Marigold – A LitRPG

 

Onix Grayon Point of view

 

The last few months have been difficult for all of us, many died to get us to where we are today, very few survived, and we can barely be called a village, all we have is a poorly built houses and a poorly protected camp.

And it's all those Orme's fault!

About 2 months ago, while searching for food, we came across a flock of wild Orme's. Orme's are known for their tasty and succulent meat, so we thought about hunting them and later raising them as livestock.

But for our despair, these orme's were not friendly at all. The moment we got close, they started to quickly advance towards us, their head was flat and had a super hard surface, so being headbutted by them was like asking to be hit by a battering ram.

The creatures had thick, long fur that was hard as leather, trying to tear this thing apart was futile. Even so, when we attacked in a group, we managed to kill an orm and take it home. That night we feasted, and we thought it was a divine sign, it must be our got itself looking at us, and guaranteeing us a better future.

But the next day the village was surrounded by large orme's, they seemed to be the alphas or leaders of the group, since they were bigger and more robust tham a normal orme. So these creatures began to advance on us, they destroyed our houses, broke weapons and ran over people. With a little work we managed to expel them and even kill some orme's, but that only made them more angry, and return the next day.

'Stupid creatures, I'm going to eat each one of you and spit at your dead bodies for what you're doing to my people.'

Now I was sharpening my spear, it was the only really good weapon we had, and it could be described as the "treasure" of this village.

 

'Gee.... Even our most valuable treasure isn't that great, and without a blacksmith, I'll have to discard this weapon soon. Damn... How can I promise a better future for my people, when I can't even guarantee that we will have a future.'

"status".

 

 

'At least all this killing is helping me level up, hopefully I can get to level 50 before I die.'

"Leader! W-We have a problem!"

while I was distracted by my thoughts one of the warriors came running to me, he was visibly upset and out of breath.

"What's going on?! Another attack from the Orme's?!"

"N-No my lord! T-They're bees!"

"Bees? What bees? Did someone anger a hive?"

"N-No! We were sharpening our weapons when we suddenly saw a large yellow cloud approaching, when we realized what it was we came after you immediately!"

"What?! Are you sure it's not just a migrating group?"

"No! They're coming towards us! Slowly but surely in this direction!"

'Damn it! Now bees? Why?! Monsters don't just attack out of nowhere, or they're running away from a stronger creature, or they've been provoked. Both situations are not good!'

"Show me the way!"

"Yes!"

Arriving at the southern part of the camp, I could see all the members of the village gathered together, those who could fight were preparing for the encounter, and the women were running after the cubs to hide.

"What happened Cobby?!"

"My lord! Take a look! It's a big swarm of bees! I've never seen one this big, these bees also have a strange appearance, and they seem to be getting ready for something!"

Looking in the direction Cobby indicated, I could see a large yellow cloud, but this cloud was anything but natural. It pulsed in waves as the members that made it up moved and were moving towards us. Using my enhanced vision, I could see that the bees had a humanoid appearance, like fairies or nymphs. In addition to having a golden color and coordinated movements.

Before I could do anything, the cloud stopped abruptly about 50 meters away from the camp, and a smaller group of bees began flying towards us, these bees were larger and had a more intimidating appearance. And they carried a large roll of pearly white fabric.

"What the hell is this!?"

The small group of bees came close to us, and stopped about 5 meters from me, looked at us as if they were evaluating us, and made a bizarre squeak.

"H⊠ᒧ⅃ø ᙡᗝⅴⅇᖇყøᘉ∑,! ØU尺爪ø⊥⊥卄乇尺'丂 Ꮆïℱ† 丂, ㄒø 卄乇ℓק Yøㄩ ïℕ †卂ï丂 ₥ø爪乇几† ø₣ ü⊥卂€尺†卂ï几†¥, 卩ﾚ乇ᗩ丂乇 ∂ ø ₦ø† ₣乇乇ℓ † 卄尺乇卂†乇∂乃¥ü丂, 卂凸ㄩㄥ I 卄ø℘乇 †卄卂† †卄乇丂乇 Ꮆïℱ†丂 ∂乇爪ø几ｲ尺卂†乇 øㄖㄩ尺 Ꮆøøⅾïｌ!”

"What!?" Shouted one of my men

'What the hell is this?! These bees spoke!? Are they someone's hired beasts? No. There's no way someone can have so many contracted beasts, so they're high level monsters?!'

'Analyze!'

 

 

 

'Radiant sunbee?! What species is this?! I've never heard of this kind of monster! And this thing has a lot of life for a insect! What kind of monster is this!?'

While we were stunned, the bees carrying the roll of cloth began to slowly descend towards us.

"A Attack! Stay alert!" Shouted Cobby.

"Stand still, all of you! Don't move until I tell you to!"

"But my lord! They will-"

"If they were here to attack us, they would have already done so! They have another purpose, don't enrage this swarm until it is extremely necessary! I analyzed them and they seem to be high-level monsters"

"Ugh..!"

While we all waited for the bees actions, the group finally got close enough, and hovered over one of my men, he was mortified for a few moments until the bees began to shake the roll of cloth.

"Aldy! Get the roll!"

"Y-Yes my lord!" Aldy said as he reluctantly stretched his arms.

After placing the roll of cloth in Aldy's hands, the group of bees looked at us satisfied and retreated to the bee that had spoken, and began to look at us calmly as if they were waiting for something.

"What are they waiting for?!" Cobby said.

"M-My lord! T-There is text on that parchment!" Aldy shouted after unrolling part of the roll.

"Let me see this!"

As I picked up the roll, the bees remained calmly standing there, just waiting for our reaction. Analyzing the roll of cloth, I could see that it was made with high-quality silk, and was full of strange symbols made with a mysterious ink.

'What language is that?!'

I passed the parchment to Cobby, and let him see the contents, but he couldn't tell what language it was either. I tried to gesture to the bees, to inform them that we couldn't read this parchment, and after a moment they seemed to understand.

The group of bees didn't seem to know what to do, but after thinking for a while the biggest bee gave a signal to the cloud of bees, and from there a large number of bees carrying several boxes made of a mysterious material began to fly towards us. .

Soon the group of hundreds of bees reached us and placed the boxes delicately on the ground, right in front of us and quickly flew back into the cloud of bees. The large, menacing-looking bee made a greeting gesture, and then said goodbye with the hands as well, while flying back to the large cloud.

Soon all the bees began to turn around, and disappeared over the horizon.

"What happened here?!"

"I-I can't tell!" Cobby exclaimed.

"My lord! These boxes all seem to be filled with something!" Exclaimed a warrior who was checking the crates made of a grainy brown substance.

"These boxes... They look like they're made of wax? I've never seen boxes made of wax before." Cobby said after taking a look at the boxes.

"What's inside? Isn't it a trap?" asked one of the kobolds.

The box didn't look threatening at all, it was rectangular and made from wax and twigs, but it still gave off a suspicious aura. Mainly because it was brought by bees, the contents were a mystery. But the bees were the main mystery.

Monsters shouldn't talk. Even high-level monsters only have intelligence a little better than a child, only ancient creatures or divine beasts should be able to utter complete sentences, and even communicate.

'Could it be that they are divine beasts? I've never heard of a group of ancient bees, but it could be that they are intelligent because they have lived for decades or centuries. If that's true, then are these bees the leaders of this region? Is that why no one has ever ventured here?

"Open the box!"

After a moment, some men brought iron bars and branches to try to open the lid of the box. At that moment, the women and the wounded were coming out of their hiding places and came to look at the contents of the box.

Just as the warriors were trying to open the box with some difficulty, a large group made up of all the members of the village were gathered around the box, everyone kept a distance that they considered safe, and murmured about what was happening.

After a few moments, the first box was opened, and out came large quantities of fruit, jars, and pieces of meat wrapped in silk.

"In the name of Astrawoul! Look at all the food!" Exclaimed a kobold.

Analyzing the contents of the box I could see that all the fruits seemed edible, the jars were full of honey, jelly, porridge and sweet stones. The meat wrapped in silk appeared to be the meat of hight variety of small animal, but there was a large amount of meat and dozens of still-living Wappos tied togheter with ropes.

'Holy Astrawoul! With this, we don't have to worry about food for weeks!'

Opening the other box, we found large rolls of silk, the rolls had different colors and different textures. In addition to containing spools of thread and rope, and large blocks of wax. The box also held a small box, which contained dozens of thorns that could be used as needles.

'I don't believe it! We can make clothes, and bandage the wounds with clean cloths, we can also make some fishing nets and bows! We can make candles with this wax, and even treat more serious injures with these needles!'

Fueled by expectation, we opened the last box, which was smaller, but contained the most valuable items inside.

Inside the box were large quantities of healing flowers, medicinal herbs, wax jars filled with a magical jelly capable of accelerating the healing of wounds, and a small jar made of wax that contained a golden liquid.

'This can only be a dream! There's no way these things just appear like that out of nowhere!! Food, resources, and now healing items?! And what is this strange liquid?'

 

 

'WHAT?! This thing is incredible! I had never heard of anything like this! This thing seems to have the same potency of a high-level healing potion, and it can even grant XP!'

"My lord! Look at all this! It must be a sign from Astrawoul! Sending us hope in this moment of despair! With all this we can stabilize ourself, and treat all the injured!" Shouted Cobby excitedly.

"Holy cow! Those bees must have been sent from Astrawoul himself! I knew our god wouldn't let us die in such a miserable way!" Shouted a kobold on the verge of tears.

'Could it really be that they are divine beasts? I have never heard of such a large group of divine beasts! Or are they really sent from Astrawoul? Astrawoul is the god of beasts, so do bees fall into that group?'

"...Bring the wounded! Let's treat their wounds! Also bring food to the thinnest children, and pregnant women! We can't waste any of these gifts!"

"Yes sir!"

Soon several members that were injured were brought here, their dirty and ragged bandages were replaced with clean cloths filled with medicinal herbs. And the children were feasting on meat skewers and some sweets alongside with the women.

A kobold that was in serious condition was brought in, and placed on the ground. This brave warrior had received several cuts while hunting, and his wounds had become infected. There wasn't much we could do for him before, besides praying for his soul, but now we had a lot of medicine, and healing items.

"Albi, hold on, you won't die today!"

After cleaning Albi's wounds, we poured a single drop of the golden liquid onto his wounds, and soon a stinky yellow liquid began to ooze from the open wound.

Albi winced in pain, but was grabbed by other kobols, soon the wound had spit out large amounts of pus, and dirt blood. The wound remained open and serious, but the signs of infection had almost disappeared.

'This is amazing!'

"Treat Albi!"

"Yes sir!"

At the end of the day, everyone had new, clean bandages, full bellies and happy with the prospect of a better future. Children ran around excitedly fighting for sweets, women talked about what to do with new fabrics and men discussed how to best use resources and how to store them.

"All of you! We have to pray to Astrawoul in thanks for this blessing! We only stay alive by his mercy!" Exclaimed an older kobolde lady.

"Are you sure this was Astrawoul's doing? It seems we should thank the bees, or their master." Said a kobold while eating.

"Nonsense! The bees are clearly sent from Astrawoul! We must thank him for his mercy and benevolence!" Exclaimed the lady.

'Hilda, always causing trouble because of Astrawoul, I also don't think our god had anything to do with it, the bees didn't give off a divine aura, or anything like that, they just seemed intelligent. So they must serve some great power in this forest, or be ancient beasts. Whatever the answer, it's good to know that these monsters don't see us as enemies.'

After a brief hour of prayers, everyone went back to having fun and eating, until a new topic was raised.

"Leader! Don't you think we should try to track these bees? We still have their scent trail, we could find their nest!"

"For what? To make them furious? We shouldn't abuse the good will of these bees, even if they were friendly, they are still monsters, and you don't poke a hive without being prepared for the out come." Cobby replied dryly.

"I-I just think that if the bees are willing to help, and if they are truly sent from Astrawoul, we should go after them, they should gide us to the land promised by Astrawoul!" Exclaimed the kobold.

"Yes! These gifts must be just proof of our God's power! Our god must have seen our miserable situation and sent the bees to guide us to a better life!" Exclaimed Hilda.

"This is too risky! Chasing a bunch of monsters is not wise! These gifts should be just gifts, not a divine sign to go after the bees!" Rebutted Cobby.

"But if they didn't want us to follow them, they wouldn't have left a trail for us to follow!" said a kobold fiercely.

"My leader! Tell them how stupid this idea is!" Cobby asked.

"...I have no idea, it's really suspicious to follow a group of monsters to an unknown place, especially when we already have a camp built, but these bees are anything but common, they are intelligent, and even sapient. To the point that they have a own language, their language was strange and even seemed archaic, which could mean that they are ancestral creatures, and not sent from Astrawoul. But their friendliness towards us is not common at all, and could mean that they are looking after us for some reason."

"That reason is because they are sent by our god! Monsters are not friendly, even ancient creatures wouldn't welcome us with open arms if they thought we were invading their territory! The only plausible reason is that these beasts must serve the same god as us!" Exclaimed Hilda.

"...Alright, here's what we'll do, we'll send a group of scouts in the direction of the bee trail, if the group is warmly received, we'll migrate. If the scouts are attacked we'll retreat and continue where we are."

"My lord this-"

"It's decided Cobby, the bees may or may not be friendly, but we need to do reconnaissance first, they seem to be intelligent, so I believe a peaceful rapprochement can resolve things."

"This is very dangerous! We can't understand them! If we can't communicate, what's the point of trying to get in touch!?!" Cobby exclaimed.

"We can send Hilda, she might be able to communicate with the beasts, after all she is a tamer!" Said a kobold.

"I will gladly go my lord!" Hilda said excitedly.

Hilda was a [Beast Trainer], she could care and tame small animals to use them in a fight, but she was not yet a [Beast Master], so she could not tame high-level beasts. Her belief in the divine made her believe that all lives were precious, so even having a class to create beasts that would fight for her, she refused to make animals fight and spent her youth caring for injured animals and then releasing them back into the wild. This gave her great knowledge about medicine and caring process, but caused her to become stagnant as a [Beast Trainer] her entire life.

"Then it's decided, we will send some scouts accompanied by Hilda, and warriors."

I don't know if it's a good idea to test the goodwill of our benefactors, but if they are truly sent by our god, that means we are a chosen group, and that we would be destined for greatness.