Trophic Cascade

Jack didn't have much concern for his own risks as the group made their way down. First of all he was already dead, second he was a skeleton. The living however were a different matter.

The symbol he had seen above the door was a nuclear waste symbol. He had no idea if it meant the same thing here or not. Either way, his fear lay in the fact of if it did and his summoner died from radiation poisoning he would be doomed to rot away in the boneyard.

During their last session Fang had explained to Jack how summons were returned to their summoning stone upon a summoners death. This meant that in most cases if a summoner were killed their summon would be taken out of action. While some summons had a strong enough will to stay out longer or to even break the summoning bond and become wild monsters again, these cases were rare.

Fang had admitted he wasn't sure how much their pocket dimension differed from summon stones beyond allowing them to remain conscious. What he did know was it was a risk they couldn't take. Those sentiments echoed in Jack's head as the group walked down the winding path into the caverns.

The first creature to appear was indeed a rank E monster much to Sam's surprise. Sam was sure it would have been a simple fight for Pet alone had there not been three of them. All three monsters were giant spiders much to Jack's disgust.

'Why did it have to be spiders.' He thought as he prepared to fight.

Poison dripped off the spider's fangs hungrily, sizzling on the ground with every drop. Two of them were as big as corgi's while the third was bigger than a mastiff. It was a hard sell on which would be most dangerous so Jack decided to focus on the one that appeared to be the leader.

"Spread out!" Amber ordered as everyone prepared for battle. Both Sam and Jack knew it wasn't necessary, however hiding their true strength seemed to be the right choice.

Sam cast wards on the other summoners while Jack took center stage to get the monster's attention. Nothing freaked him out like spiders. Shivers ran up his spine while he dashed forward activating shadow dash and blending in with the shadows.

Goblin's commonly lived in caves, and wild goblins more often than not ended up as prey for giant spiders due to their small size. Cheech suspected they had arrived because of her and felt the natural fear of a prey facing its natural predator. It was instinctual on a genetic level. Knowing this she was able to guard herself from the effects.

Jack however, had no prior knowledge of this information. It was for this very reason he was unprepared for the terror that struck him on a genetic level when the largest spider screeched. Jack's hesitation as he froze nearly cost him a limb as the spider's clawed leg came rushing down. Instead of cutting through his own leg as expected the spider's talon shattered into hundreds of cold shards.

Sam and Jack both looked over at Cheech who shrugged.

"Sugar fox's can freeze small areas once a day." She said nodding to where her summon was clinging to a wall. Sam nodded in thanks before turning back to watch Pet's progress.

Jack moved quickly, as the spider took another swing, dashing under it's belly raising his clawed hand to slice through its underside. The spider screeched horribly as his razor sharp claws tore into its soft underside with unbridled viciousness. It cut deep and left a jagged wound.

Jack knew that given time infection would undoubtedly set in with a wound like that. The spider was already dead and didn't even know it. Turning to face Jack the spider let out another teeth clenching screech.

Jack was prepared for it this time and ignored the stun effect to dodge a nearly invisible string of spider web sent from one of the the other spiders. However, Jack landed in a web, that was even harder to see than the first, made by the lead spider. He found himself stuck for precious seconds as he sliced through the webs with a swiftness borne of fright.

Amber sensed the coming danger before anyone else thanks to her poofs, and was in place, with shield raised, as a fourth spider dropped from above in a vain attempt to ambush Jack. Her sword pierced it through the throat and cut clean through beheading it instantly.

It had been an F rank monster making it much easier to kill than the others. Which also explained why it had been waiting in ambush unlike its brethren.

Jack finished extricating himself from the web just in time to decapitate a second F rank spider, before it could attack Amber from behind, as she finished off the first one.

Meanwhile, Sam and Mira had focused on the two smaller E rank spiders. Mira parried strikes from the first one with her rapier as she blasted chunks out of it with her relic summon, who was currently screaming insults at the spider in what Jack could only call a Boston accent as he overheard it through the sounds of combat.

Sam alternatively, had taken a more direct approach by swiftly ripping the spider's heart out with a jagged knife before it even had a chance to react. Jack had to gulp at that sight. His expression paled even further as Sam began wiggling with excitement like an excited child that had just received a big bowl of candy.

'Oh my god... my summoner really is a pervert who gets off on death...' Jack thought shivering involuntarily.

The largest spider regained its feet after sealing its wounds using its own webbing and swiftly made its way back towards what it saw as the biggest threat. Jack was forced to focus back on his own fight as the spider approached.

At this point Jack decided to end things quick before more monsters showed up. Blue sparks flared briefly in his eyes as he dashed forward faster than before. The webs in his path flared brightly in his sight thanks to his current state and he dodged them easily. The spider screeched in thwarted anger moments before Jack's other fist bashed into its face crushing its brains instantly.

'E=mc2 b**ch' Jack thought as he landed with what he hoped was a cool looking stance.

The remainder of the fight was wrapped up quickly as a few F rank spiders attempted a last ditch ambush. Afterwards, Cheech healed up everyone's scrapes and bruises before they continued on down the caverns.

Jack took this chance to admire the caverns as they moved through various biomes. He recalled a cavern system on his own world in a place called China. It had been massive like this one and had also contained its own unique biome due to its size. Yet here he was, a goblin in a new world seeing incredible sights he never would have dreamed of being able to see in his old world.

Jack recalled having been rather poor in that life. Not that he had money here, but at least opportunities seemed to be more available here for anyone who was willing to step forward and try. Suddenly it hit him... he was happy. Actually happy. He couldn't even remember a time he had felt that in his old life.

Sam was also enjoying being happy at the same moment. Pet had been improving in leaps and bounds every time he was summoned. On top of that Sam seemed to have made some new friends who as of yet hadn't judged Sam's abnormalities.

Sure they had asked Sam to join due to what they knew of Sam's strength, but they hadn't acted like that was all there was to it. It made sense as Sam thought about it tho. Each of them stood out in some way. Neither of the three had high prospects of fitting in most groups, and had been lucky to find each other. Sam's mother had said the experiences of school life were necessary for a growing child's psyche. Perhaps this was what she had meant.

While Sam and Jack were both having their inner realizations the others had been discussing the changes in the caverns since their last visit. They were currently arguing as to if they were heading the right direction or not when they reached a giant pit. A soft glow could be seen coming from the bottom of the pit as they peered below.

"I think this is it. But last time there was water, wasn't there?" Amber queried with a slight pitch to her voice.

"Yes. It is though what happened is beyond me." Cheech answered as she checked the residual traces on the air. "The whole cavern seems to have undergone a whole biome shift. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that could cause this."

"Trophic Cascade." Mira stated. The others looked at her with confused looks eliciting a sigh from her as she explained.

"It's what happens when the ecology of a region is shifted due to a shift in the top predator. It happens fairly often in the Jungles of the Elven Empire. I imagine it would have more drastic effects if a sufficiently higher rank monster took over a region from a lower ranked monster. This change could be explained by such an event."

The others nodded as if they had understood all of that explanation tho Jack was pretty sure he was the only one who had. He was actually rather surprised to find anyone in this world knew such scientific terms as Trophic Cascade. It appeared there was more to this world than he had first thought.

"Should we go get an instructor to check it out first?" Amber asked nervously. They had already found multiple E class monsters here so if a higher tiered monster had taken over they didn't know how much they could do to it. She turned to Sam in question. Sam was the strongest one there so was the most suited to make that choice.

Sam's eyes widened at being trusted to make that choice. The others had all been in the group far longer, yet it seemed they already trusted Sam's strength after just a few battles. It was unlikely anything too high for Fang to handle would appear so Sam nodded no. The others then started discussing their plans as Jack watched Sam thoughtfully.

'Would a pervy summoner really be willing to take such risks unnecessarily?' Jack thought to himself.

After deciding on a plan the group located a path down to the bottom and began the trek down. The ambient noises faded as they got deeper giving it the feel of a graveyard. Where the cavern above had been so warm as to almost be hot, the temperature down here began falling rapidly as they reached the bottom, putting everyone on edge.

When the reached the bottom a large vault door stood slightly ajar before them with a soft glow emanating from inside. They stood there nervously for precious moments with everyone but Sam and Jack shivering.

"I guess I'll go first." Amber started to say before Sam grabbed her shoulder and stepped ahead of her. Sam held a hand out gesturing for the others to wait there while waving at Pet to follow. Despite his misgivings, Jack followed obediently as they cautiously entered through the vault door together.

Crystals could be seen everywhere as they glanced around the room. The temperature was drastically cooler then the air outside to the point that even Jack's bones felt stiff. At first glance the room even appeared empty apart from the crystals growing on the walls and ceiling.

It was then a puff of steam rose from what appeared to be a pile of rocks in the center of the room.

Jack stared curiously at the rocks with something scratching at the back of his memories while the rocks glowed softly.

Sam walked deeper into the room stepping carefully as Jack tried to untangle the elusive memory. Just then his eye sockets went wide as he reached out to pull Sam back through the vault door.

Before they could get any further, a loud huffing noise echoed throughout the room as the pile of rocks shifted with a large puff of steam. The vault door slammed shut before either of them could react, and Jack gulped in reformed fear.

****

Outside the room the others were trying their hardest to open the vault door. Yet,nothing they did seemed to shift it or even leave a scratch.

"What do we do?" Amber was scared. This was the first time Amber had asked someone new to the group since they had first formed. If they lost their new friend no one would ever join them again. Not to mention they'd have Sam's death on their conscience for the rest of their lives.

"We should get an instructor. There's nothing more we can do at this point." Mira replied with a crestfallen expression. Cheech nodded in agreement.

None of them wanted to leave their friend but there was little more they could do. They needed someone stronger and more experienced if they hoped to rescue Sam. Knowing they wouldn't be able to make it out of the cavern in time if they didn't go together due to the E rank monsters they rushed out together.

After they left, silence held in the pit for a time . Suddenly a shadowy figure appeared next to the vault door watching it in patient silence.

****

Jack had used Inspect the moment the pile shifted and was shocked by what he saw. Ever since Fang had made him use inspect on the skill candy he had begun practicing with it and could now obtain more details when using it.

[Fallout Chimera]

[Rank A]

'Of course!' Jack thought. 'Radiation freeze. There's no wind down here so an intense radiation source would cause the heat to rise freezing everything at the bottom of the pit.'

It explained the intense changes to the underground biomes as well as the disappearance of the water. It had literally been evaporated by the radiation emanating from the Fallout Chimera. Jack briefly recalled reading about it in school, when he had gotten sick of black ice one day.

The lack of wind in some climates prevented the air from mixing properly. When this happened it would would allow the radiation in the ground to rapidly rise up unimpeded at night. The resulting reaction would cause any water on the ground to freeze nearly instantly in some cases.

A second thought occurred as Jack pondered this fact. What levels of radiation would a single creature have to put off to create such an effect here.

The beast was terrifying enough even without the radiation factor. It was jet black like a panther. Its eyes glowed silver and black goat horns curved back over a massive lions mane. Its body was covered in thick scales from its shoulders to its tails ending in what appeared to be a scorpion stinger. It growled hungrily at them as Jack inspected it.

He knew they had to escape fast. As he looked back it seemed Sam had come to the same conclusion. Regrettably, there didn't seem to be any easy means of escape. They would have to defeat the Fallout Chimera before they could do a proper search.

Sam nodded at Pet to begin the fight. He activated shadow dash and Berserk immediately and dashed for the Fallout Chimera's blind spot.

Jack saw stars as he flew through the air to crash against the wall crushing the crystals underneath him. Jack was fast, which was his biggest advantage as a skeletal goblin. Losing that advantage against a much larger and stronger creature was not good.

'Come on Sam, summon Fang.' Jack thought as he continued trying to attack the Fallout Chimera. Nothing seemed to work no matter how hard he tried. The beast was too fast and always saw him. It was just like Fang had said, his shadow dash was useless against higher tier foes.

Jack stopped a safe distance away and calmed his mind while Sam took the moment to cast a few spells on Jack.

[Buff: Poison Claw]

[Poisons any living creature upon striking]

[Buff: Death Aura]

[Suppresses living creatures nearby weakening them]

Jack grinned. This just might help. He dashed forward again hoping for a different result. He was largely disappointed as a resounding crack echoed in the room and his bones shifted underneath the bandages painfully. He grimaced in pain as he attempted to stand. At least he managed to scratch it this time.

[Necrotic Wave]

[Wounds are healing]

Jack looked over with a grin as Sam cast another Necrotic Wave on him. Suddenly everything seemed to slow down as a scorpion tail burst out Sam's side. The Chimera stood behind Sam as it stared down at Jack with contempt. The poison and death aura hadn't had any effect on it. Worse yet it was intelligent enough to realize Sam was supporting Jack. He watched on in horror as Sam fell to the ground.

'Sam....'

*******

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