DMS Chapter 29
DMS Chapter 29
Flinx knew that he only felt powerful during that moment. He still suffered nightmares about the time when he was a dungeon miner slave, and billowing cloths still sometimes scared the shit out of him since they reminded him of the wizards’ mage robes. After his high, he felt low. He wondered how long until he escaped that pathetic identity of being a slave. He wondered if, once he became powerful and rescued the other Earthlings and killed all the wizards who enslaved them, would that be the time he would say that he was free?
After high, then low, and now there was anger. Flinx buried all that he was feeling and started looking for the mana stones that the spiders' corpses dropped. There were a lot of spiders, so he would probably have had to stay in the spiders’ area for a while to search for all of them. He wished there were a spell that he could cast that would summon all the mana stones to him.
Interestingly enough, he found more items. Did the spiders gather them as well? Did the monsters in this forest gather items from the adventurers who fell? He thought it would just be the zombies since they were humans before, and the gathering of the items was something humans did. He thought that the zombies were just mechanically behaving the way they behaved when they were alive, but if other monsters gathered the same things, maybe the magic in the items was what attracted the monsters to the items.
Flinx decided that he would write down the things that he was wondering about the monsters in the forest and would ask veteran adventurers about them.
The search for the mana stones actually took Flinx a couple of hours, but he did manage to gather a lot of them. Most of them were low-level mana stones, but some were as big as the ones that came from the trolls and the basilisks.
Flinx checked the time in his system browser and saw that it was already 3 in the afternoon. He reckoned that he could do one more battle before he could teleport back to town. Of course, he would try to find a landmark so he could teleport back to the last location in the forest that he had reached. He didn’t want to start over.
He commanded his familiar to move on, and luckily, Pip found a small stream underneath some rocky hills after an hour of flying. He knew that water sources in the forest could be dangerous since it’s a place where animals gather to drink. He didn’t know if monsters behaved the same way, but Flinx decided that he would just kill any monster he found there.
Flinx saw through Pip’s eyes that there was indeed a monster resting near the stream. It looked like a combination of a rooster and a snake. Based on what he knew from games, novels, and shows, the monster was probably a cockatrice.
He checked the guild books briefly to see what he could harvest from the monster. According to the Adventurer Guild book, almost all parts of the cockatrice were valuable. Since this battle was probably going to be his last for the day, Flinx decided he would store the whole monster in his 4th tab space once he defeated it.
Flinx summoned another Crown of Stars. He decided he would attack the monster’s belly to avoid damaging the other parts of the large monster chicken. When he entered the vicinity where the cockatrice was resting, he immediately sent the 14 motes of light towards the monster chicken’s belly.
He readied the other spells that he would cast in case the monster wasn’t killed by the 14 motes of light from the 7th-level spells. He didn’t want a prolonged fight because when he did a quick internet search about the monster, the search engine told him that in some myths, the cockatrice had the same powers as a basilisk, which was to turn their enemies into stone or petrify them through glance or touch.
The 7th level spells damaged the monster greatly, but surprisingly, it survived. Is it because he targeted the monster’s belly? Nevertheless, Flinx continued targeting the belly since he wanted an intact corpse. The monster tried to pick itself up and searched for the one who attacked it. The cockatrice finally saw Flinx, but Flinx immediately cast several Magic Missiles that he slotted into 2nd-level slots.
When the multitude of bolts hit the chicken’s belly, the monster screamed, and finally it fell. Flinx cast Crown of Stars when he saw that it was ready and commanded his poor familiar to check if the monster was truly dead. It was because the monster didn’t react when Pip prodded its body many times. He flew near the cockatrice’s corpse and stored it in his 4th tab space.
After that, he checked the stream to see if there were any monsters nearby. He knew that there shouldn’t be, since the cockatrice probably killed all other animals or monsters nearby.
Flinx retrieved his tablet from his 4th tab space and spent the next hour taking pictures of the area. He wanted to make sure that he would be able to teleport back here to continue his expedition. He double-checked all the pictures that he had taken, and once he was sure that they were enough as a reference, he decided to teleport back home. He first reviewed the pictures of his home area, especially the place where he placed the bench. After that, he cast the Teleport spell.
Flinx appeared beside the bench that he purchased for 100 dollars from his system shopping site. He was glad that he arrived home without any mishap. When he checked the time, it was only a little past 5 in the afternoon. There was still plenty of time before evening, so Flinx decided to go to the adventurer guild to sell the items that he had harvested from the monsters that he had killed. He was also planning to sell the cockatrice corpse.
He arrived at the guild branch and entered the building. There was no one at the front desk, so he rang the bell on the table, and soon someone entered from the back.
“Flinx! You’re back! Or didn’t you leave? I’m Michael, one of the employees here.”
“Why is there no one here? Is the guild closed already? Am I disturbing you?”
The guild staff member, who called himself Michael, laughed.
“We’re still open. It’s just that we’re not very formal here, so most guild business tends to be held in the tavern next door once evening arrives. How can I help you?”
“I did go into the forest and kill some monsters. I want to submit some body parts to complete quests and sell the rest. I had a bunch of troll blood, basilisk’s eye, red monkey’s paws, a whole corpse of cockatrice, and more.”
Michael stared at him and then invited him to the guild warehouse located at the back. Once he arrived there, Flinx immediately placed all that he wanted to submit or sell on one of the huge tables. The guild employee started listing all the items that Flinx placed on the table, and once he was done, the man told Flinx to return the next day to get the completed tally of everything.