldn't help but think back to the day the monsters came attacking.

"This search operation is starting to get to me," Euca said after coming back to her usual self.

"I wouldn't have made that joke normally but right now I just wanted to laugh. There is hardly any positivity in the labyrinth," she reckoned.

"That was a bit out of taste for sure, but nothing I can't overlook. Anyways let's be on our way," I said.

"There is nowhere to go, we are here."

I looked around and besides the fact that we were deeper inside the labyrinth nothing had changed much.

"I don't see anything special," I said.

"That's because you are not looking properly," she said pushing me through the bush in front. When I crossed it, the forest cleared out and there was a vacant space along the edge of the forest. And on the cavern wall I saw a tunnel. It was probably bigger than the one I used as a hideout.

"The stronger one is inside that," she said.

"How are you so sure?" I enquired, not seeing anything special at all.

"I can sense it's mana," she said.

"Really?"

"Yes. Now we will rest and get our strength back before we go in." Euca said looking around for any signs of monsters.

"Where can we rest safely? Our hideout is quite far away." 

"The trees. We will climb the trees and sleep there."She said, pointing upwards.

Well that is possible.

"Okay then. Let's do it." I agreed.

Climbing the tree was not easy. We had to struggle a bit as the tree we chose was quite tall. Once we secured our spots Euca said, " Listen Adrian, I've got to get you up to speed on a few things."

I nodded.

"First of the monsters we will have to deal with inside that tunnel is not going to be like the ones you have seen. These are tier two monsters. Just like we have ranks, they have tiers. Once a monster reaches level 10 they evolve and reach the next tier. They can be faster, stronger and a bit sharper than their less evolved siblings."

Holy mother nature. The fact that I will have to face stronger monsters didn't bother me much than the fact that only monsters evolved. Humans rank up and monsters evolve.

But didn't I evolve and not rank up? Does that mean I'm a monster? Is it because of my past? The questions it raised were quite scary but sadly I didn't have the answers to any of it.

"Secondly," Euca continued, "our plan is not to subdue them but to hold them off long enough to save my brother. The monsters will be strong but I can take them down, but I don't know how many there are inside that tunnel. So we have to be careful."

"Thirdly and most importantly don't die. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I got you killed in the course of saving my brother. So whatever you do, don't die."

"Su-sure. I will keep that in mind," I reassured her.

"Well that's all for now. Sleep well. I'll take the first shift."

We had to always keep an eye out for monsters and taking shifts sounded reasonable.

"Sure. I'll get some sleep then."

As I closed my eyes the worries and questions about myself popped up, but I did my best to push them aside. 

It's a big day tomorrow, hope everything goes well. Find and save Euca's brother and get out of here as soon as possible. That's all I had to do. That's all I hoped to do.