Solomon's Crucible 20. A New Challenge (Patreon)

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Solomon's circuit of the interior section of the forest was only interrupted once by a rain of monkeys. Fortunately, these monkeys didn't prove any more clever than the last. They eagerly abandoned the high ground for the chance to close in and try to kill him and, in turn, died just like the others had. In the end, Solomon was covered in another layer of filth and stocked his inventory with another set of beast cores. The monkeys dropped a core that was about half the size of the core that the boars had dropped.

By now, he had racked up enough cores that were Solomon so inclined, he could make quite the healthy stock of magical gunpowder. Turning that explosive power into something that would hurt his enemies without blowing off any more of his limbs was another matter.

He didn't get any new skill levels from clearing the rest of the forest. To be fair, he hadn't really done anything new. Mort's advice lingered in the back of his mind. Skills didn't jump from simply repeating the same actions over and over. He'd have to do something better than he'd done it before if he wanted the system to sit up and take notice.

Solomon took a look at his status. He had eighteen points to spend. It was enough to fill out a nine point grid with enough left in reserve to fill out the seven point starter grid once he picked up some kind of shooting skill. Even so, he held off on spending anything. He wasn't quite ready to commit.

He'd also explored the area enough to see that the heart of the forest was a cleared area. If he was careful, he should be able to spy on his next opponents without having them come at him right away. Once he got a grip on his situation he could decide whether or not he wanted to try to muddle through without investing his points.

Dismissing the system, he crept forward. When he reached the last tree before the clearing, he eased himself up against the trunk and waited a beat before sticking his head out.

The first thing he noticed was the stream. It bubbled up on the far side of the clearing, meandering its way through most of the cleared area before ending in a small pond. His grip on the tree with his free arm tightened in excitement. Finally, a chance to get clean.

The second thing he noticed was the lion. Well, lions.

A large male lion was crouched next to the pond, relaxed but still ready to pounce. A female lion lay on either side of him. They were facing away from Solomon's hiding place. He took one more glance around the clearing to confirm that no other animals were present, then ducked back behind the tree and slowly retreated back into the woods.

Lions. That was a step up.

He should probably count himself lucky that the system wasn't throwing any outright magical or mythological monsters in his path. Maybe that would be coming once the current grace period ended. For now, it seemed content to take Earth's animals, juice them up on some kind of rage steroids, and turn them loose.

Before the system showed up, Solomon had never been in a fight to the death. He'd kept active, though, and liked to think he was reasonably capable. If he'd been dropped into a ring with a boar or a monkey, he would have liked his chances at victory, or at least escape. Taking on a lion, though, with a hatchet and spear? That was a challenge he would have considered well beyond him.

He'd been boosted by the system, now. He was stronger, tougher, and faster than ever before. He had semi-magical abilities to call upon that would increase the damage he could do with ordinary weapons, and he'd enchanted his weapons to perform better than any ordinary weapon ever could.

Even so, he wasn't about to stride right out and pick a fight. He had no idea what kind of benefits the lions had received from the system. The one thing he was fairly confident in was that their intelligence hadn't been given much of a boost. Every system-touched animal he had seen, starting with that poor deranged mountain lion, had been stripped of what cunning they might have had, in its place being gifted a heavy dose of pure aggression.

He had to use his own intelligence if he wanted to finish clearing this level of the dungeon. Part of him wanted to hole up and put a gun together. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough metal to operate with the kind of safety margin he'd prefer. Nor was he confident in his own ability to hand-craft a gun that he'd be comfortable using to stage a direct showdown with three lions.

It would have been nice if he could pop out of the dungeon and see what kind of price Mort would give him for the spoils of his battles so far. Solomon had a feeling he'd earn more than enough to stock up and produce some kind of hand cannon. It was something to keep in mind for future dungeon trips: entering the dungeon with a bunch of unspent coins in his pocket was a recipe for regret. At least Solomon had spent all the money he'd had available. His only regret was that he had been too poor to buy everything he would have liked. Hopefully clearing out this dungeon would remedy that situation, at least.

The good news was, humans had been hunting lions long before the system arrived, and even before firearms. Admittedly, his understanding was that those hunts were more likely to feature three people per lion than vice versa, but still. He had the advantage of foresight and planning. It would be nice to rely on a completely unfair technological advantage, but he ought to be able to outsmart a group of animals even without it.

Solomon took a seat on the ground, laying out his spear so that the haft rested on his leg, presenting the spearhead for his inspection. He invoked the molding ability and went to work. Just like every other time he'd molded metal, he noted that it sure would have been nice to have the use of two hands. Even so, it wasn't long before he had a reasonably passable shovel blade attached to the end of his spear.

He stood, slinging his shovel over his shoulder. Time to go put in some work.

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >