Chương 30: Chapter 27: Two Seals Left

James watched Mason for several seconds after the Hydra's final head stopped moving. The broken length of Kevin's silk still lay beside the flooded opening, its cleanly severed end telling the story well enough without Mason's explanation. Timothy had ordered one of his people to cut the escape line while James, Julie, Kevin, and Elizabeth were trapped beneath the swamp. His anger settled into something cold and organized.

Timothy had aimed his decision at James, but Julie and Kevin had been on that line too, and Elizabeth could easily have drowned after destroying her throat to break the Mire Crown.

"Timothy tried to kill Julie and Kevin too," James said as his hand tightened around the Warpstone Warhammer.

"He might not understand why that makes this worse." Aaron glanced toward Mason, whose party mark had faded until it resembled a weak blue scar. Several of the other marked survivors kept touching their own throats as if they could still feel Timothy's authority pressing against them, and none seemed interested in defending the order they had just refused. Whatever happened between Timothy and his followers later, the Southern Seal had already broken something that would not be repaired by another command.

The trumpet announcing the Hydra's death rolled across the Tutorial. [The Southern Regional Boss has been defeated.] [Regional Bosses Remaining: 2.] [The Southern Regional Territory is now unsealed.] Far to the west, stone cracked with enough force to carry across miles. Lightning spread through the northern sky a moment later, illuminating the underside of the storm clouds as both remaining Regional Bosses answered the announcement. [Two Regional Bosses remain.] [Western Territory: Gravemantle Colossus — Level 15.] [Northern Territory: Storm Roc — Level 15.] [Defeat both Regional Bosses to unlock the Central Territory.] James looked west. Boulders were already rising above the distant mountains, hanging in the air for several seconds before dropping out of sight behind the ridgeline.

"Two seals," Isaiah said as he helped Elizabeth sit against a broken statue. Her throat had swollen badly enough that speaking clearly had become difficult, and the blood dried along her neck made every attempted word look painful.

"And Timothy just managed to turn half his own people against him." James looked toward Mason again, then toward the western mountains. Timothy could wait long enough for the Tutorial to stop producing Level Fifteen monsters that threatened everyone inside it.

"Bosses first," James said as Julie moved beside his leg and Kevin settled onto the warhammer.

"After that, Timothy and I can discuss his fuckery." He had no intention of making the discussion pleasant. Harvesting the Mire-Crowned Hydra took more than an hour. Once the swamp retreated, the sheer size of the corpse became easier to appreciate, with three necks crossing the ruined streets and disappearing into a chest cavity large enough to shelter several people. James cut into the first throat while Kevin held layers of flesh apart with Silver Thread.

Julie moved around the corpse using Heat Sensation, occasionally pressing a warning through their bond whenever James approached something that still held unusual warmth. The Hydra's anatomy looked designed around redundancy. Three throats fed into one reinforced chest cavity, while thick vessels connected the necks and allowed blood, venom, and mana to move between them. Workman's Appraisal identified each piece separately, though it could only suggest how the entire network had supported the boss's regeneration.

James followed one yellow vessel toward a swollen gland. Julie sent a warning through the bond just as he touched it with the point of his knife, but the message arrived a fraction too late. The gland burst. Yellow liquid sprayed across the pavement and immediately began eating shallow channels into the stone. James stepped backward fast enough to keep his boot out of the worst of it, then stared at the smoking ground.

"Thank you, Jules," he said as Julie lifted her crested head. Her irritation made it clear she considered the problem entirely his fault.

"A warning before I poked the acid sack would have been ideal, but before it dissolved my leg still counts." Julie stared at him for another moment before turning away. James had become increasingly capable of distinguishing concern from judgment through their bond, which made pretending he could not tell the difference much harder. He stayed away from the glands after that. The tongues were safer. Each stretched nearly as long as James was tall and carried rows of backward-facing barbs along the muscular surface.

Removing the first required almost ten minutes of careful cutting, while Kevin anchored the second with silk so James could reach the final connective tissue without crawling inside the dead mouth. The third had been destroyed during the fight. James laid the surviving pair on a relatively clean section of pavement and activated Workman's Appraisal. [Hydra Tongue] [Uncommon monster material.] [Useful in alchemical and crafting applications intended to increase lethality.] [Properties: Exceptional flexibility, corrosive resistance, rapid muscular contraction, venom-material compatibility.] James frowned at the description.

"'Increase lethality' is doing a lot of work there," he said as he examined the barbs. Kevin stopped feeding long enough to look toward him, while Julie rested across a fallen section of stone.

"That could mean a better weapon, stronger poison, or a chair that murders whoever sits down." Kevin returned to eating. James wrapped both tongues in Hydra hide and secured them with several layers of silk. His Strength made the awkward load manageable even after he fastened them across the back of his armor beneath the warhammer. The scales around the Hydra's neck proved equally valuable. They flexed beneath slow pressure, then hardened almost instantly when James struck one with the handle of his knife.

[Hydra Neck Scale] [Uncommon monster material.] [Flexible while relaxed.] [Hardens in response to sudden impact.] [Compatible with armor, flexible reinforcement, and defensive crafting.]"That is going on my armor," James said as he removed several intact plates. His acid-damaged breastplate had survived the southern fight mostly because Kevin repeatedly refused to let it fall apart.

"Preferably before something else decides to test whether my ribs are structural." He harvested fangs, tendon, sections of flexible hide, and one piece of the Hydra's crown where natural grooves resembled incomplete runes. The eyes could not be preserved; whatever magic had sustained them faded rapidly after death, leaving the remaining tissue cloudy and unstable. Kevin had different priorities. The Foundation Weaver climbed inside the Hydra's exposed chest and began eating from the dense muscle around the heart.

He consumed enough that Isaiah eventually stopped watching, apparently deciding there were limits to how much giant-spider dining he wanted to witness.

"You know that thing was full of poison," James warned as Kevin continued feeding. Julie's satisfaction immediately entered their bond when James glanced toward her.

"See? Julie has enough sense to avoid eating random pieces of the giant acid monster." Kevin ignored them. His pale-blue markings brightened several minutes later. The spider froze with all eight legs pressed into the Hydra's chest. Golden light passed through the geometric lines covering his abdomen, and several damaged sections of his shell visibly smoothed. [Kevin has consumed flesh from a creature of significantly greater level and quality.] [Compatible physical essence absorbed.] Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. [Kevin's Vitality has increased.] [Kevin's Strength has increased.] James stared at the message.

"You are such a cheat," he said as Kevin slowly climbed out of the corpse. The spider's legs had thickened near several joints, and his stance looked slightly heavier than before.

"I kill the boss, and you eat it until your stats go up." Kevin sent a completely unapologetic response through the bond. A second notification appeared. [Combat and Crafting Synergy recognized.] [Potential Bond Skill detected.] [Requirements not satisfied.] James focused on the final line, but the System provided nothing else. Julie and Kevin both reacted to his attention, yet neither bond revealed what requirement remained missing.

"Fine," James said as he dismissed the notice.

"Keep your secrets." He was getting used to saying that. By evening, Aaron's survivors had begun establishing a temporary camp among the exposed southern ruins. Some remained loyal to Timothy despite what had happened, others wanted nothing more to do with his party structure, and several had already begun asking Aaron what they should do next. James stayed out of it. Surviving one battle beside a group did not make him responsible for reorganizing their politics.

A small fire struggled against damp wood near the edge of the ruins. Elizabeth sat on a broken limb they had dragged into place as a bench, while Isaiah cooked strips of Hydra meat across a flat heated stone. James stood several yards away with the Channel Rune Fragment in his hand. Thin yellow-green lines moved inside the crystal whenever he brought it near Kevin's silk.

The Structural Foundation Rune could stabilize several materials into one working structure, the Anchor Rune could secure that structure to a prepared point, and the Channel Rune appeared capable of moving force or energy between connected sections. He placed the fragment against the repaired Warpstone Warhammer. Kevin extended one thread from the fragment toward the Structural Foundation pattern inside the hammerhead.

Another strand touched the temporary Anchor marking James had carved into a broken stone beside his foot. Three patterns reacted. Yellow-green light entered Kevin's silk. The Structural Foundation Rune answered in pale blue. The Anchor Rune flashed green. For one brief moment, energy moved between all three without catching on the damaged joints inside the hammer. [Temporary multi-rune interaction detected.] [Structural Foundation.] [Anchor.] [Channel.] [Formation incomplete.] James stopped before pouring mana into the configuration. His core had been nearly drained during the Hydra battle, and experimentation with an incomplete structure sounded like an excellent way to lose whatever fingers the Tutorial had kindly allowed him to keep. Still, the possibilities were obvious. He could redirect force through prepared anchors. He could possibly move Julie's stored energy into a weapon. Kevin's silk might carry an impact around an obstacle instead of merely restraining something.

James rotated the fragment and forgot the rest of the camp existed.

"James?" Elizabeth called from beside the fire. Her voice had recovered enough to become a rough rasp, though using it clearly still made her wince.

"Are you planning to stand there until the western boss comes looking for us?" James kept staring at the fragment.

"James?" she repeated, and the effort triggered a cough. Julie lowered her upper body from a ruined wall and tapped James across the shoulder with the end of her tail. He blinked, then looked toward the fire and realized everyone had been watching him.

"What?" James asked as he returned the fragment to its wrapped pouch.

"Did you call me?" Isaiah laughed while handing Elizabeth a waterskin.

"You two are painfully similar," he said as she gave him an unimpressed look.

"Focused, stubborn, and capable of forgetting every other person exists once you decide something is important. Tell me, are you dyslexic? Hmm? I knew one dyslexic guy. He was just like that." Elizabeth slowly turned her head toward him. Isaiah raised both hands.

"That was meant as a compliment."

"Of course it was," Elizabeth rasped before drinking. She moved slightly along the branch and gestured toward the fire.

"Sit down before you fall down." James lowered himself onto the opposite end of the bench, leaving enough room that nobody had to crowd anyone. Isaiah handed him a strip of Hydra meat, and James took a bite before immediately questioning the decision. The meat was dense and rubbery, with a sharp mineral taste that lingered across his tongue. James chewed because regional-boss meat felt too valuable to waste, though every movement of his jaw made the decision more difficult.

"This tastes like somebody boiled a tire in battery acid," he said after finally swallowing. Elizabeth tried her own much smaller piece and made a face that confirmed his assessment.

"Kevin ate half an organ without complaining, so apparently we found his advantage." Isaiah looked toward the spider, whose enlarged abdomen rested against a stone while he digested.

"I'm becoming convinced there's another dimension in his stomach."

"That would explain a lot," James admitted. The conversation eventually turned west. Elizabeth had no intention of returning to her original group until the remaining Regional Bosses were dead. Isaiah planned to stay with her, while James saw no reason to refuse two people who had already proven they could function beside him during a boss fight.

"We move when your throat can survive the trip," James said as he looked toward Elizabeth.

"You don't need to blast every random monster we meet." Elizabeth's expression tightened.

"I know my limits."

"I watched you cough blood twice because you saw an opening," James replied, keeping his tone level.

"Knowing a limit and respecting it are separate skills." Isaiah laughed into his food. Elizabeth looked at him. He immediately became fascinated by the Hydra meat. James smiled and leaned back against the ruined wall. They left the southern territory after a full night of rest. James's Mana had recovered completely by morning, filling the expanded core created by his twenty-two Intelligence. The number felt reassuring after spending the Hydra battle watching his reserve fall toward empty. [Mana: 440/440.] The journey west took a little more than a day. Mire Crawlers attacked from beneath fallen trees and died before they became a serious threat. Later, six moss-covered hounds tried to encircle the group, only for Kevin to detect their approach through ground vibrations while Julie marked their positions through the brush. James killed the first hound with one warhammer strike. Elizabeth conserved her damaged voice, using only short focused pulses when something reached Isaiah.

Their coordination improved with every encounter, and James found he preferred fighting beside people who understood silence did not mean waiting for orders. The terrain hardened under their boots as afternoon of the next day approached. Black swamp mud became dry soil, then gravel, and enormous stone slabs began rising from the ground at angles that made no geological sense. James's warhammer suddenly became almost weightless. He took two steps before the effect reversed.

The hammerhead slammed downward hard enough to jerk him off balance, and Kevin immediately reinforced the weapon's connection to his armor before James lost it. A blue notification appeared. [You have entered the outer boundary of the Western Regional Territory.] [Environmental Effect: Unstable Gravity.] James pulled the hammer upright.

"Wonderful," he said as several loose pebbles began floating beside his boots.

"The mountain is already fucking with us." The monsters changed with the terrain. Stone-backed lizards crossed vertical surfaces as though gravity had become optional, while horned animals moved through broken valleys with broad stances adapted to sudden changes in weight. They fought for hours. The final attack came from behind a leaning stone pillar. [Stonehorn Ram — Level 11] The creature lowered its head and charged. Elizabeth stepped aside instead of spending her voice.

Kevin anchored three silk strands behind James, while Julie moved toward the ram's flank. James activated Measured Strike. A weakness appeared where the stone-covered skull joined the neck. He waited. The ram closed the distance. James stepped inside the horns and drove the Warpstone Warhammer upward. Stone cracked. The creature left the ground, rotated once, and landed heavily on its back. Julie reached the throat before it recovered and ended the fight with a venomous bite. [Experience awarded.] Golden light gathered around James. [Level up.] [You are now Level 14.] [Automatic Rune Carpenter growth applied.] [Strength increased by 2.] [Intelligence increased by 2.] [Endurance increased by 1.] [5 Attribute Points available.] The class growth settled quickly. James felt the difference in the hammer's balance and in the way Workman's Appraisal immediately offered several cleaner arrangements for the Channel Rune. He opened his Attributes. Strength had reached thirty. Intelligence sat at twenty-four.

Almost every other attribute had grown steadily since Integration. Charisma remained nine. James stared at the number for several seconds. Timothy's leadership abilities clearly interacted with the attribute, and every other statistic had proven useful in ways James had underestimated when the Tutorial began.

"Fine," James muttered.

"You get a turn." He put all five free points into Charisma. [Charisma increased to 14.] The change did not strengthen his muscles or sharpen his senses. His posture adjusted slightly, tension left his shoulders, and the words he intended to say suddenly felt easier to organize before they reached his mouth. Elizabeth looked up from the Stonehorn corpse. Isaiah paused while removing one of its horns.

"What?" James asked as he looked down at his armor.

"Nothing," Elizabeth said after studying him for a moment. Her tone remained analytical.

"Your presence changed. You're easier to focus on." Isaiah nodded.

"More commanding." James grimaced.

"Wonderful. I spent five points becoming harder to ignore." Julie's amusement flooded the bond. Kevin tapped the hammerhead. James looked toward both familiars.

"Neither of you gets an opinion." The western mountains shifted in the distance. An entire ridge moved. Stone rose into the air around something enormous. James closed his Status and rested the warhammer against one shoulder while violet light appeared between the peaks.

"Level Fourteen," he said as the ground trembled beneath them. Julie moved beside him, and Kevin tightened his grip on the weapon.

"Let's go see what kind of asshole makes gravity optional."