But for a Slime

Finally, Garnedell stood and beckoned Joe to follow, and the two headed back out to the main path and the stairway leading down. Garnedell was quite cautious when they reached the main pathway, glancing both ways carefully and diligently. After observing for a good minute or two in both directions, Garnedell headed back out and the two walked on to their destination quietly, only stopping at the intersections and the corner to carefully look for any who might be there. The trip proved uneventful and Joe felt a bit of relief when they made the staircase and headed down the spiral case, odd shaped stones making up both the walls and staircase.

The strange thing, however, was the complete change in environment when they made the next floor. The Machu Picchu stonework was gone and replaced by brickwork that any Earth human would recognize the world over. Strange. Why the floor change? Does it help the dungeon somehow? The Machu Picchu stonework ended with the last step and the walls of the staircase. The walls of the surrounding floor were all brickwork.

Joe actually stopped and stared at the strange and almost impossible construction. The stairwell actually entered the next floor perpendicular to the hallway. The stairwell was the bottom of the ‘T’ and the hallway the top of the ‘T.’ The strange thing was that the corner of the stairwell to the hallway was the typical ninety degree angle but the stairwell was Machu Picchu stonework and the hallway was typical brick. The transition from the stairwell to the hallway was seamless. He couldn’t feel any gap or crack between the stairwell stonework and hallway brick. Man! It might be possible of the stonework and brickwork were cut to fit, but … No gap? No discernible crack or bump that I can feel? No mortar? Wow! Garnedell waited patiently but soon became a bit itchy, dragging Joe away.

“Go! Man come! Go!”

Joe quickly broke out of his perusal and he two headed right from the stairwell since the closest turn was to the right. They moved quickly, but Joe was cautious because he didn’t know anything about bugbears and didn’t wish to jump into a fight with one without cautious preparation. They took the first turn off the main path and Joe brought out his bow and nocked an arrow but Garnedell had him put his bow and arrow away and led Joe further into the maze.

“Garnedell know home?”

“What?”

“Garnedell know home?”

Garnedell frowned, trying to parse Joe’s poor language but then nodded, “Garnedell know go home.”

Joe nodded and Garnedell then settled up against the wall, waiting silently and looking around the corner as before. Joe stood next to Garnedell for a few moments but felt his caution was a bit over the top and soon became bored, leaving Garnedell to guard their back trail and he went further into the maze. He stayed in sight of Garnedell and only went to the next corner, and when he glanced around it, he found one of the strangest looking animals he’d ever seen.

While it had the general shape of a mammal, it looked like no mammal he’d ever seen. It had the basic shape of a bear, although it was small, only coming to just above his knees, even at head height. Measuring from the back, the bear came up to just under his knees. It reminded him a bit of a koala, if only in size. The thing had an odd hunched sloped back, its hind legs significantly shorter than its front legs, giving it a very odd sharp slope from its neck to its rear legs. The rear legs seemed quite powerful, if incredibly short and stubby. The thing looked like a miniature bear shaped slide. Despite its incredibly strange overall shape, its eyes won the trophy for strange. He’d caught a glimpse of it from the rear, but despite that, the creature seemed to have been able catch sight of him.

When the bugbear turned, Joe saw that it had, for all intents and purposes, gigantic bug eyes. Faceted insect eyes stared at him, grossly oversized for the bear’s skull, bulging outward from the sides of the head. Joe realized with the position of the eyes and how they protruded from the side, the bugbear had an almost perfect three hundred and sixty degree field of view. The only blind spot the bugbear had was through its body, but since the body was so sloped and the bear was so tiny, its blind spot was essentially directly underneath it or directly beneath its butt. Huh. No wonder it turned around right away. It saw me as soon as I stuck my head out!

Joe froze, hoping his non-movement would calm the bugbear, knowing that most insect eyes had an excellent capacity for catching movement, but otherwise were rather poor in general eyesight. The bear stared at him for a good two minutes, and Joe began to become concerned because most animals didn’t last too much longer than that, but a few short moments later, the bugbear seemed to drop its tense guard and relax back to a curious perusal of its surroundings, searching for… I’m going to guess it’s looking for food?

After the bugbear had relaxed, Joe began reading his bow and arrow, keeping the bow to the side around the corner from the hallway the bugbear was occupying. His main concern was pulling out an arrow with his right hand, especially as he leaned against the wall on his left shoulder while peering carefully around the corner. His arm was behind the wall, but his right shoulder did protrude slightly along with his head as he peeked around the corner.

With very cautious and slow movement, Joe was able to finally nock his arrow in the bow and prepared. He took a couple cautious cleansing breaths before quickly stepping out with the arrow already pressing against his cheeks. His arrow flew with decisive speed and he’d already nocked another arrow. This time, he felt the seeming sense of perfection his blessing of instinctual gave him and his focus seemed to slow and steady, his arrow perfectly on target and the absolute certainty that this strike would be ‘it.’ The arrow slipped the bow with a twang and Joe lowered his bow, knowing that his shot would inevitably strike true. The bear was already dead and didn’t even know it. Such a weird feeling! Even as he pondered the ramifications of such perfect prediction, his first arrow struck the bug bear on one of its hind legs and the thing turned quickly towards him even as it opened its mouth to roar. The bugbear drew in a great breath and tensed its core to release its cry and the second arrow struck, burying itself straight in the throat, right at the apex of the rib cage where it met the neck: an unprotected path directly to its heart. How did I plan... that's... the thing turned INTO the arrow... was I planning that? The ramifications of a perfect shot prepared, predicted even, so well sent a shiver of concern and excitement down Joe's spine.

The bugbear didn’t even get a chance to roar, collapsing to the ground like its strings were cut, dead. Joe blinked. Well, easy! So I'll take it! Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Joe turned to his purpose here. He checked his logs to verify it was dead and found an entry showing it was. Above that, he saw two entries registering gains in his bow. The first shot gave him point oh two, and the second gave him point oh four. I’m at ninety one percent now! This is going to be easy! The log entry had reported that he had fought something greater than his level and was able to strike it. The second one stated he’d fired a perfect shot at something greater than his level. Huh… that must be the difference then. A perfect shot?

There was also another interesting entry. The bug bear gave him almost double what he should have gained for experience. In fact, when Joe did run the numbers, it showed he’d received exactly double. Are bugbears double core creatures? Or are they naturally worth more? Joe didn’t know, but didn’t really care either. I’ll asked Garnedell. Maybe see if we can’t pull out a core? He decided that getting back was paramount and left the thing there. It was always best to check with the experts and locals.

Joe made it back to Garnedell and found him still staring around the corner. Joe settled in to wait but Garnedell ended up continuing his watch. Joe allowed him his paranoia for another few minutes but grew impatient and tried to drag Garnedell away from his vigilance. Garnedell, however, hushed him impatiently and continued staring around the corner. Joe sighed and waited some more, trying to get Garnedell’s attention a couple more times before giving up and going around the corner. When he got there, he was quite surprised to see the hallway empty, the bugbear corpse gone. Joe blinked, stunned. He walked back up to where he had killed the bugbear but found nothing; not even any blood.

Joe investigated for a few moments but then turned back and settled next to Garnedell, confused and unable to ask. I’ll put that to ask for later today, hopefully when I can apply my ‘char’ skill to my language skill. Joe didn’t bother Garnedell anymore, allowing Garnedell to maintain his vigilance until a good ten minutes had finally passed. When Garnedell finished and stood, Joe questioned Garnedell’s actions.

“Bad people come?”

“No. Bad people no come.”

“Good.”

Not exactly what I was asking, but I guess he was worried we would be followed. Joe stood with Garnedell and they continued deeper into the maze, seeking out bugbears. They stayed on the path they’d entered, knowing it was a simple return back to entrance if they didn’t take too many turns off the main thoroughfare. They found a few bugbears on the way, and Joe was able to kill them pretty easily. After their first kill, Joe watched as Garnedell skinned the beast and seemed to be doing a very poor job of it. Garnedell dug quickly into the chest cavity right around where the heart would be, if it was a normal Earth creature. Garnedell worked there for a few moments before giving up in disgust and moving on. Garnedell did this for the next couple bugbears as well, only checking the chest cavity while Joe spent the time carefully retrieving his four or five arrows.

“What Garnedell find?”

Garnedell looked up at Joe, not quite understanding.

“Why Garnedell look bugbear?”

“Look core.”

Joe struggled to ask why Garnedell didn’t harvest the meat, bones, or fur, but realized he didn’t have the language for it, and gave up with frustration, simply nodding in acceptance of Garnedell’s last answer. Another question to add when I get my language back. So Joe turned back to trying to understand the bugbears, and how to appropriately hunt them.