Book 3. Chapter 28

Book 3. Chapter 28

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...

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.