Sharp

Gull Feathers. Lots and lots of Gull Feathers. I could make a pillow. I might be able to make a mattress.

I meditated as the professor started taking the readings again. I felt Rend, Pierce and Mighty Oak all go up a level. It was a big achievement solo killing a bronze-rank monster at his level, even if it was an easy monster when I took away its mobility.

This also put Pierce and Rend on nine. I am soon going to have many skills progress to bronze in quick succession.

“This is not as it should be either,” The professor said.

“Oh?” Perich asked, then looked at the instruments, “Oh!” he said. “It is almost like someone has been tampering with it or testing something against it.”

“Testing,” Venter said, “I hadn’t thought about testing. The thing is, I don’t know what type of astral magic would cause this. It is almost like the Pretori-Wihongi effect crossed with Albertine's theorem, which hasn’t even been proved yet.”

“There is more to it than that. Look here,” Perich said.

“It looks like an inverted Octines Wave. Did you notice that at the earth tunnel space?”

“No, but we have the records.”

Venter nodded, “Let's get the other entrances checked.”

We packed up and moved out. This was the first I had heard about the reasons for this trip. Is somebody using unknown Astral magic against these spaces? Why? Who? Venter is a world expert on astral magic, but she can’t figure out what they are doing or how they are doing it. That sounds worrying.

We marched through the shallow estuary and over islands. We were in a bronze-ranked area and encountered Shabs and Coastal Hydra. Kai found an awakening stone of Sand. I had sent him to particularly look for Sand Quintessence, as I would need bronze-level quintessence for my bronze-level armour when I make it.

Bronze-level Shabs were bigger and tougher than the iron-rank ones, but we fell into the same routine as the strange moon forest. Single bronze monsters were taken by one of the three bronze members. More than that, and others got involved. We were moving to the iron rank zones, so we will be the primary combatants soon.

Shabs gave me meat, teeth and carapace. Reaping Magic is creeping toward bronze.

The next gate was underwater. It was one of those ones that became a waterfall in a desert region. Neither Venter nor Perich needed to breathe, but the three bronze rankers were not there yet, and Val and I were still reliant on breathing. The gate was only about three meters underwater on the seabed.

There were Shabs crawling along the bottom of the ocean, and Val and I would dive down and disable or kill them if they got too close. Some of the larger Shabs could almost block the gate.

Then, I saw a fish swarm approaching. “Val, Devour-anhas!” They were iron rank and quite small but vicious with teeth that rivalled Kai’s. In fact, they were about Kai’s size but covered in scales, not fur. There were a hundred or so, but it was hard to estimate. They could strip the meat off my bones in under a minute and then eat the bones.

I tossed a net to Val and then sunk one in their path. Val’s movement skills meant she could stay on the surface, but I could not. I had discovered that my shields floated if I didn’t put too much weight on them. I had one with our lunch on it at the moment. I had also created a number of small bucklers so I could use them with my Hunter's Step to stay about the water.

I was going to be the one in the water for this for several reasons. My Resin armour was light and should make it difficult for the fish. Combined with my Resistant Fur, it would mean they would not easily strip the flesh off my bones. My Blend Skill meant I could hide from them. Blending into the water background was easy for the skill. I also used my Resin to create some flippers for my feet to help me swim faster. Finally, my Hunters tether was the best group control skill we had.

The net I dropped was quite large, but half of them would go around it, so I attached a small buckler to a spear and drove it into the sandy seabed. It was about a meter up and a meter behind the net on the side, away from the devourer fish.

As the fish approached, I cast Hunter Tether to the buckler so it was aimed horizontally rather than vertically. The tethers reached out through the netting, grabbed the iron rank fish, and dragged them to the crystal rod. This meant they were being dragged through my net of cutting webs.

I set a second one up and started it going alongside the first, as one would not be enough. I could have as many tethers going at the same time as I had mana for. Reapers Blessings started rolling in. I used them to power a third tether and then got to work.

My Teathers don’t cause damage to what they hold. I hope that will change when it gets to bronze, but for now, the damage was being done by my nets. I needed to finish off the injured fish. Claws and teeth. I was happy eating raw fish, although spitting out the scales was a pain. My Hunters Feast was having a great time. I was unsure about eating monsters directly rather than that collected through my Reaping Magic, but my Hunters Feast was fine with it, and I felt like it was processing it so it would not turn into rainbow smoke in my stomach. That was something new, not that there are many monsters I want to eat raw.

Injured fish started attacking me, testing my armour and fur. But Ardisia was spiking back. Several times, her spikes penetrated the roof of the fish’s mouth, and it was stuck there like on a fishing hook until I grabbed it and took a bite—fishing with Ardisia.

I had to surface regularly to take a breath, and Val was running across the top of the swarm with my other net, scooping the fish up and sending her Sword Wave into the ocean. She also had her Telekineses for small things, and fish that jumped to bite her were redirected, often into the net.

I went down again and recast a tether and kept at it. The iron-rank fish were no match for my claws, boosted to bronze by Kai. I could catch them with the use of my Quick Sharp Skill, but most were caught in the tethers, and I didn’t need to use it.

It took us about half an hour and a lot of effort, but we cleaned out the fish. The others dealt with the occasional Shab while we were busy. My net was going to need a lot of repairs. The fish gave me a lot of meat, which I put most of the magic to. I got some fish quintessence and fish scales as well.

We had bought boats with us, and the others were on the boats, keeping watch and waiting for the professor. They did not want me repairing wet nets there as well. I created some large shields and joined them together so they would hold my weight, and then I sat on them, opened an entrance to my Hunters Pack in front of me, and started repairing the nets. I think it looked a bit strange to me sitting on shields and reaching into them to get things from my hunter's pack.

When it was time to move on, I didn’t want to abandon my floating shields, so we tied a rope to the boat, and they pulled me along. That was fun. I could manoeuvre by shifting my weight around, and I was having so much fun that everybody wanted a turn.

Haemir was the one who took it too far and flipped it. We had to turn back and fish him out. That didn’t stop us. The professor was a bit grumpy about having to turn back, but overall, she didn’t mind.

The next stop was one of our regular stops for taking readings and was on a small Island. We were wading in the warm sea nearby when I heard a yell from Zavis. I ran to the top of the small hill, and he was fending off a large clam which was trying to bite him with its teeth. Clams don’t have teeth, but this one did. It was silver rank, and we shouldn’t have been in a silver zone yet. I guess there is no guarantee.

Zavis was just barely keeping the jaws… shells from closing on him. I ran down the hill and saw a fleshy part and a smooth white pearl inside. This was all mixed up. Haemir got there first, and together, they levered the jaws/shells apart, and Zavis slipped out. I saw Lyari run up and slap a healing spell on him. I saw Perich watching from the monitoring equipment, obviously checking to see if they needed some help.

Haemir was still holding the jaws/shells apart and straining as I arrived. I created a large shield and jammed it vertically between the closing jaws/shells. Then I greeted two more and put them in, when the first was about to be crushed.

Val arrived and sent a sword wave into the soft tissue of the open mouth, which got it angry. A large, slippery tongue flicked out, smashing my shields out of the way. It grabbed Haemir and dragged him into the mouth as the jaws/shells clamped shut.

“Haemir!” yelled Lyari desperately.

“We had time,” Zavis said, “His regen will work. We have to get this open again.”

I moved to help as the four of us grabbed the top half of the jaws/shell and heaved using our strength Skills. The whole clam came out of the sand and flipped over the jaws, stayed shut tight.

“Heidel shit,” Zavis muttered.

We all moved around to the other side where the opening now was, and Zavis and Val tried to work their swords in the gap between the shells and wedge it open. Val’s sword snapped. She conjured a larger one.

The jaw shells started to open where they hadn't before. I think an angry troll is fighting back. We shoved a hammer in the gap, and I grabbed the top with my enhanced claws, put my feet claws on the bottom and used Mighty Oak and Rend together. The claws were enhanced, and I figured Rend meant to tear or rip apart. That was what I was trying to do to the clam.

We opened it a bit wider, and then we lost it. The jaws/shells slammed shut again. I was not quick enough and lost three claws on one foot. I noticed Lyari had a broken root. I assume she had inserted it to boost Haemir’s healing. Zavis and Val both had broken swords.

“Again,” said Zavis, and he and Val reconjured new swords and worked their largest swords between the gap.

I was thinking of other ways we could get it. None of us were really up to smashing the shell. Haemir might have been if he was out here with a hammer. Where the shells joined was well protected as well. Again, Haemir could have broken it, but while I had a hammer, my Iron Rank strength was not going to be enough, and Zavis and Lyari were not strength builds.

What did I have that could hurt a silver-rank monster?

Zavis and Val had opened a gap, and Lyari’s tree children were helping as she also had Branches wedging into the gap.

Silver Rank.

I created a shield and opened my Hunters Pack. I had two silver-ranked bones from the bears in the moon forest, and I pulled them both out. I couldn’t hold them for long as they would mana poison me, but Zavis and Lyari should be better.

“Use these,” I said, dropping them on the sand. They were heavy.

A vine from Lyari grabbed one and jammed it near Zavis, and then she grabbed the other and reinforced it. This time, when we had to let go, the jaws/shell came down and stopped on the bones. I saw they were scratched but were a long way from being dented or broken.

Lyari’s roots snaked inside, and a lot of her urgency died. I guess Haemir's self-heal, combined with her healing, could out-heal the damage the clam was causing. We took another grip on the clam and lifted again, and this time, Lyari got the bones stacked on top of each other, widening the default gap.

Two Kais went in as well, and I could see blood pooling in the bottom shell, and I am sure it is not all Haemirs. He had been ripping and tearing at the soft insides of the clam. A piece of flesh came out at me, and I poked at it, and it was tougher than leather. The insides were softer, not soft.

I debated poking in there with a spear, but I didn’t want to stab Haemir, so I planted Ardisia on the shell and let her vines go in.

We lifted again, and this time Haemir helped and we got the bones wedged vertically, and there was plenty of space. I could only see Haemir's legs as he was headfirst in the clam, ripping and tearing and biting. I assume his Troll Constitution would handle him eating silver-ranked shellfish. If not he would be recovering for a long time.

The was a massive squirt of water that sent us all flying, and one of the bones was dislodged. We scrambled to put it back, and I reinforced the connections with Resin, for whatever iron-rank resin might do.

One of the Kais had been shot out with the water, and he swam back and climbed back in. I saw Harmir holding on for all he was worth, claws embedded deep. His feet had been jammed back at the lower entrance lip, and he was belly crawling forward again.

The Clam took time to build up the water squirt, so we only had to suffer three more. We got a sense of when it was going to happen, and ducking down and lying in the shallow water meant the water went over the top of us.

It was large and very tough, but eventually, we wore it down. The fact that it could not close its shell was the deciding factor.

Eventually, we lay on the beach exhausted. Haemir looked like his skin had been sanded off, and his skin was the easiest thing he could heal. The fact it still looked like that was a worry. Fighting up a rank was dangerous.

I sat eating raw fish, wondering how long my claws would take to grow back.