[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 34 – Curiosity Killed the Adventurer (Patreon)

Jerric trudged through the swampy grounds near the Haalften lands. His helmet kept the worst of the inclement weather off, but it was hard going even for a Steel Ranker like himself. The weather had taken a strange turn for the worse and he couldn’t help but think that it had something to do with that new adventurer.

“Why are we out in this mess?” Fio asked, gripping her wide-brimmed Wizard hat to her head to keep it from blowing off. “There’s nothing out here, Jerric! Besides, you heard what Sel said, the little bush thing hasn’t been seen in days. And even if it did, so what? It’s a Mundane, Jerric! A Mundane! It can’t do any of this.”

“Then you can go back to the inn with Henry and Remal,” Jerric snapped at her. He regretted the tone as soon as the words were out of his mouth, but he felt oddly on edge. Something was wrong, and he needed to get to the bottom of it.

Fio sniffed, tilted her chin in her classic, “I’m about to get real pig-headed” stance and then bent against the gale-force winds, trudging ahead of him without a word.

I’ll be hearing about that later.

Jerric followed after. Even following the road as they were, they had a hard time seeing the farms with the heavy sheets of rain pelting against them.

If he didn’t know any better, this was a highstorm, the sort of thing that can only happen in areas of strong mana concentrations. An area like this? It shouldn’t be possible.

He’d seen more than his share of Coppers die to the needle-like hail that highstorms created. It was a grisly way to go, being done in by weather, but there were storm shelters for a reason.

“You can feel it too,” Jerric shouted to be heard over the wind and rain lashing against them.

“Yes,” was all Fio would say.

She wasn’t happy with him, but it was obvious she could tell something was wrong too. He hadn’t been able to convince Henry or Remal, and with the poor weather, they had decided to stay indoors.

Henry he would have expected to come out, being an Archer and all, but he liked getting wet as much as a cat for all that his Class was a renowned outdoors-type.

Remal… well, you couldn’t get him to go out into a storm like this without several tubs of high-quality hair product waiting for him back at the inn. And since they were so far from the Inner Ring, his supply of product was drying up.

Perhaps if Remal and Henry knew what was about to happen, they would have chosen to come out into the storm with their friends. Things would have been different, that’s for sure.

But they didn’t.

When the pair made it to the Haalften farm, then later up to the Haalften manor, they were none the wiser for the countless eyes that followed their movements into the manor grounds and, eventually, out of the worsening storm.

They were Steel Rankers, after all. What did they have to worry about in a backwater place like this?

A lot, as it turned out.

***

Bristling with weapons, the [Dusty Training Dummy] rolled forward, sparks flying off its rickety wheels. Dust essence roiled from the contraption’s form, empowering the device to greater heights, seeming to breathe some kind of autonomous life into it.

Shrubley mustered up the courage to stand firm against a tireless foe that was stronger, faster, and bigger than he was. He poured his mana into [Bark Armor], building up the defense layer by layer.

He grew a little larger, his twig-like limbs reached a little farther.

I must become strong, I must become worthy of a Hero’s mantle! One day, I will become an S-Grade Adventurer! His mantra cycled through his mind in tempo to the mana swirling through his raw and ragged channels.

He could scarcely sense his mana channels before scraping the bottom of level 10. He felt like a tree growing beneath the blazing warmth of sunlight, becoming more than he ever was before. Not as simple as a seedling, but with greater complexity, like a sapling.

Still, Shrubley had a long way to go.

This training was already showing its merit. The dark oppa was amazing and formidable indeed, perhaps more essential than even the Countess was in teaching Shrubley and his fellow monsters.

The oppa’s essences imparted enhancing effects to the training that turned everything into a danger-filled scenario.

He could conjure up any setting, real or imagined, and make it into a deadly gauntlet that they had to survive through. The burning forest was probably the worst for Shrubley. He had nightmares for days after that.

Shrubley might not have had blood like a human, but he bled a greenish sap all the same when the [Dusty Training Dummy] struck true, knocking aside his pot shield and scouring through his thickened [Bark Armor].

He fell to the ground, pain lancing through his crumbling leaves to deeper within, like a lightning strike to his core.

It was not for the first time that day that Shrubley dearly missed the sun. He might feel like that growing tree, but he lacked what all plants needed.

Sunlight.

Blessed, life giving sunlight. Without it, his health, stamina, and mana recovered much slower. He was at a severe disadvantage compared to the rest of his friends.

Beneath the earth, he couldn’t discern the passage of time. One day slid into the next. And then there was the cloying warmth that was all sorts of wrong. At first, it hadn’t seemed to be that pervasive in the crypts beneath the false Taamra.

As he grew stronger, so too did his sense of the world around him. The growing understanding of wrongness seeped into every stone, every granule of dust.

It was all beginning to fray the edges of his mind, skittering his thoughts into incoherency at times.

But it wasn’t happening now. At least, he dearly hoped so.

He struggled to get up, and his wooden knee gave out from under him.

The [Dusty Training Dummy] loomed over him, as threatening as any serpentii would be. Any one of those weapons might lash out, and most had far more reach than Shrubley did with his sword.

“I won’t give up!” Shrubley cried, then broke into a fit of coughing. He didn’t need to breathe in the same way that humanfolk did, but it was similar enough.

That didn’t stop the dummy from striking at him with an axe, one of the most vicious weapons it had. Shrubley, racked with searing pain, raised his shield to block the blow.

With the sound of splintering wood filling the air, the shield split down the middle but managed to stay together just enough for Shrubley to rid himself of the new dead weight and slip around to the side of the training dummy.

His yellow lamplight eyes burning like twin stars, Shrubley sliced his sword cleanly into the training dummy. One strike turned into two, then three into five.

A barrage of slashes pushed the dummy back. For some reason, he felt inclined to shout, “[Budding Barrage]!”

Knowledge percolated into his mind, blooming like seedlings coming to life. For a moment, he could see the glow of his gaze reflected back on him from the stonework flooring. A tiny bit of vitality returned to his crispy leaves, coloring them just a bit more with the greenness of living things.

The blurring strokes of his sword cleaved the training dummy’s weapons from its form and then sent the rest of the conjured creature into a broken pile. Shrubley stood triumphant over the thing’s body. The first time he’d beaten it all on his own.

You have successfully learned [Sword Proficiency].

[Sword Proficiency]

(G-Grade)

The most rudimentary and basic grade proficiency, governing one’s ability and knowledge with sword weaponry of all kinds. Improves attack speed, damage dealt, techniques and forms with swords. Grants a minuscule boost to the Strength, Skill and Hardiness attributes when using this proficiency.

You have successfully learned the Nature essence ability, [Budding Barrage].

[Budding Barrage (Nature)]

Cost: Low Stamina.

Cooldown: 5 seconds.

Mother Nature is the great equalizer.

Imprint: While using a weapon you possess proficiency with, initiate a multi-strike attack that reduces the defensive attributes of your target. The greater the difference between yourself and the target, the greater the reduction.

Shrubley glowed with pride at the notification. “I did it,” he said softly, far too softly for anyone but the Countess to hear.

She watched the small shrub waver and stagger before he dropped face-first into the ground. The Fantasy mana faded, like somebody was wiping away the paint with a rag. It smeared and then disappeared until nothing but the training room was left.

“Huh, he’s not that bad,” Sose said, rubbing his paws together, smearing the paint of Fantasy essence into garishly blending colors. Then, of course, the oppa rubbed his muzzle, making a vibrant mess on his fur and whiskers.

Each member of this little band of misfits was either unconscious or recovering in some way. They had pushed themselves hard, but none harder than Shrubley.

He was bright in his own way, but he was startlingly stubborn.

“He was the last one to get a proficiency,” she pointed out. In fact, by every metric that she would have used to judge a henchman or disciple, Shrubley had failed.

There was no doubting his heart, but his skill was lacking and the speed at which he developed and strengthened lagged behind the others. He tried harder than any of them. That much was obvious. Despite that, he still took longer to reach the same level.

If the Countess believed in such fairy tales as fairness, she would have pondered on the unjustness of it all. But life didn’t work like that. There was no such thing as fairness or justice.

Life wasn’t good or kind.

“I think he’s sick,” Sose pointed out. “Those leaves? Not supposed to look like that. He’s not like us. Doesn’t have the disposition for darkness.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she told Sose, sweeping out of the room. “Darkness is where he is. He’ll have to learn, or he won’t survive.”

The oppa, stretched out across the back of her neck like a furry scarf, looked at the Countess with his beady black eyes.

She pressed a hand to a small gouge in the stone. A thread of mana filtered through.

Sose went silent the moment she did. The Countess focused her mind. More slithering. She pulled back from the mark and sent a different pulse of mana into it.

Somewhere in the distant networked warren of catacombs, a tunnel collapsed. “We can’t stay here much longer,” the Countess told him. The serpentii were searching for them and getting closer day by day.

Much sooner than she would have liked, she was going to run out of traps and decoy tunnels. The serpentii would find them. It was just a matter of time.

He nodded slowly. “I’m by your side, no matter what awaits us.”