Chapter 15 The Price of Tutoring is… (Patreon)

Happy Father's Day to any of my fellow dads out there! Hope it was a good one! Enjoy!

The lavaline slowly stalked around her, and for the first time, Khall could actually size up one of these evolved lavalines. It stood at least as tall as she did, though not nearly as long as her, especially when considering her tail. Different from all of the other lavalines she had seen and fought, though, these ones lacked the slight glow of light under their fur. Beyond just how it looked, though, it had puffed up its fur and was hissing threateningly. She couldn’t take the fuzzy thing seriously and hissed her own challenge back.

Khall could tell that she was definitely much heavier than it, and she could guess that she was almost certainly stronger than it. If it was anything like any of the other lavalines she had ever encountered, though, it was definitely going to be quicker than her, and she remained on her guard and prepared for the coward to run or jump. Just that small amount of thought going into sizing up her enemy was progress, and Khall internally congratulated herself at the foresight. 

With another three steps around the fuzzy beast, Khall felt that she had prepared herself sufficiently to be able to actually fight this lavaline now, and she stepped to close the distance. It widened its mouth even more, the four large fangs in its mouth shining in the soft light from Khall’s body. The lavaline hissed even louder and stepped back, not wanting to engage directly with her, and she felt herself already beginning to get angry at the scaleless creature. Why would it come down here just to turn around and refuse to fight her? There wasn’t any reason for it to do that! She began to step forward faster, more threateningly while spreading her own mouth wide and hissing a threat of her own.

The lavaline continued to step away, cowering before her strength. It knew now that she was superior, that she–Khall cut that thought process off immediately. These voidspawn, even if cowardly and weak, were smart. It came down here when it didn’t need to, and let her know it was there. It was obvious in approaching, and hadn’t tried to ambush her, even though every other lavaline had tried to, even the smallest and weakest, the biggest and strongest. From the very first time she’d ever come in contact with them, they had distracted, robbed, and ambushed her. Just as her mind labored to understand what this beast’s goal could be, something inside her understood even before her whole mind did and Khall whirled to see what was sneaking up behind her.

Just in time. Another lavaline, just as large as the one she was facing directly, was about to strike from her unprotected backside. It leapt, claws shining from the tips of its paws, and Khall was unprepared to respond. The sharp blades initially scraped from her thick scales, but after just a moment’s protection, Khall’s protections began to fail her. The lavaline’s initial ambush cut into her flesh, and Khall screamed in mixed pain and anger. She’d known they would be tricky and try to ambush her, and still she had been caught unaware! How could she have been so foolish?

Even so, she was now stuck with these two cowardly would-be assassins, and she needed to take care of herself! She knew that the first lavaline, the one that had been distracting her just like the first one she’d ever seen, was going to join in on the attack, so she needed to act immediately. On her back, the lavaline continued raking its claws against her scales, to limited success. Since she’d been truly wounded before, she knew that these scratches were painful and could build to something more but were not what to worry about. Instead, it was the teeth that could cut deeper, and if the positions of its feet were to be believed, that lavaline’s mouth was about to reach her neck.

Still disregarding the first lavaline, Khall took off in a sudden sprint and began to rush towards where she had come from. Along her back, the claws flexed and dug deeper as her assailant retained its grip. Just what she’d wanted. Khall turned to her left, but as her momentum carried her forward, allowed herself to fall onto her side and roll to her back. The lavaline yowled in protest and leapt free, but not before she could hear the delicate bones in its paw crack between the crushing weight of her and the lavaline’s bodies and the stony ground.

The feline assailant limped slightly, and waited for its uninjured companion to join. The first lavaline was sprinting to continue the attack and keep Khall from pressing her advantage, but she had nothing if not tenacity. And volatility. And her jaws, filled with tough, thick teeth. And she used all three to jump on the slowed, injured lavaline and bite its other forepaw. It tried to scratch out her eyes with its other forepaw, but when it did so and batted at her face with it, it yowled again in pain as it smashed its broken paw against her thick, wide head. Khall didn’t care about the attempted attack, and, with a wrench of her jaws and neck, snapped the other paw 180 degrees backward. 

The wet crack of the lavaline’s foreleg’s bones was music to Khall’s ears, and she stepped back from the crippled beast to prepare for its fellow’s assault. As the first lavaline began to try to slow its approach and reconsider its attack on her, the second, wounded lavaline’s mewls filled the air. They were quite pathetic, and Khall didn’t know how the first would react to the second’s obvious suffering. Even so, she needed to press the first, especially while it was trying to consider what it was going to do, and she lunged forward to close in with the doubting lavaline.

Quickly, she laid hold of the beast with her jaws, and from there, the ending of the fight was set. Though it scratched and twisted and attempted to escape with every ounce and inch of its being, the lavaline was only able to briefly escape her clutches. That had only been until she had leapt on top of it and seized its skull in her jaws, where she’d summarily crunched through the bone and killed her prey. 

Not wanting to leave the other sneaky voidspawn to escape, she’d then immediately gone to the crippled and whining lavaline and put it out of its misery. Then, she welcomed the words as they appeared to her.

[Ashen Lavaline, 8 slain. You have gained experience. Juvenile Moltenscaled Drake has leveled up. Current Racial Designation: Juvenile Moltenscaled Drake. Current Occupation: Fell Miner. Total level: 9.]

[Ashen Lavaline, 9 slain. You have gained experience. Juvenile Moltenscaled Drake has leveled up. Current Racial Designation: Juvenile Moltenscaled Drake. Current Occupation: Fell Miner. Total level: 10.]

Though it had been a while, Khall was reasonably sure that these lavalines were a different race than the other evolved one she’d killed. That made sense, she supposed, since they hadn’t tried to blow fire at her, and looked a little different. Probably something like the difference between her own evolution into a Moltenscaled Drake instead of a Stonescaled Drake. Could this have been a weaker evolution? Even if they were (and Khall wondered if there was any such thing as a weak evolution), they were dangerous. She’d been lucky that they were cocky and had let her escape fighting both at the same time, since she wondered if she’d have been able to survive if they’d both gotten on her. 

Although she had been blessed with the slight bursts of energy that she got from leveling up twice, Khall could still feel the lightly weeping wounds along her back stinging, reminding her of the danger that her attempted lesson had posed. What if there had been a third lavaline? Though she wanted to say she could have escaped, if not slaughtered them all, the realistic part of her that was beginning to assert itself over her wildly optimistic and confident core denied her. She would have died. They could have run her down, and they would have. 

As she began to go over what she could have learned from the fight, Khall began to dig out a burrow for herself. She only realized that she was digging to focus her mind after having dug out nearly enough to fully submerge herself in the burrow. Well, if it helped her focus, then it was ok that she occupied her body with digging. Refocusing on her self-evaluation, why hadn’t she tried to breathe flames on the lavalines? Though one had attacked her like that in the past, it didn’t have scales like her, so it might have been vulnerable to the same kind of attack. She wouldn’t know, since she hadn’t tried.

Even so, she had been victorious! And, though she hadn’t quite caught the ambush early enough to do anything about it, Khall had been able to think through the lavaline’s purpose for distracting her! She had truly grown!

The excitement of growth began to saturate her, and Khall dragged the bodies into her impromptu home to begin eating her fill. Even before finishing the first in its entirety, Khall found herself setting it aside for later, her belly full and her wounds’ aches and pains beginning to fade in their intensity. As she settled into a comfortable position, her head resting on one of the soft torsos, Khall wondered for the first time why she hadn’t ever gained levels in Fell Miner. Since she’d gained the occupation, she hadn’t gained any levels there, but only today, she’d gained two!

As the question crossed her mind, words began to appear in her mind.

[Avenues of gaining experience in occupation: Fell Miner;

• Excavate tunnel. Note: the conversion rate of tunneling to experience is reduced for occupation: Fell Miner. As a combat focused occupation, pure production experience sources are reduced comparative to the growth rates provided by combat sources.]

As she read and understood the words’ meaning, Khall snorted. She still didn’t know how to gain experience for her occupation! This was stupid! Heedless to her frustration, the words continued to fill her mind.

• Kill foes within a tunnel. Note: the conversion rate of experience gained is flat if in a tunnel of another’s excavation. If the combat takes place within a tunnel of the Fell Miner’s excavation, the conversion rate is increased.]

So… she just needed to kill more things in her tunnels. Then, she would gain more experience. But… would it give her double experience? Since she just needed to kill things to get experience as a Moltenscaled Drake?

[Moltenscaled Drake is a basic combat focused Racial Designation. The primary avenue of experience acquisition for Moltenscaled Drakes is through the slaughter of foes.]

But did she get the experience two times?? It was a simple question, but one that the words didn’t seem to want to answer. She sighed, and Khall relaxed and laid her head down on the soft belly of the lavaline. Before long, she fell asleep and rested dreamlessly. With a start, she woke, feeling a presence. Looking around, she saw nothing, and it took only another moment for Khall to resume her restful sleep.

The presence, astounded by her ability to detect it, chuckled. After all, if this Stine could detect its proximity, and that only at level 10, then it would be worth paying even more attention to. This was so exciting! The presence filed a note away about this “Khall” Stine and returned to looking at the most interesting, higher Steps.