Chapter 51

The terrain began to change again. Now there were trees, sprouting out of the ground, the snow mingled with jungle flora. I searched for Kaleo, but he was nowhere, instead Larry growled before me.

Larry?

Except it wasn’t. This one was scarred, pre-cocoon. Whatever, the system could play all the tricks it wanted, I wasn’t relenting. I fired a bone arrow at him. I loved Larry, but at my level I knew I could take him in a fight. Direct hit. I glanced to the combat log. Zero damage.

Zero damage?

He lunged at me, taking advantage of my disorientation and sunk his fangs into me, hard. A hundred hit points gone. Debuffed with hobbling, which did exactly what you’d expect it to. I fired another arrow. Again nothing. He was moving in circles, lunging. Predictable patterns I’d seen before.

Wait. The system had reached inside my head. Was using my past to test me. So that meant…

I stowed my bow and selected the horn shard from my inventory. Larry lunged again, I dodged. His breathing became more laboured. His stamina was draining, as I knew it would. He attacked three more times, then instead of running, he walked.

And I struck. The bone blade sank deep within him, but instead of flesh, I hit something that sounded like metal. It was enough though, as something new materialised. The alpha wolf. The one I had saved Iris from.

I grinned. Now I understood.

Shadowstep, critical strike. The wolf evaporated, replaced by Urin, as I had seen him in the jungle. He raised his spear, as I equipped my own. I matched him strike for strike, parrying and thrusting. I knew I couldn’t beat him. I hadn’t bested him in real life, and I wouldn’t best him now. But it was enough, once our fight turned, he too evaporated, replaced by none other than Adrian.

He was smaller and wormier looking than I remembered him being, but I killed him again just as I had the first time, plunging my spear into his neck. No resistance.

And so it went. The greatest hits of all my battles in the Stone Epoch. The Warrens Beast. Balar. The smaller guardian atop the Stone Colossus. I fought them all again, growing more confident as each one was slain. Not a dragged out fight, just understanding.

I knew behind all of it was Alpha. That tutorial mech. And as the fights wore on I became more and more sure. This wasn’t really a fight.

It was trying to teach me something.

The vandal I was fighting evaporated, and now Kaleo re-appeared. This I didn’t quite understand. I had never fought Kaleo.

He looked at me impassively. I tried to find Alpha behind those human eyes, and thought I may have just seen him. ‘The comet that falls signals the dawning of a new age. The comet is a sign of what is to come.’

I said nothing. I just topped up my health with shaman’s poultices and restocked my hotbar with horn arrows. ‘But you must conquer your fears. You must advance.’

‘I have conquered my fears!’ I snapped, closing down my HUD. But then…I felt like an idiot. This wasn’t an argument. This was just the quest. So why was my heart beating so hard. Why did I feel I might combust?

[Quest completed.]

[Level ten granted.]

I felt that surge of light, and the arrow appearing on my avatar. But this time was different. It wasn’t golden, it was pure platinum. And I bathed in it, feeling my wounds disappear, feeling my strength return as though I had long rested. Everything began to dissipate, until I was back upon the snowy plain, the comet before me. I knew exactly what to do. I walked calmly to it, pressing my hands to it as my HUD exploded with every legendary item there was in the Stone Epoch.

I could only watch, my mouth ajar, practically salivating. There was a shaman’s staff that created copies of yourself for a minute to fight. There was a club that increased your strength by 50%. A circlet that caused madness in enemies if they kept looking at you. I didn’t even know what madness was.

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I could have stayed here forever. Waiting 28 days, farming the next legendary item. That would be a life well lived. I took a breath and sought out the legendary item I needed. The last piece of the puzzle.

Shard of the Midnight Spear.

It appeared in my inventory. I sat down, crossing my legs, taking the fragments and began to craft. It was like sewing light together. Tangible and intangible all at the same time. It took only moments, and once I was done, the spear left my hands, hovering before me. The light disappeared and the spear materialised.

It was unmistakably of the Stone Epoch. Wooden haft, stone spearpoint, but it shimmered. Looking at it was like looking at the night sky and seeing stars. I grasped it, and it felt impossibly light. Perfectly balanced.

[Spear of Midnight – Legendary item. This spear was crafted of midnight itself, stitched with stars. The first of the primordial weapons. May be upgraded in every epoch.]