The herd of cows and sheep was moving through a narrow passage through the mountains. Their hooves were rhythmically drumming as they kept hitting large boulders sticking out of the ground. On their right side ran the river filled with crystal clear water crashing against stones and rocks, creating white foam.
The sky was toned in red and orange as the sun slowly moved behind the horizon, bringing darkness behind it.
Figures covered in black mantles stood at both ends of the herd, vigilantly looking around them. At their helm was a trio wearing shiny brass masks glittering in the red tones of the setting sun.
“It is getting dark. The night will be here soon. I think we should stop and make a camp,” Booba holding his spear, spoke, pointing it towards the setting sun.
,m His two companions nodded in approval, and soon the entire group stopped. Massive campfires quickly grew around them and flared up, illuminating their surrounding in the flickering orange lights.
Sometime later:
The darkness had already descended, covering everything in its embrace, and the silver moon had already appeared in the star-littered sky.
Masked figures were walking around, their weapons glittering in the light of fires.
The three players with brass masks sat around a fireplace, looking at a large lizard grilling in front of them.
“We will wait until morning and let the other group take after us. Anyway, shouldn’t you two be preparing for finals? You were lazy the whole year; you have lots to catch up with.” suddenly, Lili spoke.
Her two companions looked at her, their masks hiding their surprised expressions, “Nonsense, we already missed that whole enchanter hunt. We can’t miss this event too.”
Everyone was aware that this journey would possible take multiple gaming days, so there was no way for them to be online for such a long time. Luckily their faction was small and relatively coherent, making it relatively easy for them to organize into multiple groups by their time zones to keep the herd always guarded.
That was one of the essential mechanics that were part of LOMM. Players could register themself with a public transport cart, for example, and go offline, and when they logged back in, they would appear still sitting on that same cart.
Suddenly a bright golden blue lightning struck in the distance, illuminating the whole sky. Soon loud thunderclap followed, shattering the silence of the night. Then a massive column of orange magma with golden edges descended somewhere in the mountain on their left side, illuminating the sky once more.
Dozens of howls came from all directions, followed by waves of red launching towards something big in the sky.
All three of them jumped on their legs.
The dwarf waved his axe in excitement, “Finally, some action!”.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon was flying through the star-littered sky. His wings widely spread as he glided around.
A large group of black beasts quietly moved through the rugged rocky terrain. They looked like giant wolves crossbred with porcupines. Their soft fur was replaced by long, thin, sharp-looking spikes growing all over their bodies. They were huge, their height easily doubling the height of an average human. Their eyes were glowing in bright red light as they kept moving like a tsunami towards the glowing campfires in the distance.
‘These are the monsters I saw before!’ he tilted his wings, quickly decreasing his altitude.
The dragon flapped his wings, stabilizing himself in the air. Blue and gold electrical tendrils passed through his body, gathering on his horns. Then lightning crackled, and a bright lightning bolt struck across the sky, striking the crowd of red-eyed monsters.
Electricity sparkled all over the ground, dozens of monsters spasming with smoke rising from their bodies as they got cooked.
[+150XP]
[+160XP]
[+150XP]
…
Then he opened his mouth, and a thick column of magma descended down, passing through the monsters as their bodies evaporated, culling their numbers at large.
[+150XP]
[+150XP]
[+150XP]
…
‘Still, what are these? I played this game for a long, but I had never seen this kind of monster before. I need to analyze them!’
The dragon quickly glided lower and lower, making large spirals towards the monsters on the ground. His altitude quickly decreased, with all the monsters turning their glowing red eyes at him.
A few of them that had trails of red on their spikes opened their mouths filled with red teeth howling towards the sky. Then they rushed away, splitting from the main group, a portion of the wolves followed behind them, jumping over the crevices in rock.
The remaining wolves remained turned toward the incoming dragon. Their spike straightened up, and red energy started to glow from them.
Suddenly waves of red passed through their bodies before leaving them and launching towards the incoming dragon. The red waves passed through the air, merging and illuminating everything in bright red light.
Vesuvius instinctively closed his eyes, and the red energy hit him, passing through his body. Vesuvius ground his teeth as the red energy enveloped his black volcanic armour. Slowly eating it like a powerful acid. A magma erupted out of the crevices littering his amour, slowly repairing the damage as the red energy dissipated.
Finally, he grinned, showing his massive teeth as he was in the range of analysis.
Ding!
//
Analyze result:
Species: Cursed Animal (Wolf)
Level: 15
Danger level: insignificant
//
Vesuvius immediately flapped his wing, rising towards the safe height. He opened his mouth. Orange light flickered inside, and a thick stream of magma erupted out, splashing all over the monsters melting through their spiky defences and killing them instantly.
The magma splashed all over the stone surface, covering everything in bubbling lava.
[+150XP]
[+160XP]
[+150XP]
…
‘Cursed animals? Does that mean they are under the effect of some curse, or is it just a bad naming sense of the system?… Well, it fits. They are too aggressive and fight without any fear. Also, their numbers are inflated. It should be impossible for so many of them to be present in this radius. There isn’t enough food to support so many packs of giant wolves. Also, where were they during the day? I couldn’t see any of them.’
Red dots were moving in groups, all running towards the campfires in the distance, with some changing their directions towards the dragon.
‘This will be a long night…’