Chapter 14
'If there are barely any monsters in the desert I was in, then how did that Titan feed itself? It was imprisoned there so it created the snake-like extensions of itself to survive. But what did they feed on?'
Max was confused and had no answer to this thought.
'I'll have to go back there. There has to be something I missed. It's stupid how long it took me to ask that.'
There had to be something he missed. In fact, there was a tunnel he didn't check and even the cavern in which he fought wasn't explored. The place where the fight took place was large in width and definitely even larger in length.
"You guys ready?" Thomas said.
"Let's go."
The trio jumped off a tall vertical cliff and flew to strike a large monster from the air.
What was visible from above was the monster's black fur and a lack of a tail. Despite the large monster slightly resembling a cat.
They all used their aura enhanced wings' active ability at the same time and Max also sent aura slashes at the unaware monstrosity.
The monster roared and tried to flee. Seriously injured.
Max and Manuel descended on its back while Thomas shot it from range.
It was too easy that it was becoming boring.
Suddenly, the monster flipped, intending to land on its back to crush the two small humans.
The duo, startled, managed to fly away just enough to avoid the crushing and descended again.
The large, four-legged monster, probably realizing there is no hope of escaping, enhanced its body with aura and lunged at them.
Max dodged the attacks and Manuel created distance using the wings. The spear knight threw his spear and hit the monster's face, distracting it.
Max used that opportunity and rushed in between its legs and into the abdomen, causing a massive wound with his aura enhanced Virtonia and bolted away from below it.
Eliyah arrived to help them out and reinforced them again with his aura. He also sent out aura projectiles he manifested.
Thomas fired aura charged arrows.
The monster rushed towards Max in a berserk fashion. The player kept dashing away to avoid being crushed. Channeling a burst of aura into his legs to send him away. The only attacks the player met were swipes of the monster's claws.
His armor only had shallow claw marks on it. It could break if he was hit enough times and he could be crushed if the boss stepped on him strongly but it wasn't enough.
Manuel remained at range and threw his spear the moment it returned to his hands.
The monster's life was inevitably ending.
It was a fast and mighty monster. It was difficult to say if Max could kill it alone, but the four people attacking it were too much for it.
If it went towards Eliyah or Manuel, Max would rush in and deal a serious wound, so it was hopelessly focused on Max.
Very soon, it lost its life.
[You have slain a field boss monster: Night Ruler]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!
[You have received Night Ruler's tooth!]
[You have received Night Ruler's talon!]
[You have inherited a Passive Ability: Quiet Steps!]
'Awesome. A stealth ability. Plus I can make a new sword from the talon or tooth.'
The old sword made from a mini-boss was lacking compared to Virtonia.
Both in sharpness and aura capacity. It was even lesser in range.
"You guys got the tooth and talon too?" Max asked.
"Yeah" The three companions said.
"I got an ability as well. Night Vision." Thomas said.
"Oh, wow." Max said. A bit sad he didn't get it though.
"I got a part of the fur." Manuel said. "Not sure what to use it for though."
"We got a lot of stuff we don't really need. Don't sell them though. Keep them until we go to the second floor." Max said.
It was currently daytime, so they were lucky. It seemed this monster was exceptionally dangerous at night.
'Another lucky moment.' Max thought with a hint of worry for the future.
"Amazing. Three level-ups." Eliyah said.
"Three? I got four." Thomas responded.
"Same." Manuel added.
"Good job guys."
They were currently in another forest after following the river stream. The cliff they had been on was used for observation. Which helped them spot the monster.
Max leveled up twice these last few days. They were halfway to their destination now.
***
"Yes. We'd like to stay for the night."
The squad arrived at a small humble town. Intending to spend the night here.
Max laid in his new bed and exhaled in relief.
He stared at the ceiling for a few moments, then he realized what he should do.
Finish the book!
Two hours later...
"Wow." The player closed the book.
New information was known to him now.
The author was the same person who built the temple and the Black Vault. He was a servant of Virtonis but became a traitor when he and the Emperor ended up in a massive disagreement. The Emperor didn't allow the author of this book to study the stars and the heavens above.
The Emperor of Virtonis always was and is the strongest being in this world. When he was humbled by a dead celestial, the people close to him like the Royal Knights felt less reverence and fear towards him. They stopped worshipping him like a god.
He tried to wear the armor of the celestial and failed. He tried to cut the celestial and failed. He tried many other things that humbled him. His small experiments on the dead body and curiosity were caused by the fact that the fall to this world didn't even scratch the dead body.
The Great Ruler was greatly angered and bitter at his own inferiority. He wanted to keep the embarassment a secret and also ordered for star studying to be criminalized. Perhaps afraid of the unknown.
The author of this book betrayed the Emperor in favor of his own dreams. He was also, obviously, the creator of the Titan that was intended as a weapon to kill the Emperor.
Max also realized the truth about the cave system he was in with Carsius.
It was the place the author of this book built the Titan in. The writer discovered the abandoned cave mine and used it.
It was also the place which sat above a massive underground water system. This Max found out from the description of the author's place of creation.
It's probably teeming with bizzare life and that was probably what the parasite fed on by reaching the waters with its cords.
The rest is unknown.
What Max thinks is that after the Titan was built, its creator left it temporarily for some reason but never came back.
The original titan, it was said in the book, was fed energy from the crystal ores.
Enabling it to live long enough to meet and fight the Hero King. Who was there for unknown reasons.
The book was written completely by the end stages of the Titan's creation. Not after.
After is unknown.
A huge part of the book were simply telescopic observations of stars, planets and constellations as well as the naming process of those things.
Of course, the author assumed that the neighbouring planets were other worlds containing other life forms.
Another crazy thing was that Max now owned a map of another world. The author mapped out the terrain of the closest planet in detail.
The book offered many reasons to think deeply about everything. But Max was tired.
"Enough. Let's sleep." Max said to himself.
The heroic player extinguished the candles and closed his eyes, succumbing to sleep.