Broken Lands

“It’s possible that wasn’t even the nastiest monster in this Nest,” Sophia continued. “I don’t think that’s going to be true; it was enough of a step above the others that it seems likely it was the Nest’s focus. But since none of us really know how Nests work and the Nest isn’t clear…”

Sophia shrugged. She thought she knew how Nests worked, that they were simply dungeons that centered around a particular monster that established them instead of a dungeon core, but either that was wrong or there was another monster in this one. With the way the Nest suddenly changed before they faced this beast, it was clear they’d entered another zone, but maybe it was a zone that held more than the boss.

“The smaller snakes all came from the right,” Dav suggested. “Why don’t we check that way first?”

Sophia nodded, then waved Dav ahead of her.

The other side of the archway was a room filled with brush, but even with the brush partly in the way, it was easy enough to see what was there: eggs. There were no snakes immediately obvious, but Dav took his time looking around before he moved into the room anyway. It was a good thing, because he caught a glimpse of something that didn’t belong, probably something green when the brush was all brown, and dove out of the way of a diving snake.

Sophia was right behind Dav and immediately slashed at the snake. She didn’t pay attention to where she hit it; she just had to get the shield gone and that took a good solid hit but the location didn’t really matter.

Revina’s crossbow bolt hit the snake at almost the same time as Sophia’s knife. Neither did more than scratch the snake’s skin. This snake was quite a bit smaller than the big one that slept in the larger room, so Sophia could only hope that that meant they were essentially through its shield and just hadn’t penetrated yet.

The snake seemed to gather itself up, but before it could try again, Dav’s sword licked up from the ground and cut deeply into its side. The snake shuddered but didn’t stop moving.

Sophia wished she had a better tool for the job; an ax would be perfect. As it was, she had to destroy the snake’s brain or cut its spine and that wasn’t the easiest thing to do on the large snake that kept moving. Maybe she could stop it?

Sophia shouted and tried to trigger Stunning Roar to give the three of them a pause to use to kill the snake. She felt a little mana push into the Technique, but the snake barely slowed for a fraction of a second. It was completely unlike what happened with the other snake. Sophia was pretty sure she knew why, too; she felt annoyed and irritated but she really didn’t feel angry right now. It seemed like annoyance and irritation weren’t enough.

She wasn’t really surprised. She’d known that was a possibility ever since she got the Technique; its description was clear. She just didn’t have any other options for the slot and it still seemed like a useful choice, even if it wasn’t reliable. It would probably work when it was the most important. She’d still replace it when Cliff got a better option; she didn’t like Skills that were unreliable.

The snake tried to lunge forward to grab Dav. Its lunge was met by Dav’s sword and Revina’s bolt. The crossbow bolt skidded off the snake’s upper skull while the sword impacted on its lower jaw. Sophia heard the bone crack.

Even more importantly, she saw the snake try to stop its motion. That pause, with the snake stretched out right in front of her, was exactly what she needed to stab it right behind the head. Her knife slipped between its vertebrae and probably severed its spine. The snake slid to the ground and took Sophia’s knife with it.

Getting her knife back was a challenge. Somehow, the snake seemed to have shifted as it fell and locked it in place; Sophia actually had to borrow the knife Revina used to field dress the snakes to dig it out. Even with the flesh mostly out of the way, the bones didn’t want to let go. Sophia was grateful for Imbue Blade; without it, she wasn’t certain Revina’s knife would have been good enough. It was also probably the only reason Sophia’s knife hadn’t snapped; while the knife was well made, it wasn’t enchanted and wasn’t really made for the kind of abuse she’d put it through over the past week or so.

Dav and Revina watched for more snakes while Sophia worked.

“Do you think there are more of them?” Sophia was tired of snakes. She was pretty sure that she’d have brought special tools to deal with them if there was a snake dungeon at home. There were probably several on Earth, but she’d never been in one and she was just as happy about that.

“I don’t know,” Dav said the obvious as he thought. “I doubt there are any close, though. These are their eggs; you’d think they’d be with them if they don’t just abandon them, and I doubt you get a Nest with any creature that abandons its eggs.”

“There was a snake in here,” Revina contributed. “Plus the four that came to help the big one. I wonder if they were the males or the females?”

“Some of each?” Sophia suggested. “This isn’t an ant colony, after all. Speaking of which, do you want to retrieve the eggs? Are they edible?”

“They’re edible, but there’s no way we can carry them. We didn’t bring a cart.” Revina sounded a little saddened by that. “Vyk brings them home when he finds them, but I don’t know if we can get them out. The big snake is more important than fragile eggs. We won’t even be able to get the smaller snakes. I hope the nest doesn’t destroy everything when it turns back into a building.”

“Is that how it works?” Sophia was definitely going to corner Aymini or more likely Vramt when they got back to Fallen Kestii. She would almost certainly not ask everything she ought to know, because she wouldn’t think of it, but she had an entire list of questions already.

“I think so,” Revina answered. “It can’t stay like this.”

Sophia had to nod at that. Without a dungeon core or whatever it was a Nest ran on, she couldn’t see how the nested spaces this Nest had would possibly be stable. She shaved a little more of the flesh away from her knife and yanked on it as hard as she could, pushing away with her feet as she pulled with her arms.

Sophia felt herself skid backwards a bit as she pushed the snake away, but this time the knife slid out with a sucking sound. “That was in there all too well.”

She wiped off Revina’s blade and her own before she handed Revina’s back and sheathed her own. “No sign of more snakes?”

“Nah,” Dav agreed, then pointed at the far corner, to the left. “I see something odd in that corner. It doesn’t look like a snake or an egg.”

Sophia followed his finger to the corner. She saw a blue glimmer, first, a light where there shouldn’t be a light. She frowned and tilted her head, trying to get a better look without getting close. Was that what she thought it was?

“Yeah, I think that’s important. Watch my back,” Sophia told Dav and Revina. She looked around as she went, but she couldn’t watch everywhere all at once.

The blue gleam came from a crystal that was almost exactly the same shade as the Shard of Kestii they’d recovered. It seemed to glow with a faint inner light; she didn’t remember the Shard doing that. It was also far smaller; instead of being three inches long, it was less than an inch in any dimension. It clearly hadn’t been covered in a thin skin of metal at some point in its past, either.

“Is the glow because the Nest is still active?” Sophia asked the question but didn’t expect an answer; neither Dav nor Sophia would know. It was just as well that she didn’t expect an answer, because the moment her hand touched the crystal, a message from the Guide appeared.

Nest Cleared!

Nest Fragment Collected!

This Fragment was once used to create a Nest used by Ruins Constrictors (monsters). Any use of it to attack or defend against Ruins Constrictors is enhanced due to its familiarity with the monsters.

Sophia blinked at the message. It was a little longer than the notice they’d received when they entered the Nest, but not by much. The important thing, apparently, was not killing the monsters; instead, they had to find the fragment. She definitely needed to talk to Aymini and Vramt; that seemed a bit too important to leave out of their descriptions of a Nest, but even Revina seemed clueless.

“Can I see that?” Dav held out his hand towards Sophia.

She dismissed the message in front of herself and dropped the fragment of glasslike crystal into his hand. “It looks like something a crafter can use, maybe? Perhaps that’s why the Shard of Kestii was in that box?”

Dav seemed startled when the gem hit his palm. He seemed to read something quickly, then shook his head. “It says I can absorb it. Did you get that? Can Cliff use it?”

Cliff didn’t wait for Sophia to repeat the question. “No. It is much too weak. It also has nothing of interest; I Collected the Ruins Constrictor form from the great snake, but it is nothing more than an oversized snake. I would not put it in any dungeon I built; it is far too boring.”

That was disappointing; Sophia had hoped for something to replace Stunning Roar. She hadn’t really expected it, since she hadn’t seen the snake do anything unusual, but she was still disappointed.

Sophia shook her head at Dav. “That wasn’t an option for me, it just said that the fragment is stronger against Ruins Constrictors. Cliff got the monster but doesn’t think he can do anything with the fragment. If you want it, it’s yours; I think we got Revina what she came here for.”

That reminded her to look at Revina. Sophia expected to see her smiling; instead, she had a scowl on her face. “Revina? What’s wrong? Didn’t you get your Vocation?”

“It’s not there.” Revina’s hand clenched, then released. “I finally got the Vocation-granting feat and the Vocation I want isn’t there! The only magical Vocations it’s offering are Potionmaster and Smokeseer! Potionmaster is barely a magical Vocation anyway, it’s all about preparation ahead of time; you can’t actually cast spells, just make things that have magical effects. I want something like Father’s Vocation, something flexible and useful in a lot of different ways, not something where I have to know exactly what I want ahead of time or something that just messes with monsters’ vision!”

“Ah,” Sophia scrambled for something she could say that might help.

Dav got there first. “Then don’t choose it yet. You said you needed more items of Air, right? We got those blowshrooms; if they aren’t enough, maybe we can find something more for you.”

“Or maybe you’re in the wrong place,” Sophia added. “This isn’t exactly the open air; maybe you should be out, feeling the wind? Or perhaps you need to move the air with a spell? That sounds like something that you help in getting an air-based magic Vocation.”

Revina snorted. “Move the air with a spell? I can’t, no one can without a Vocation. Sometimes you say the oddest things.” She seemed to be in a better mood.

Sophia had the distinct suspicion that Revina was going to wear on her nerves quickly. “You don’t have anyone who can cast freeform spells?”