Book 3 - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Brin decided to take it slow. If Hogg thought he needed to sneak up on this one, then he wouldn’t leave anything to chance. He also didn’t have a time limit on this, except that any time he spent hunting monsters was time he wouldn’t spend sleeping. But after his months of exhaustion, six hours of sleep, or even four, felt like a luxury.

So even before leaving camp, he lay down on his bedroll and dove into his [Memories in Glass] for his Invisible Eye. He still needed [Directed Meditation] to make it work, which is why he did this in the safety of the camp. Getting eaten by a monster or even a low-level animal because he was too focused on a spell would be a stupid way to die.

The Invisible Eye blinked into existence, and the jarring moment of looking down at his own body from above nearly broke him out of the spell. Determination and [Directed Meditation] kept him in the spell, and he slowly moved it away from himself and then away from camp.

The eye only has as good vision as he did, which meant that it was pretty good even in the dark. He knew that he should somehow be able to use his illusion magic to see other bands of light, even things like ultraviolet and x-ray. The fact that he kept his darkvision while in the invisible eye meant that the block might be entirely mental. For now, it was good enough.

His confidence that the spell was going to hold grew the longer he maintained it, so he abandoned caution and let loose. He zoomed down the road behind the caravan, watching for any monsters. If he didn’t find something in the first ten miles or so, he’d circle back and look more closely.

It took him by surprise when he found something soon after. Only two miles behind the caravan, a hunched creature stood in the center of the road. It was humanoid, but Brin could immediately tell that it wasn’t human. It had the colorless, ashen complexion of an undead, and its spine bent at an unnaturally rigid angle as it hunched over something on the road.

Actually, had he ever tried [Inspecting] something through an invisible eye? Trying to remember almost cost him the concentration he needed for the spell. He tried [Inspect]. Success!

Kukubaru [19]

[Inspect] leveled up! 35 -> 36

Brin wanted to laugh, and it took a few seconds of steady breathing to calm himself down enough to make sure the spell would stay intact. Kukubaru was a word he’d only seen before as an insult.

In Frenaria, it was cool to curse by invoking the gods, and the more you could invoke the specific god to match the particular situation, the better. But once in a while other things slipped out. A few times, on a hot day when someone accidentally splashed mud all over a man’s clean clothes, he’d respond by calling the other party a Kukubaru, which could generously be translated as “waste consumer”.

Now that he was watching, the object the miserable creature was hunched over was a cow pie. Gross.

At first when Hogg had told Brin this thing was following the caravan, he’d expected it to be a threat of some kind. Now he realized it probably wasn’t a danger to the caravan, but he wanted it dead even more.

He watched the monster a little longer to see what else he could glean. Its brown-stained hands ended in short, thick claws. It had thin arms and legs, but if it really was undead it was probably stronger than it looked.

A particularly loud bird called in the distant trees and the Kukubaru’s head snapped up, staring towards the sound in wide-eyed panic. Its eyes were much larger than a humans, and it had a larger nose as well, though a surprisingly small mouth.

It stared in the direction of the bird with panic written on its face for a full minute before finally settling down and returning to its meal. 

A breeze went through the trees, making a branch click against a tree trunk, and the Kukubaru bolted.

It ran down the road frantically, almost faster than Brin’s Invisible Eye could follow.

It abruptly stopped and veered off the road to hide behind a tree, looking back to see if anything was chasing it. It sniffled loudly, testing the air for signs of any threat.

This thing was skittish. Any tiny sound would set it off, and Brin didn’t think he’d be able to catch it on foot. He’d have to sneak up on it, and he’d only get one shot to take it down. If it was able to run, he’d never catch it.

The good news was that its level wasn’t terribly high. If he did manage to get close enough to throw a spear, there’s a good chance he could kill it in one shot.

The Kukubaru watched the road carefully, and then started to creep back towards its meal.

Brin dismissed Invisible Eye.

He carefully stepped past the others who were sleeping on the ground, and nodded to the man keeping watch. Hogg must’ve worked this out beforehand, because no one challenged Brin as he left the camp and walked down the road.

The night was cool, and the forest was loud. He’d gotten used to the forest near Hammon’s Bog after the undead army had left, and he now realized it had been eerily silent. The wildlife had all fled the presence of the undead and come here, apparently. The birds sang a chorus, bats squeaked up above, and once he was a half mile away from camp, the cicadas and crickets lent their voices to the choir.

It was actually a little unnerving. The loud birds and bugs would hide the sound of any actually dangerous creatures waiting to ambush him. It was no wonder the Kukubaru was so on edge.

No, actually, he hadn’t heard this much noise near the monster. Why? As he approached closer, he found his answer. The wildlife gradually quieted down again. That was a good indication that this thing really was an undead.

How in the world did something like this even exist? It might have been some sadistic punishment by a [Witch] to someone she truly hated. He knew there were pre-undead classes, and lots of them could be earned by eating something you really shouldn’t eat. Was it possible that someone took a pre-undead Class like the [Scarred One] had tempted him with, and then when that person’s sanity was gone, evolved into a Kukubaru? From a certain perspective, it made sense to specialize your race away from human flesh and towards something much more easily accessible and abundant…

Or maybe they attacked solo travelers on the road, and turned them, the way vampires or zombies reproduced. There were enough Kukubarus in the world that they’d turned into an insult, so there had to be a way they reproduced.

Hopefully, he was wrong about it being undead and they were just ordinary monsters. He forced himself to stop thinking of all the disgusting things going through his head and focus on the mission. He was going to kill this thing. The world could thank him later.

The closer he got to the area he’d left the Kukubaru, the quieter it got. He moved to the side of the road near the trees and prepared his approach.

First, he thought about preparing a spell to launch his spear, but honestly he didn’t need it. He’d pump a little bit of mana in to make it fly faster and help his aim, but nothing with the Language. He’d kill the monster if he hit it, with or without spellwork. Stealth was key.

He couldn’t do much for smell. He knew the Kukubaru must have a strong sense of smell, but hopefully it wouldn’t be able to tell which direction he was coming from even if it knew he was in the area.

He could do something about the other senses, though. He used [Cast Light through Glass] to cover himself in dark camouflage, and then used his sound magic to completely silence himself. It also completely blocked out his hearing, but that was fine. Better to be safe.

When he was ready, he started forward again. He moved slowly, spear in hand and kept his eyes open for the Kukubar.

He didn’t find it at the particular lump of cow dung where he’d seen it again, but he was pretty sure it was still heading this way. He moved under a tree and crouched down, waiting.

One minute, then five, then ten. The Kukubaru didn’t approach.

Brin started moving again, cautiously.

It was only by accident that he saw it. There, in the trees maybe five hundred feet away, far further into the forest than where he’d been looking he saw the Kukubaru prone on the ground. Its head was forward and he could tell it was snuffling loudly by the way that its nostrils flared. It could smell him, but it didn’t know where he was.

If he pumped a ton of mana into his spear, he could maybe throw it that far, but it was way too far to be accurate.

He moved so that a tree was blocking his line of sight with the Kukubaru and then started forward again. That was the trouble with hiding in the forest; it gave Brin lots of angles to sneak up on it from.

He didn’t make the mistake of thinking he was safe to move faster. He crept forward at a snail’s pace, slow enough as to not draw the eye.

He went so long with the tree blocking his bead on the monster that he started to wonder if it was even still there. He had to trust that it was; it wasn’t worth checking. Eventually he got to the tree. The Kukubaru would only be thirty feet past this. Close enough.

He moved to the side, and there it was, still prone and snuffling the air. Its eyes were wide and darting about. It knew he was close, and seemed to be frozen with indecision, not knowing which direction to run.

Brin threw the spear.

The Kukubaru’s huge eyes flicked to him at the last moment, and it jumped. The spear grazed a leg instead of impaling it like Brin had hoped, and it ran.

He’d been ready for this possibility and summoned a flash of light in its path. The Kukubaru stumbled, but kept running. Brin summoned a loud bang right next to its ears, and it changed its direction, veering off to the side.

Brin put a flash and bang together right in its path. Actually, was there a reason he’d started separating those? This was his Flashbang spell.

The Flashbang caused the Kukubaru to reverse its course entirely, driving it straight towards Brin.

He yanked his backup spear out of his storage ring and threw it at the Kukubaru, scoring a solid hit in its side. It screeched and bolted the other direction again.

Brin threw another Flashbang in front of it, but this time the monster wasn’t distracted. It fled straight through the noise and sound in a mad dash.

Brin pulled both of his spears back into his hands with [Shape Glass] and gave chase. The all-glass spear he put back in his ring, and raised his other spear to throw, but the Kukubaru was already too far ahead.

It ran wildly, careening off trees and trampling straight through shrubs in an effort to get away. Brin chased, but soon the Kukubaru was out of sight.

Brin ran in the direction he’d seen it go. He had the feeling it wouldn’t change course again for anything.

Following the monster was easier than he expected because it left a trail of blood. Every other step left a faint spray of its thick black blood. He recognized that blood; it had a particular smell. This thing was definitely undead.

He ran through the forest, following the trail. The monster seemed to have a limitless amount of blood in it. One mile turned to two, then two turned to five, and Brin still followed the droplets of stinking black blood. Twice, he lost the trail and had to double back to find where the Kukubaru had changed direction, but he always found it again.

Eventually, however, the trail dried up. After an hour of running, the bleeding had stopped. The trail was dry.

Brin briefly thought about sitting down and using Invisible Eye to try to find the thing again, but then he realized: the forest was silent. No calling birds, no chirping crickets. The Kukubaru was nearby.

It must’ve realized it couldn’t outrun him and stopped. For an ambush?

He turned around in a slow circle.

The Kukubaru suddenly burst out of hiding, from a bush directly in front of Brin. It must’ve assumed he’d spotted it.

It jumped, claws out, and it was fast. But with glass magic coursing through it, Brin’s spear was faster. He swiped, knocking its arms aside while cutting through its throat. He whirled his spear and stabbed, straight through the heart. 

You have defeated: Kukubaru [19]

Level up! 32 -> 33

+5 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Magic, +3 Mental Control, +1 Will, +2 free attributes.

[Call Light through Glass] has leveled up!  34-> 35

[Call Sound through Glass] has level up! 22 -> 24

A level! It almost didn't seem real after getting his last one so recently. He wondered if he’d been really close, or if it was all the illusion magic he’d used that made the difference.

Probably a bit of both. He needed to remember his illusion magic more often. He still thought of himself as a [Glasser] who could make illusions, rather than a [Illusionist] that could also use glass.

Also, he might’ve been underestimating how difficult the fight had been. During the entire hunt he’d kept the upper hand and had never really been in danger, but a lot of that was because he was finally using all of his tools.

He spared one last glance at the Kukubaru’s corpse. No, there was nothing there he wanted. Where were all the convenient enemies who dropped piles of gold when you killed them? He concentrated his light magic with a few words of language, and set the corpse aflame. It burned easily and it had died in a patch of dry grass, which was enough to keep the fire going.

As for the points, he normally put them into Magic, but wasn’t too sure this time. Against the monsters in the forest so far, he’d been able to kill pretty much anything he could hit. Mental Control was the limiting factor. If he had a better capacity to multitask, Invisible Eye would be easier to use, and it would be easier to keep up his camouflage and silence while walking.

He put both points into Mental Control.

Everything finished, he headed back to the road.

It wasn’t quite as easy to find his way. He’d completely lost track of the surroundings during his mad dash following the Kukubaru. He eventually had to stop and summon an Invisible Eye again. He shot it straight up into the sky until he could see the light of the campfire in the distance.

When he finally got back to camp, Pio met him with arms crossed and a furious glare on his face. “Sounds and flashes of light woke us up! We thought we were attacked! This was you?”

Brin had expected this, so he’d had time to work on his look of contrition. He slumped, and cast his eyes to the ground. “Sorry. I thought I was far enough away that you wouldn’t notice.”

“Are we deaf and dumb to not notice loud sounds in the night? How did you do this thing?”

Brin perked up. “Oh, with these!” He opened the pouch where he kept the enchanted glass balls and pulled one out. “This one makes a loud sound, while this other one does the flash of light. Want to see?”

“Not now!” Pio yelled. Then he winced and looked around at the people trying to sleep on the ground nearby. He continued in a lower voice. “Not now. No longer will you use these things at night. Not unless you are near to death! We will speak about using them during the day. And I will speak to your Hogg about these adventures. Very stupid. Dangerous.”

Brin looked at the ground again. “Sorry.”

Pio waved Brin away. “Bah.”

And then it was really over, leaving Brin feeling like he’d gotten off easy. He made his way to his bedroll, and couldn’t fall asleep right away. He was too excited from his new level and the adrenaline of the fight to calm down. When he finally did sleep, his dreams were just as disgusted by the Kukubaru as he’d been while he was awake.