Chapter: 98

Jay crafted six more identical blades, seven in total. One for himself and two for each of his three minions, all of whom could dual wield now.

Holding the lamp himself, he had his minions line up holding their new weapons. Jay could only marvel at how menacing they looked. A blue wolf-skull skeleton stood as a leader between two rat-skull skeletons, each of them wielding large blue blades. The flickering glow coming from Jays lamp was the only light source, only making them look all the more menacing as they seemed to stand on the border of light and darkness.

Standing for a little too long, Jay paused as he took in their deathly appearance. “This is doom for anyone foolish enough to cross me”. He whispered to himself in the depths of the dark cave. “And those extra wide blades would cause massive haemorrhaging.” he smiled in delight. “Let’s move.”

Jay grabbed back one of the blades and handed the lamp to a skeleton. All four continued to move deeper into the cave system.

It wasn’t long before they entered a large cave opening. Jay couldn’t see much as the walls pulled away into darkness, yet he knew where to go.

The minions had stopped at the edge of a pool of water, while stepping stones went across it and disappeared into the darkness.

“Hmm, it’s probably not linked to the large river so it probably doesn’t have the same monster in it, but I will be precautious nonetheless.”

Jay commanded a white-bone minion to jump onto the first rock “If I’m gunna lose one, it won’t be the strong blue one” he reasoned.

Suddenly, the rock shifted as if awakening from a long sleep. The skeletal minion, usually dextrous, lost it’s footing as it fell into the water. Thankfully, the water was only knee-high deep.

As the rock shifted and moved while the minion splashed in the water, something strange happened – the water began to glow a light purple colour. It wasn’t long before the water in the whole cavern lit up as if a chain reaction happened.

Jay could see the whole cavern now, the purple glow from the water drowning out the lamp; it reflected off and bounced from some huge crystals on the ceiling of the cave, each of them turning the light into a more blue-ish colour. “Magical” was Jay’s only thought as he was temporarily distracted from the shifting stone.

Snapping back to reality, Jay was awakened from his stupor as the stone raised up revealing that it was the shell of some type of mollusk creature. Jay had his minion retreat to the shore as they waited for it’s attack; they would have a better time fighting on dry ground – though the creature didn’t move, apparently it was immobile as three plant-like spikes shot out from somewhere below the waterline. One spear went towards Jay, while two shot towards the white-bone skeleton that was still clambering out of the water.

Jay’s reaction time was slow since he hadn’t been fighting, raising his buckler to intercept the spear, it he was too slow as the spear narrowly missed, continuing into Jay’s shoulder as it pushed him to the ground.

[-8]

[Poisoned. -1.8HP per second for 5 seconds]

“FUUCK!” his teeth clenched, face grimacing from the pain.

[Stress Response Activated]

[+5% damage]

The two other spears went right through the skeleton, failing to hit any bones as they continued, creating bore holes in the soil.

Immediately, his minions responded to the threat against their master – two rushed into the water while the one with the lamp guarded Jay.

Ignoring the notification, Jay focused on pulling out the spear from his shoulder as the minions fought the creature. The spear was more like a needle or a skewer. It was about two meters long, having a shell-like texture, making it easy to pull out.

With gritted teeth, he managed to pull out the shell-spear, though he had lost control of his left arm. The poisoned effect timer kept refreshing to five seconds until he finally pulled it out. Jay held his shield in his other hand as he stood up behind his lamp-carrying skeleton. The pain went away quickly despite there being a finger-sized hole going through his shoulder “must be the effect of being an adventurer” he considered, glad that the pain was dulled. “Perhaps I feel more pain the lower my HP drops” he guessed, looking at his health which was now 47 “nearly down to half health” he murmured, gazing at the fight between the two skeletons and the shell-monster. He analysed it.

<[Rockleaf Gastropod Level 5]>

Type – Mollusca

HP – 30/30