Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 30 (Patreon)

We dropped off Cyra's food with the courier, much to Myrina's disappointment. After that, Myrina went to check in with her mother.

"To get you the best rewards for clearing out a few bandits, we need Mom to make it an official quest. Just wait here a second, okay?" Myrina asked.

I nodded. "Done."

Myrina departed, but the moment she did I rummaged around her things for a pen and paper. Looking around her room, it was quite clear that on the spectrum of jock to nerd, Myrina would have been the one giving the wedgies and swirlies had she attended high school on Earth.

I rummaged around, checking beneath discarded sweaty training gear, sharpening stones, and dozens of bladed weapons before I finally found something to write with. It was a stick of charcoal, which was rather crude by my standards.

Did they not have pens here? Perhaps that was a product I could also introduce to Myrina's world… for a small profit. I wasn't sure how big a market there would be if everyone was like Myrina.

After digging around some more, I eventually found a scrap of parchment. From the feel of it, it was quite clearly made from animal-skin, rather than anything made from paper pulp. A small piece at the corner was already tearing free, so I pulled it off the rest of the way with the help of one of the many blades Myrina had scattered around the desk.

I stared at the blank sheet of parchment for a good long while. This part was tricky. Normally my Forerunner of the System title let me understand any humanoid language without conscious effort. But this was harder.

Accidentally writing my note in English would have been a sure way to give myself away. I tried to concentrate on the language of the Amazonians. Fortunately, Myrina had a few examples of Amazonian writing for me to study.

I stared at it a good long while, concentrating until it made sense to me. The process was slow and tedious, but looking over the page, the meaning slowly jumped out at me. It probably took so long because Myrina's handwriting was a mess.

It looked like some tutor had forced her to write out the same couple of sentences over and over as some sort of punishment. The very repetitive, 'I have been a bad girl because...' made me feel a bit bad for Myrina at whatever age she'd been when forced to make these. From the dust on her desk, it had probably been sitting there for a long time.

I searched until I found the words I was looking for. I rummaged through the desk’s drawers, eventually finding what turned out to be a pretty spicy novel about orcs rampaging and capturing elves that they forced to submit. Leafing through page after page, it felt like assembling my note was like some sort of serial killer taking clippings from a magazine.

I tried to keep things brief, since I didn't know how much time I had before Myrina and her mother were done.

This is a gift. Don't come looking for me.

That was all I really needed to say. I folded the note up and stuffed it in my bag of holding. Then I went searching through the castle. It was a good thing Myrina had given me a tour when I’d arrived last time, otherwise I would have gotten lost long before finding a good place to leave my pile of gifts.

Where could I leave it to make the best impression?

An idea struck me. Why not in Kyrina Samhain's personal playroom? She'd be the only one to find them, there. She'd put the Mana Bombs to good use before, so no doubt these would end up directly in her hands.

And besides, I had the perfect excuse if someone caught me snooping. I was just looking for Myrina. She'd gone to talk with her mother, so it wouldn't be a surprise if someone found me looking for her.

I went straight to Kyrina Samhain's special dungeon beneath the west tower. It looked like there was supposed to be a guard stationed here, but the interior of the castle was even shorter staffed than the outer gates. I slipped into Kyrina's playroom with those inside the castle none the wiser.

There, on top of the leather-clad table in the center of the room, I left a heaping pile of Mana Bombs. There were more than a hundred regular mana bombs. I also left ten of the Mega Mana Bombs.

With how many Mana Bombs the Samhain Clan likely needed to wage their war, this gift would hardly do a thing to lessen their Clan's overall demand for Mana Bombs. I only hoped it would do enough to ease any hard feelings when they eventually discovered I was the one making the Mana Bombs. At least with this generous gift, I wouldn't be scalping them for everything they had.

I'd only be taking their money if they wanted extra.

I departed swiftly and silently. Nobody came to check on me, and my trip back to Myrina's room went uninterrupted. I spent the last few minutes before Myrina returned trying to put her messy desk back the way I'd found it. This was harder than I thought, though, because the moment I touched one thing, a dozen others clattered to the floor.

When Myrina returned, she looked at me and the mess I was vainly trying to clean up with a hand on her hip. "Cleaning up for me, Carter? You'll spoil me."

"I touched one thing, I swear, and the rest all came crashing down." I shrugged sheepishly.

Myrina waved my concerned frown off. "It doesn't matter. The servants will clean it up. I've got something much more important to show you."

She waved her hand again and a quest appeared before me.

New Quest Available!

Road Cleanup: You have been tasked with clearing the roads of bandits and monsters by the Samhain Clan.

This is a scaling quest. The more enemies of the Samhain Clan you slay, the greater your rewards will be. Your rewards will include but are not limited to: gold, reputation increase, special combat lessons, unique weapons from the Samhain Family Armory, and more!

I accepted the quest and invited Myrina to join my party. "Well then, those roads won't clear themselves. Let's go."

***

I glanced back at the impressive silhouette of Valkyrie's Watch as we began our descent from the mountain. "This is the main road?" I asked.

It was fairly narrow, at least by my standards. At best, it was a two-lane road—if cars were really careful when they passed one another. It was also far steeper than a car could drive up, and in more than a few places it transitioned from a road to a staircase.

Nobody was taking a wagon up this thing. No wonder people had fled the city. Getting food in bulk up these roads would be difficult under normal circumstances—let alone under a siege. Without bags of holding and the like, I doubted Valkyrie's Watch would be able to support much of a population at all, even at the best of times.

"Yep! This is the Serpent's Ascent. It was built during my Great-Grandmother's day! We Samhain's weren't known for our engineering before this. But between this and Great-Grandma's bridges, that all started to change!" Myrina grinned at me.

"It is a nice cobblestone road. I'm sure building it was tedious."

Myrina nodded. "Sure was. We had to find the best craftsmen clans around, then attack them until they agreed to accept the road-building job! Heavens know we had the damndest time making it happen ourselves."

She pointed off to the side at what I'd previously thought was a natural rock formation. I looked at where she’d pointed a bit closer… it was a cobblestone road, just like the one we were walking down. Except instead of rocks the size of my hand, it had been made from enormous boulders the size of buildings.

"Great-Grandma tried to do it herself at first, but the damn rocks kept sliding loose and rolling down the mountain. She figured this sort of thing called for an expert. And a good thing, too. If she had this much trouble building a road, imagine how hard it would have been to build those bridges down below!" Myrina pointed up ahead to a row of stone bridges supported by columns.

They were simple yet rugged structures.

"I can imagine..." I chuckled.

Myrina wasn't doing much to change the current impression I had of her clan. Stereotypes often failed me, but when I'd pegged Myrina's family as a bunch of muscle-headed barbarian warriors, I'd been right on the mark.

"We'll find what we're looking for just past those bridges. No bandits or monsters would dare roam in sight of the city walls itself." Myrina pointed back the way we'd come. "Once upon a time, we had a bunch of these giant wings. We could leap off the top of the castle and soar all the way to the ground at the mountain’s base!”

“Soaring so far almost felt like flying... or at least that’s what I’ve heard. It made patrolling the area surrounding the mountain much easier. Unfortunately, they burned when the Shadefall Clan took out all our other enchanted equipment."

"Sounds like a job for a hang glider to me. Or maybe just a parachute. The mountain is pretty steep, and there is a cliff on the side of the mountain."

Myrina and I chatted for a while, with the beautiful redhead flashing a brilliant smile here and there as I told her more about how things were on Earth and she told me more about Themyscira. As we ventured deeper into the woods past the bridge, a guttural growl echoed through the trees. Moments later, a hulking creature burst through the thick brush off to the side of the road.

Mirefang Behemoth (Level 42)

The creature that emerged was roughly twice my height, but hunched over on all fours as if was it was ten times my weight. It had mottled scales that shifted as it moved. They reminded me a bit of ogre hide, and I suspected those scales would be next to impossible to break through with my spells. Razor sharp fangs dripped bright purple fluid from its maw.

Probably poison, I decided. I did not want to get bitten by that thing.

Its eerie red eyes scanned us with predatory intent. I cast Mana Bolt, hoping to put out one of those eyes. It simply blinked one of its two eyelids. Similar to a reptile, this thing had a glossy semi-transparent covering for its eyes that protected it from my spell.

But that was just the beginning of our troubles.

"Stay behind me!" Myrina yelled as she charged forward with her sword.

She let out a ferocious battle cry. "Take this you ugly rodent!"

Myrina slashed at the creature, which was quite clearly some kind of lizard, not a rodent. Her sword cut a deep groove in its hide. When she moved out of the way to attack its head, I realized that was likely the best place to target.

Exploit Weakness confirmed my theory, as well as highlighting the underside of its chin.

Its bare flesh was much easier to pierce with my spells than its tough hide, and I targeted both weaknesses. With the bracelet and the wand in my possession, sniping those vulnerabilities was easy. Between the two of us, we wore the Mirefang Behemoth down before it turned to run. Not that it bothered. It kept coming straight for us, right up until the time I cast Disassemble on it and took the thing apart.

"Whew! That big bastard just wouldn't stop! Normally monsters run away if they encounter someone higher leveled than they are," Myrina said.

"It's probably my Death Curse; it attracts monsters. And here on your world, that's probably a lot more dangerous than it is back home. At least for now. I have no doubt that the caliber of monsters back on Earth will continue to increase." I gave Myrina a shrug.

"Well, we'll just have to keep you one step ahead of those nasty monsters! But that skill of yours sure is handy. I hate skinning these things. They're valuable, but not valuable enough for me to reach elbow-deep into a corpse."

Myrina's dimensional storage pouch had a far greater capacity than my bag of holding, so she took the monster corpse in to sell, along with the next half dozen similar monsters we encountered.

"You know, Carter, we make a really good team," Myrina said. "Me up front distracting the enemy while you load it up with your spells. It's really nice having you as backup. And that Disassemble ability of yours makes looting after the fight a breeze. I do feel a little bad that I'm effectively swiping your experience, though. That Death Curse of yours is handy for me, but rough on you..."

I shrugged. "I've been learning to live with it. Eventually I'll find a way to remove it. You said the System always leaves a way."

Myrina nodded. "That it does. Still, I wish I could give you some of the experience back. I gained another level, thanks to you. You know, it’s been months since I picked up my last level—well, before your arrival that is. And now that you're here, I've gained three levels in just a few weeks! You're a good luck charm when it comes to leveling, you know that?"

I laughed. "Kind of you to offer, Myrina. But the only way for me to gain levels from you would be one your family wouldn't exactly approve of."

"Yeah..." Myrina moped. "But... wait... hear that?"

Myrina's head cocked to the side, and I turned to listen. I didn't hear anything, but Myrina's perception was probably a lot higher than mine.

"Sounds like swords clashing. There's a fight up ahead!" Myrina took off running, and I did my best to follow close behind her.

As we sprinted along the road, the unmistakable clash of steel on steel grew louder. Eventually, I could hear it as clearly as Myrina could. We came upon a wagon that lay on its side, toppled by a rolling log from a tree nearly as wide around as the wagon had been tall. The wagon’s wheels had snapped like twigs, and the wagon's cargo had been thrown everywhere.

"Halt! In the name of the Samhain Clan, what's going on here?" Myrina demanded.

"Help!" A thin Amazonian woman called.

She had a sword in one hand, but looked like she barely knew how to use it as three much larger and more impressive specimens of Amazonian might crowded around her.

"I'm delivering packages to Valkyrie's Watch. I ran into this trap in the road and these thieves demanded I give them my cargo!" the thin woman shouted.

"We'll take more than your cargo now, merchant!" one of the bandit women spat.

She was nearly as large as Cyra, though unlike Cyra, this bandit's muscles bulged like they'd been inflated with air. It made her seem more than a little grotesque.

"We'll be selling you off as either a slave or a corpse. Now's your last chance to choose between them!"

"Bold of you bandits to set up shop just outside of Valkyrie's Watch," Myrina yelled. "The Samhain Clan does not tolerate thieves. Surrender and I'll make sure you receive a swift execution!"

Clearly, the Samhain Clan weren’t exactly you slap-on-the-wrist kind of peacekeepers. I wasn't exactly sure how the law worked around these parts, but I was pretty sure it generally went somewhere along the lines of members of Myrina and her family come up with their own form of justice on the spot. Especially whenever they found someone who needed executing—it was street justice rather than court room justice.

"Shit, it’s a Samhain?!" One of the large Amazonian bandit women turned to Myrina.

"This one isn't too strong. Only level 72. We can take her, if we attack together!"

I leaped into a nearby tree. With ranged attacks, it paid to have the high ground. It was a tactic Myrina and I had already used to great effect on several monsters.

I scanned the bandits, since they would probably think Myrina was doing it.

Amazonian Thug (Level 55)

Amazonian Bruiser (Level 62)

Amazonian Skullsmasher (Level 65)

I held back a smirk. Levels weren't everything. My training with Sakura and Myrina had made that clear. There were plenty of people who were strong for their level, and lots of folks who were weak for it. True power came from a combination of raw stats, proficiencies, equipment, abilities, titles, and raw skill.

And in all those fields, Myrina had the best the Samhain family could afford. Even if these bandits had been the same level as her, they probably wouldn't have stood much of a chance. And that was without my help.

This would be my first chance at experience points during our little quest. I planned to make the most of it. While the bandits squared up against Myrina, I lined up my opening attacks, boosting myself to the second level of Mania.

I hadn't needed it in any of the monster fights, but against these Amazonian bandits, I figured I could use the boost to my class skills. I also prepared an Eldritch Blast. The moment one of the bandits rushed in to finish off the frightened merchant, she got a spell to the face that knocked her on her ass.

"Now, stab her!" I yelled to the merchant from my position in a tree.

The nervous merchant woman made a clumsy thrust for the downed bandit with her sword, but the attack was neither quick nor skilled. The bandit moved quickly, rolling to the side. She was fast, but not fast enough to avoid my Mana Bolt.

I rained down one spell after another, striking the bandit several times in quick succession. The spells weren't enough to take the bandit down, but they were enough to drive her back several paces and to keep her from slaying the terrified merchant.

The merchant quite clearly wasn't fit for battle. It would be up to me to keep her alive, if she was to survive this fight. I jumped from the tree and drew my sword. I wielded my short blade in one hand and my wand in the other.

"Watch out, she's got a friend!" the bandit yelped as soon as I appeared.

When she charged at me, I held my sword up to block her attack. Meanwhile, my other hand cast a barrage of spells. Normally, I would fall back into the trees against a foe like this. But since I had someone to guard, I had to stand my ground. This Amazonian Thug was the weakest of her companions, though still quite a few levels higher than me.

But I wasn't afraid. I'd promised Myrina that I planned to become a true elite of the Arcadia Multiverse. Someone who planned to fight by Myrina’s side didn't blink at foes like these.

She rushed in to cross blades with me. The thug had clearly not had any training, nor was she prepared to fight a foe smaller than herself. She swung her blade wide and high, and I darted in low, scoring a long cut to her side.

"You little shit!" she growled.

She swung her blade at me again and might have made contact, if not for an Eldritch Blast to the face. I attacked and she just barely managed to block with my sword a hand's breadth from her throat.

"Ha! You'll have to—"

I cut off her taunt a moment later when I cast Arcane Blade, extending the length of my weapon by a foot and skewering her right through the neck.

The bandit gasped, spitting up blood and staggering back. A blow like that would have put someone like me down for good, but this Amazonian Thug had a much larger health pool than the foes I was used to fighting.

She snarled at me and tried to say something, but all that came from her lips was blood and spit.

We clashed twice more, and each time I layered on more Corrupting Marks. The bandit's eyes grew wide when she realized she was losing the fight. She suddenly eyed the merchant I'd been protecting. During the fighting, we'd switched positions and now she was closer to the merchant than I was.

She jumped back, grabbing the merchant by the hem of her shirt and holding her sword against the merchant's throat. The thug gave me a bloody grin. Though she couldn't talk, her intention was clear.

She had a hostage, and she expected me to spare her life in exchange for not slitting the merchant's throat. That might have been enough to save her life, but I had one last trick up my sleeve.

When I detonated my Corrupting Marks, the Amazonian Thug exploded in a heap of gore.

"Stay out of sight!" I told the horrified and now gore-splattered merchant.

With my foe dealt with, I turned to help Myrina. She'd been dueling both of the remaining bandits at once. And even more impressive, she had both of them on the back foot.

Myrina had drawn a second sword from her dimensional storage and was lashing out at her foes with reckless abandon. There were a few faint lines trailing up her arms and across one cheek where she'd taken hits of her own, but each of these minor wounds was healing before my eyes. She moved so fast, that even working together the two bandits she was fighting could barely hold their own.

It was only a matter of time before one of them left an opening wide enough for Myrina to score a lethal blow. Far scarier than Myrina's ferocious speed or the way she ignored her wounds was the manic grin on her face. I'd known Myrina enjoyed fighting, but seeing that blood-splattered smile terrified me—and I was on her side.

For the bandits, it had to be many times worse.

I decided to help put the bandits out of their misery. With all the monsters we'd fought, I'd been charging my ultimate. I'd been saving it for something special, and this looked like it.

Secrets of the Unseen activated, filling the sword in my hand with a mysterious unknowable color. I used Warp Step to appear behind the stronger bandit. A moment later, I drove the tip of my blade straight through her back and out her shoulder. The bandit let out one last gasp before Myrina twisted her sword around and severed her head.

The other bandit didn't even have time to react before the both of us were on her. She'd barely been able to hold her own fighting two on one against Myrina. Now that she was the one who was outnumbered, she didn't stand a chance.

Myrina stabbed her in the thigh and I sank my blade into her chest when she stumbled back.

"Ha! Well done, Carter! Justice delivered once again. We're a great team." Myrina smiled, and I found myself pleased as well.

Your race, Homo Acceleratus, has gained a level to Level 37!

Your class, Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge, has gained a level to Level 30!

The merchant slid away from the two smiling, blood-splattered figures looming nearby. "I-I'll j-just take my cargo and go n-now..." she stuttered.