[Silverthorn Gorilla - Rank B Monster Regional Boss
Level: 39
Vulnerability: Fire
Immunities: Poison, Acid]
[Description: This fearsome beast is known for its incredible strength and agility, using its razor-sharp claws and bone-crushing fists to tear through its prey and any who dare to cross its path. Their territory is massive compared to most other forest bound monsters, often spanning tens of miles per level, but never less than twenty miles per level. Its coat of thorns can be deployed as an emergency escape mechanism, spraying out faster than a crossbow bolt, though this leaves the creature’s back nearly defenseless.]
The moment I read that last line, I threw up a hand to generate a [Wall of Force] between the two of them, but I stopped myself before it could even draw any Mana. She didn’t need my help.
The thorns coating the monster’s back rippled once, something I assumed was tied to its [Thorn Spray] ability, but Raiju didn’t give it time to do anything with them beyond that. She leapt high into the air, running on the wind like a competitive runner would terra firma, and flipped so she was just ahead of it but forty feet up.
Holding her hands out toward the beast, her voice was cold as ice. “[Boreal Spear].”
A lance of green, yellow, blue, and silver light sprang forth from her hands and drove straight through the [Silverthorn Gorilla]’s eye socket faster than the eye could see, shooting all the way through its body, and into the ground beneath it. She dropped to the ground, prowling around her kill like the primal force she was. A few sniffs later, she straightened up and nodded to herself before brushing off her skirt.
“You could have kept going. It was just this weakling.” She kicked the body of the beast and it didn’t budge. She glared down at it before looking back up at me expectantly. “How long do these things usually take to break down for two-legs?”
“You know,” despite how stunned I was, I couldn’t help but joke with her, “you are a two-legs now too.” I padded over to check out the fresh corpse and when I checked the Party Interface, the Loot tab was still empty. “Looks like this is one of those monsters we can manually harvest more than the System would give us, even with the Party Interface.” I turned back to the rest of our companions with a broad smile. “Who’s up for some skinning?”
It turned out that Ylsa was quite the maestro at stripping a monster for its valuable parts, something she told me she used to do to augment her meager earnings as an Iron adventurer. She’d fallen out of the practice at Steel rank, but was still far better at it than even I was with all my training from Dad.
When all was said and done, our haul was pretty impressive for a single monster in the middle of a forest, but it was nothing like the loot from a Dungeon or a Tower, those places were hotspots for adventurers for a reason.
[Loot:
Silverthorns x89
Silverthorn Gorilla Fangs x4
Silverthorn Gorilla Claws x16
Silverthorn Gorilla Hide (90% intact)
Total Estimated Value: 46 Gold]
As we walked, Raiju caught my attention with a wave and I roved over to join her off to the party’s right flank. She whispered. “If we hadn’t done that, how long would that monster have lain there?” Her face was dead serious. “You didn’t answer my question earlier and it’s been bugging me ever since.”
Marshalling my tact, I didn’t gape at her. Instead, I nodded knowingly. “Sorry about that. Monsters killed by humanoids, people, or two-legs as you call us, generally exist for twice as many seconds as they had levels. If someone is touching the corpse, it stops the timer, which is why I was sitting on the thing’s foot while Ylsa worked on cleaning it. Otherwise it would have ticked away as she pulled things off of it.”
“Oh,” I could tell from her tone she was disappointed. “I guess it’s the same as it was when I was a monster. That’s kind of disappointing.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I patted her shoulder and she sighed as she leaned into the pressure. “With the Party Interface, we don’t really have to worry about it. The System pulls the loot and most of our monster corpses don’t last more than a dozen seconds after we kill them, something I’m personally grateful for since we’ve been dealing with hordes recently. Dad used to tell me stories about the few times he got tripped up on monster corpses, the stories don’t paint a pretty picture.”
Her ears flicked a few times before they practically flopped down against her head. “I wish I had more stories about my sire and dam, but I’ve already told you about all the interesting stuff they did while I lived with the pack.”
Pulling her in for a hug, I patted her back gently. “It’s OK, you’re plenty interesting without any more stories about them.” I released her and shot her a huge grin as I ran ahead. “Race you to the next campsite!” Since I didn’t want to lose, I activated [Haste] and blurred forward, pumping my stubby legs for all I was worth.
It didn’t matter, she caught up to me less than a minute later and, when I eventually made it to the campsite twenty miles away, she was sitting around a roaring fire she’d obviously finished a while before with a huge grin on her face.
“Show off…” I grumbled, but inside I was glad. I hated to see her sad and losing a footrace was nothing compared to making her happy. Joining her by the fire, I pulled a set of benches out from my ring and placed them around the fire. We sat there in companionable silence for another couple of minutes until the rest of our companions arrived.
***
The next few days were uneventful, as we eventually came to the realization that we were still within the [Silverthorn Gorilla]’s territory. The week after that was nothing special, with only a few minor monsters to fight, like [Will-O-Wisps] and [Giant Spiders], that the group collectively agreed to let Mindy level on. It wasn’t hard for her, but every level counted and her [Raging Torrent] grew a percentage point as the thirtieth of the ghostly [Will-O-Wisps] popped mid stream of highly pressurized water.
Two days later, we arrived at our first Dungeon for the trip, a level thirty forest themed affair the System referred to as [Whispering Woods]. When we walked up to the tree hollow Uncle Galloway had marked as the entrance, I was surprised to see a pair of System prompts hanging in the air before me.
[Whispering Woods Entry Requirements:
- A Party may consist of no more than six members.
- No party member may be higher than level forty.
- Any who level past this point will be expelled harmlessly upon the end of their rest.]
I nodded to myself, we were good on that front. We were only six people at the moment and Ylsa was still our highest leveled member if Uncle Galloway wasn’t there at level 32, well below the limit.
[Whispering Woods Bonus Reward Challenges:
- Friend of the Woods:
- Requirements: No use of fire magic
- Reward: One additional Rare item
- Speed is Key:
- Requirements: Depart through the Dungeon exit within eight hours of entry
- Reward: Three additional Uncommon items and one vial of Dryad Tears
- Hidden Blasphemy (Dominus):
- Requirements: Locate the shrine hidden within the Dungeon and sanctify it
- Reward: Two levels]
Jaw hanging, I turned to see if anyone else was reacting the same and found none of them were. Instead, they were staring at me like I was some sort of weirdo.
“This is amazing! Why aren’t the rest of you excited?” My eyes darted around and I quickly noticed that all of them had weapons out and ready, even Raiju who had an [Obsidian Dagger] I’d passed off to her just in case. Eyes narrowed, I continued. “None of you can see this, can you?”
Ever the logical one, Ylsa stepped to the front of the group with her hands up placatingly. “Arthur, are you OK?”
“Of course I am.” I gritted my teeth. “What happened?”
“You started to glow and couldn’t hear us for over two minutes.” She didn’t lower her hands. “Then, you turned around with wild eyes and your jaw to the floor, we were all concerned.”
“Damn Dungeon, making me look like a crazy person.” I tried flicking the window over to her and found I wasn’t able to do so. A tiny red dot in the corner of the window I hadn’t noticed before blinked until I focused on it. Reading it explained what was going on, but it didn’t make me any less frustrated.
[For Party Leader’s Eyes Only]
“Ugh, stupid Dungeon.” I glared back at the tree hollow. “Anyway, there’s a few bonus rewards if we play our cards right.” I braced for pain and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t feel any. Sighing, I continued. “Alright, it looks like I can tell you about the challenges and rewards, but can’t show you the prompt, weird.”
Thinking about it, it kind of made sense. Back when the Party Interface was common, from what I knew, Party Leaders were known for running their Parties like a dictatorship with very little transfer of information down to the ranks. I couldn’t help but wonder if the inability to share prompts like the Dungeon Bonus Sheet, as I decided I was going to call it, was a way for the System to subtly break Parties apart. It made a certain sort of sense, with the Party Leader usually in full control of the loot, who was to say they weren’t lying about what they’d gain if the Party followed their commands.
I’m not like that though. Hell, Gabby has almost as much access to the loot as I do. I just have to make sure to keep people in the loop, or things could get bad fast.
Reading the details of the Dungeon Bonus Sheet only took a minute, even with minor questions from both Mindy and Raiju, and soon we were ready to get going. Conveniently, I was the only person in our party who used fire magic and I was more than comfortable with other options, so that was an easy one for us. I trusted my companions and I would be able to complete the other challenges and earn the sweetest reward of all.
Two whole levels.
It was an unheard of prize for any kind of System challenge, Ylsa said she’d never even heard of a Quest giving that much. The most she’d ever heard of something giving was a level plus twenty percent mastery of a Skill.
Ten minutes of strategizing later, we entered the [Whispering Woods] through the tree hollow one by one, with hands joined just in case.