12 Ch. 11- Forest Sleepover and Brutus Evolves

My scare from yesterday has brought about an extra sense of urgency to me, I only have a few weeks before the next monster break and I doubt I'm strong enough yet to ensure my survival. The things I need most now are for my summons to evolve further making both them and myself stronger in the process, the other thing I will need is money and lots of it.

Being a summoner is a great way to earn money, but you spend it just ass easily, often leaving you with little in your account after buying upgrades, necessities, or food. This is in the back of my head the entire time as I shower and dress up for the coming day.

I shrug these thoughts off and go to the kitchen after catching a whiff of strong coffee which is how Mira likes to make hers. Entering our rather bare but homey kitchen I see Mira at the counter with a mug of coffee next to her cooking up a breakfast of sausage and eggs.

It smells delicious and I can't wait to eat as the popping of grease and sizzling sound of meat frying catches my attention. I go up to hug my favorite and only sibling and ask, "What's the special occasion, Mira? Usually, you're gone to your lab by now."

She turns around with a smile and tells me, "You seemed worried yesterday during our dinner, so I thought I would go to work a bit later so that I could spend some more time with you and cook you some breakfast."

I feel my heart melt a little at the thought of her going through all of that trouble despite already being so busy with her demanding job. She's rarely around as often as I like because she is off at her job doing everything she can to earn some credits to keep us clothed and fed.

She is long past the age of receiving any allowance and so has had to work hard to earn enough credits to keep us housed amongst other expenses. In this era, any non-summoner job requires a lot of work to be put in to maintain any quality of life, those who don't work are soon on the streets left to fend for themselves.

Orphans are exempt from this at least until they turn 16 and are old enough to be a summoner, that's not to say that minors can't work before that, but usually, all they can earn is some spare change for some odd jobs. There is an excess of people and a shortage of jobs other than summoning, so the market is extremely competitive if she didn't work as hard as she does she may very well be replaced.

I don't blame her for things out of her control, I'm just touched at all of the little things she tries to do for me to show that she loves me. Seeing that she is done frying up the last of the sizzling meat, I set out our plates on or cozy little wooden dining table and place the silverware by them.

Having finished my plate, I look up and address Mira, "So today I'll be going back into the forest up north of the gate, I'll probably end up staying the night there, but don't worry I've got strong summons and plenty of equipment to keep me safe and cozy."

She looks a bit disturbed by this news and it shows with the frown on her face, but after mulling over the info she eventually concedes to my silent request for her permission. "I suppose at this point you're an adult and can make your own decisions, I just want you to be careful and stay safe. Remember, you'll always be my little brother, even if you are grown now."

Seeing how torn up about it she is, I rush over and give her a big hug to reassure her that everything will be fine. "I'll be back sometime tomorrow and I'll make sure to message you as soon as I'm back in the city so you can stop worrying, 'cause I know you will." With that said I put my dishes in the sink and head off to earn some credits.

Getting near the forest, I summon all three of my summons and feed them their late breakfast, with Brutus getting the special blink wolf core that I bought at the auction. He seems to have stopped growing today, which I take as a sign of him getting close to evolving, and my hope is that during this planned camping trip he'll be able to evolve.

After unsummoning Emett, we begin making our way into the forest and don't even bother killing all the weaker monsters we see in the outer area. Only 2 really persistent tier 1 monsters were killed by Brutus before they even had the time for regrets.

Having made good progress so far, we continue on towards the center of the forest to kill some stronger and more lucrative monsters. We make it to the border between the two areas, which is easy to distinguish as not only do the trees become larger, but the leaves get darker as well, almost ominously so.

Stopping to take a break after our long haul and having to once again kill about 5 more persistent tier 2 monsters, it seems the stronger a monster the more aggressive and arrogant they are. I allow them to rest near me and eat their snacks with our backs to the weaker tier 2 area, on the lookout for any danger in the tier 3 area.

Eventually, we recover our stamina and continue on into the primal-looking area of the forest in search of fights. I instruct Jareth to take a backseat in the battles so that Brutus can be further stimulated to evolve, I tell him, "Your role is to attract the monster's attention or fight off any additional monsters, only intervene if he is in imminent danger."

He nods in understanding and allows Brutus to take the front of our little group. It seems that rather than growing larger as Jareth did before, he is becoming smarter and smarter and has even recently begun to speak in broken words. We still mostly communicate through intent with our bond, but I teach him a new word or phrase every now and then to help him learn our language.

The first monster in the tier 3 area we come across is a death worm that we feel traveling through the ground before we see it. The vibrations already alerted us to its' presence, but we still weren't prepared for such a large and deadly looking insect to pop up from the ground.

This insect had a gaping maw of jagged obsidian teeth that looked like it could rend steel into tiny pieces, it was made up of purple-colored chitinous sections, and smelled terribly of carrion. I remembered reading about these worms in the library at the academy, they are known as rookie-killers and were some of the most difficult tier 3 insect type monsters to fight. They either escaped into the ground when outmatched or would blindly charge at its' prey and either crush, poison, or tear them to death.

Deciding that I would be better suited out of the way, as I was still too weak to try and fight something like this, it was the size of a school bus and moved much faster than its' size would suggest. I tell both my summons to be wary of its' mouth and that they should attack the underside which is the weakest part of its carapace.

The worm slid closer to Jareth as it sensed his larger size and that he posed a larger threat, Jareth performed what looked like a pirouette to narrowly avoid the falling body of the worm. The sound of it crashing to the ground was horrifying, but Jareth didn't even flinch and began to pound away at the outer shell while avoiding the mouth that seemed to hone in on him.

Brutus tried to relieve Jareth from some of the pressure of the worm's assault by creating a shadow clone of Jareth, but the worm completely ignored the creation. I realized that it didn't have any eyes to be fooled with, and so I told Brutus to wait for an opening in its' armor.

I would have told Jareth to continue striking the same spot on the armor to gradually chip away at it, but he already seemed to be doing so. Luckily with his heavier and harder mace, the carapace around waist height was dented and even had blue blood seeping from some cracks.

Another 2 minutes passed by and there was an area around the size of a watermelon on the left side of the worm that was devoid of any armor and all that was left was soft flesh. The worm wasn't the only one to receive some wounds, as Jareth had received a few glancing blows from the worm trying to crush him.

There was also a nasty ruler sized rip in his forearm after being caught by the outer edges of the worm's teeth. It would have been worse and may even have ripped off his arm completely if Jareth's skin wasn't so tough.

Brutus had yet to strike, but was waiting around for the perfect opportunity to present itself. He knew he would only have one chance to mortally wound this oversized worm that truly lived up to its' reputation.

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That chance finally came when the worm which had begun to noticeably tire after moving around its' body so much crashed down once more in an attempt to crush Jareth. It nearly succeeded in doing so as Jareth wasn't faring much better and had lost a decent amount of blood at this point. The exposed wound was at the perfect position and the mouth of the worm was facing away from Brutus, so Brutus finally knew his chance had come and rushed in to wound the tyrannical worm.

At this point, the worm had forgotten Brutus who had yet to even attack it, so it certainly came as a surprise to it when the ignored summon tore off a sizable chunk of flesh out with its' teeth. Brutus dove into the exposed area with the fervor of a speed eater and continued to rip out chunk after chunk of the worm.

He only had a few moments of this before the worm shook itself out of its' confusion and pain and swung its' body to dislodge the blood-soaked wolf. Had there not been a giant worm trying to kill my summons I would have found it hilarious that Brutus now looked like a dog-shaped blueberry from all of the blue insect blood that had fallen onto him.

Brutus was thrown a few yards away and seemed to be in some pain after getting shaken off like that and landing poorly on the ground, when he got up he appeared to be limping on his front right leg.

Luckily for all of us, this final attack seemed to have been enough as gallons of worm blood poured from the gaping mass of what used to be flesh. Bone-chilling screams were being let out by the worm as it writhed in pain and appeared to be going through death throes as it had given up trying to target Jareth.

It only rolled and smashed the ground around it with no seeming pattern or reason, this only served to further bleed the worm out. I instructed my summons to return to me and give the death worm some space until it bled out.

If we were unlucky and got close to it, it may very well crush one of us to a pulp. After another minute and what seemed to be a pool's worth of blood, the worm finally lay still.

I waited another few minutes to make sure the worm wasn't faking being dead, and even then I had us approach from its' tail which I poked with my sword a few times to see if it would react. After receiving no response I allowed Brutus to go up and claim his prize, which in this case was the core of this monstrous insect that was essentially a pseudo-tier 4.

Brutus went back to the wound he had torn up and stuck his head inside to reach the core that was conveniently located. It was close enough to the wound that he was able to reach it after sticking about half his body through.

He brought out the sickly purple looking core to show me before throwing it up and swallowing it in one go. After that, he laid down beside it and appeared to be growing brighter and brighter as time moved on. Just like with Jareth, Brutus began to grow slightly bigger and motes of light gathered towards me, and with each piece, I felt stronger and could sense more than I could previously.

My perception of my surroundings began to change as the evolution progressed, I smelled the dirt under us as well as the terrible smelling corpse of the worm. Details were clearer from farther away and I could hear monsters moving around us in the forest.

Eventually, the light faded and what appeared was a and pitch-black grim with hauntingly opaque eyes that looked as if they were dead. Brutus seemed to be enjoying his new form and even surprised me by diving into the shadow of the worm, what I especially didn't expect was for him to jump on top of me after coming out of my shadow.

It appears that Brutus has some form of shadow travel with limits that I don't know yet. His teleporting ability must have come from the blinking wolf core I fed him earlier today, and it seems like it merged with his shadow control ability that before this was only able to form illusions. His becoming a grim was unexpected, but I suppose it makes sense considering the core that pushed him to evolve was a "death" worm.

He seemed to be enjoying covering me in slobber after vigorously licking me while I remained trapped under his larger and subsequently heavier form. I pushed him off of me after his worm stench became too much, I suppose bathing in worm blood would make anyone smell regardless of whether they evolve right after or not.

To take care of that issue, I found a pond nearby and brought out Emett to join us in an impromptu bath, only after making sure that there weren't any aquatic monsters within, of course, I'm not stupid.

We had some fun paddling around and splashing each other, but Emett seemed to stay at the edge and dip his bottom in occasionally for a drink, which made sense considering he would probably sink like a "stone", get it, it's a rock pun.

After a few minutes and a quick splash war that Jareth easily dominated with his large hands and long arms, we got out and made camp right by the pond, that way we would have less area available for sneaking up on us.

I started a campfire with some wood lying around and the lighter that I had bought a few days ago, and then I set about skinning one of the tier 1 horned rabbits that we had killed earlier. For an originally herbivorous creature, they sure were aggressive.

Once the fire had died down a bit and left red hot coals on the bottom I placed the pan I had bought on top and threw chunks of the rabbit in until all of it was added and mixed the meat around in the pan to cook the pieces evenly.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of roasting the meat was ready and I brought out cores for each of my summons to enjoy for dinner alongside me. It seems that along with increased size, Brutus has an enlarged stomach as well, because apparently 1 tier 1 core wasn't enough for him since he became tier 3.

Conceding to his pleading puppy eyes, which only served to disturb me further considering how odd the action was with his deathly pale eyes, I eventually brought out another core and fed that to him as well. I tore into the piping hot pieces of meat that were surprisingly tasty considering I had no seasoning to add to it, which I vowed to fix as soon as possible.

I spent my mealtime trying to figure out just what changes I had undergone and if I had any skills or abilities from Brutus's evolution. I had already confirmed enhanced senses, greater speed, and I noticed that I could still see perfectly fine into the forest despite it being night already.

It seems Brutus's eyes did more than look creepy, they seemed to give him night vision with me receiving the trait by proxy. I couldn't think of anything more until I realized that Brutus had been able to teleport, so maybe I could as well.

I concentrated hard on willing myself to move without physically moving and to my surprise I managed to move about 2 feet in front of where I was previously in the exact spot I had been looking at. I tried again, but couldn't seem to until 5 minutes had passed, and when I tried again I noticed that the most I could move was about 2 feet and only to an area I could see.

While it wasn't a super useful ability with its many restrictions, it could definitely save my life or give me an advantage in a fight. I wouldn't use this ability so easily though, I planned on keeping this as a life-saving secret for as long as I could because if no one knew about it they couldn't plan for it.

With our meal finished and the sun already down I set up my sleeping bag near the fire and placed my sword out of its' sheathe beside where I would sleep for easy access. I kept my armor on since I was still in a dangerous area and needed to be battle-ready at a moment's notice.

I only kept Brutus summoned as his senses would be my best warning for anything coming to attack us, I also placed down one of the sacks of monster repellent near my sleeping bag. I put it downwind of Brutus though, because he would find the smell horribly nauseating. Once all of that was taken care of and my other items put away safe in storage, I went to sleep with the comforting knowledge that Brutus would make sure nothing bothered me.

I woke up in the morning full of energy and after a quick breakfast of leftover rabbit from last night and a tier 2 shadow panther core for Brutus. We left our camp after putting away the pan and my sleeping bag.

We began heading out of the forest and I brought Jareth out to join us in killing some monsters on the way out to pad our figurative pockets. My summons rampaged in the woods and by the time we had escaped they had killed an additional 7 tier 2 monsters and 4 tier 1's, we didn't really bother much with the tier 1 monsters anymore because they were pretty much chump change at this point and not really worth the effort.

The moment I stepped back into civilization after unsummoning Jareth and Brutus, I began to type a message to Mira letting her know I was safe and uninjured from my trip. I added that I was in the city now and would be stopping to sell off the bounty from my hunt before heading home.

With that taken care of, I went to the core exchange to sell off the 6 tier 1 cores and the 12 tier 2 cores, making for a total of 126 credits. Once that was taken care of I went over to Max's counter, I had taken a liking to the man and had already made him my unofficial go-to association attendant.

I brought out the tier 1 and tier 2 monster bodies minus the meat of that 1 rabbit and made 316 credits from the haul. I was saving the death worm for the auction and planned on earning plenty of money once it was sold to the highest bidder.

I met with the same man at the auction house and dropped off the body and received a reclaiming chip in return, the man was truly a professional as he didn't even gawk at the size of this behemoth monster.

Since all of my business had been taken care of and I was 441+ credits richer, I summoned Brutus and rode him through the streets all the way home. Once I got to our apartment and unsummoned Brutus after a few headpats in thanks for the ride.

I was beset upon by Mira and after a vigorous bear hug that would have hurt had I not been strengthened by Brutus's recent evolution, I was forced to tell her all about my experience.