Outside Granurg’s western gate, a grassy plain lay. It continued for a good kilometre before one met with the sea of trees that marked the beginning of the Great Ocelot Forest. Cutting through both of these was a single dirt road. The ten-metre wide road which ran for dozens of kilometres on end was known as an Adventurer’s Road. It was meant to act as a landmark that Adventurers could use to guide them to their missions and back.
Ralf was now treading on this path. Moving over it, he was beset with a surge of excitement and anticipation as the realization that he was going on a real adventure settled in.
While he had been an Adventurer for a long time, the weight of the identity had yet to register…until now that is.
Coasting forward, his eyes moved over his surroundings. Dozens of people were moving to and fro, all heavily armed and strangely dressed. Most were in groups, with only a few loners being noted. Psi constructs were aplenty; bikes, cars, planes, and buses filled Ralf’s periphery.
[[Here’s the map. Head to the ‘x’ first.]]
Ralf snapped out of his daze as he received the mental projection. He jolted into action. There was no time for dallying. [[Off we go then.]]
A superficial rotation later, the bike blasted off. He didn’t head down the path but onto the grass. The bike accelerated quickly, reaching a hundred kilometres an hour in mere seconds. Satisfied with its speed, Ralf let up on the ‘gas’ pedal. The Psi that was previously used to accelerate the bike now rushed forward and constructed a giant ramp. The bike flew off said ramp in spectacular fashion sending Ralf skyward at high velocity.
Holding the pose for a moment for the Adventurers whose eyes had been drawn to him, Ralf dematerialized the bike and performed an Air Flicker to further accelerate himself diagonally upward.
Three quick Air Flickers later, he ceased and allowed his body to become encased in the Psi Plane’s casting. Materializing in the blink of an eye, the three-blade propeller began its speedy rotation and after a small hiccup, the Psi Plane was stable and fast in flight.
Swoosh!
Ralf’s figure streaked across the skies.
[[Wasn’t perfectly smooth, but the Psi Plane’s a success.]]
[[Yeah,]] Ralf answered absentmindedly as he took in the forestry below.
‘The Great Ocelot Forest.’ Following this simple observation, his mental library was triggered and information about the region came spilling out.
To understand the Great Ocelot Forest, one would have to understand the concept of Monster Zones. Monsters Zones were exactly as their name suggested, they were regions monsters were allowed to dwell in.
These zones were for the sole purpose of maintaining the Adventurer way of life. Adventurers would enter these places, do life and death battles with monsters, retrieve items, and get rewarded with money, in an endless cycle. Monster Zones were very common, and a fundamental part of the world’s economy and overall stability.
The Great Ocelot Forest was a Monster Zone and a particularly large one at that. It was the third-largest Monster Zone in the world, only behind the Eastern and Western Barrier Forests, with the Great Ocelot Forest’s furthest points being sixteen hundred kilometres apart. On the world map, unlike its name would suggest, it appeared as a sprawled starfish. The Great Ocelot Forest bordered several nations, with the small nation of Zudrad taking up its eastern side with two tentacles making a ‘c’ around it.
A Monster Zone was something that could be both beneficial and detrimental. It required constant monitoring and threat assessment. This was done by both the Adventurer Association’s Surveyors and the local power’s. They would enter daily and observe the situation, and act when needed, keeping monster numbers at an acceptable number, preventing monster waves, and making sure strong monsters didn’t appear in beginner zones. This wasn’t always perfectly carried out…with Robert Fawkes’ death being a perfect example of this failure.
[[Ralf, dozing off again…you said you wanted to tell me about something, what was it?]] Rei asked.
[[Oh yes. listen to this. So I was walking down the corridor with Jeff and he was asking me questions…]]
Moving through the air, doing barrel rolls and swirls, Ralf recounted his conversation with Jeff.
[[Good thinking,]] Rei complimented. [[The story is absurd but there are enough solid facts to make it believable. With this, we have a powerful backer and the Dimitri vessel narrative can be pushed away. Also, when we introduce revolutionary technologies and concepts down the line, we can just ascribe it to our mysterious faction, which will, in turn, strengthen the idea of it.]]
[[That’s exactly what I thinking,]] Ralf said with a delayed nod. [[What do you think about the name?]]
[[It’s good, has a nice ring to it. Oh, some fighting.]]
At his words, Ralf focused his vision and observed the human vs monster battles below.
Per Adventurer Association regulations, Monster Zone monsters were kept at least five kilometres away from any human settlement. So, while the initial sea of trees marked the start of the Great Starfish Forest, one would only find monsters seven kilometres in.
Ralf didn’t jump into the fray. They had two purposes, both of which couldn’t be accomplished here. The Psi Plane continued streaking through the skies, diving deeper into the Great Ocelot Forest. Twenty kilometres later, Ralf arrived at the ‘x’ on the map.
Swoosh!
Dematerializing the Psi Plane, inertia caused Ralf to fall fast toward the planet. While the sight of the quickly approaching earth would cause panic in others, Ralf’s heart was as cool as ever, even jubilant. Enjoying the sensation of rushing winds for a few seconds, he finally moved to slow himself down. Psi gathered at his back and quickly took the form he desired.
Psi Parachute!
Momentum slashed at, Ralf glided down. Once at a safe height, he dismissed the parachute, dropped down and landed on a puddle of force absorption Psi.
‘And we’re here,’ Ralf moved to the edge of the hill and scanned the area with his enhanced gaze.
No humans could be spotted anywhere in sight. However, the same couldn’t be said of monsters; Ralf spotted dozens, all of the goblin variety.
As he spotted them, they spotted him as well. This resulted in the forest erupting in loud shrieks as goblins communicated their findings to each other. Once the shrieks settled, Ralf watched as the forest lit up in a green blaze; dozens of auras flared up all around him. A shriek later, the goblins began their frenzied charge.
Ralf remained nonchalant at the sight. [[Hey, you want to fight them?]] he offered.
[[Nope, go ahead.]] Rei answered.
While he had developed quite an itch for battle, fighting simple-minded opponents like goblins wouldn’t be able to scratch it.
[[Very well.]]
Following the thought, Ralf shot forward. Sliding down the hill, he landed in a large grass patch in an otherwise sea of trees.
Swoosh!
From said trees, goblins came rushing out. Faces twisted up with an unbridled desire to consume, they leapt towards Ralf, eager to tear into him with their razor-sharp teeth and claws.
The first to arrive was a trio. Flying through the air, each goblin performed a slashing motion in hopes of tearing off a chunk of flesh from their target’s body. But this hope would go unfulfilled as Ralf’s slight Flicker allowed him to cleanly slip past them.
With the trio’s attempt failing, another set of goblins gave it a shot, but again, Ralf’s figure proved untouchable. Irritated shrieks were let off at his noncompliance before more attacks came pouring in.
The number of goblins swelled to dozens; Ralf was beset by more and more attacks, coming from all directions. Still, he remained unscathed. His elusive figure zigzagged across the grass, avoiding the goblins’ collective attacks with ease.
To him, it was a walk in the park. The goblins Ki use was both incredibly sloppy and incredibly straightforward. There was no deception in their energy manipulation, making predicting their movements all too easy.
“Hey…what’s up guys…what’s…”
“...with…those…faces…don’t…tell…”
“...me…you’re angry….want…to talk…about it…”
Amidst dodging, Ralf voiced out these words. His words fell on deaf triangular-shaped ears though. The goblins didn’t pause an iota and continued their unrelenting attacks.
Rei watched this play out from his couch. The sight of spittle flying from the mouths of frothing goblins played across the screen. [[Doesn’t seem like they want to talk about it.]]
Ralf leaned back, caught the wrist of a lunging goblin, and with a spin tossed it away, before responding, [[Seems like it. Well, monsters are monsters after all. The exception to the rule remains a concept…a pity.]]
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Finishing his words, Ralf ceased his pacifism. Blades conjured, he began a sword dance akin to a living blender.
*Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash*…
Watching goblins being sliced to ribbons at his other self’s attacks, Rei’s mind delved into the concept of monsters.
There was much to unpack in regards to monsters. They had been studied thoroughly for thousands of years at this point, and yet, there are still questions scholars were in the dark about.
What was a monster?
The term ‘monster’ didn’t refer to one particular species but was an umbrella term used to describe a collection of species. Goblins, orcs, ogres, kobolds; all were monsters. They inhabited all three biome types, taking on various shapes and sizes, many of which greatly resembled common animals.
What was the difference between common animals and monsters?
Monsters had access to Ki, a green coloured type of lesser Zenki, while animals couldn’t use it at all. Of course, this difference was only evident after the Zenki Ripple’s arrival.
Humans before this time had two ways to make the classification. The first was the presence of a crystal-like object that was embedded in each and every monster’s forehead without exception. The second thing was the maddening desire to consume that overcame them when they sensed humans around.
An encounter with a wild animal could end badly, but there was still some possibility that it wouldn’t, but for monsters, there was a zero percent chance of letting a human off scot-free. As soon as they sensed one, they would attack until they ran out of energy, they were knocked out, or they or their target was dead, no exceptions.
There were many attempts at communication made by humanity, but just like in Ralf’s case, it all ended with failure. Scholars attempted to raise monster offspring, hoping to counter their nature with nurture, however, even this failed; their desire to consume was too overpowering.
So, what about humans were so delicious to warrant this level of frenzy, one might ask.
As far nutrition went, humanity was low tier, their fellow monsters were definitely better, and it’s not like they couldn’t survive without humans in their diet. In fact, they could go their whole life without eating human flesh and develop perfectly.
The answer was…their soul.
Monsters had the ability to sense souls. This wasn’t up in the air or debatable, it was a fact.
One couldn’t sneak up on a monster. As soon as one entered their soul sense range, one’s existence would be known, it didn’t matter how one disguised themselves. In fact, even completely covered in vanta, one still wouldn’t be able to escape their soul detection.
Importantly, this wasn’t an ability they had gotten after acquiring Ki, it was one they had always possessed.
Pre- Zenki Ripple humanity wasn’t ignorant of this ability. It was very clearly understood by observing the difference in reaction when monsters encountered a human versus when they encountered a common animal. It was stark, to say the least.
With common animals, there were no waterfalls spilling from their mouths or frenzied attacks, instead, they treated them like a fellow monster, sometimes killing it, sometimes fleeing from it, and sometimes paying it no mind.
The prevailing idea was that a common animals’ soul energy wasn’t sufficient to trigger the monster’s berserk state. This idea was confirmed with the arrival of the Raven, William Lancaster. Using his Soul Sight, he confirmed that there was indeed a vast energy difference between animals and humans. William’s existence was helpful in understanding more about monsters, especially after he became a vessel of Dimitri.
Using him and his other vessels, Dimitri ran many different experiments on monsters.
In one experiment, he fed hundreds of humans to a single monster and jotted down his findings.
Did the monster benefit in some way? Did their craving lessen as they consumed more humans?
These were the questions he started with. The answers to them were no and no. No matter how much a monster consumed, their craving remained ravenous. This made sense when considering that they weren’t actually able to consume anything.
Through William’s Soul Sight, he noted that the human soul wasn’t absorbed or swallowed by the monster’s soul, it would just flicker out of existence like regular Psi. So besides satiating its hunger, eating a human had no other benefit. Also, when the soul fizzled out, monsters lost their frenzy and treated the corpse as they would an animal or fellow monster.
Dimitri repeated this experiment many times with many different subjects. In the end, he concluded that monsters’ desire for strong souls as found in humans and aresians was an endless and pointless one. They were holders of bottomless stomachs who could never be satisfied, no matter how much they consumed.
Now, with this desire understood, the next question was whether it could be eliminated.
Yes, though only temporary. While non-psionic methods hadn’t done the trick, psionic methods could.
High Telepaths and those telepathically equivalent were able to implant telepathic arrays into monsters’ Mental Domains that could effectively suppress their desire to consume.
This lead to the birth of monster tamers. High Telepaths that lacked personal combat power would have strong monsters accompany them around, acting as their swords, shields, and their transport. Additionally, they could also act as detection systems. Their ability to sense souls meant that they could pick up hidden threats.
The stronger the psionic, the larger the reaction a monster would have when sensing their souls. Tamers made use of this reaction to determine the state of their surroundings and depending on the level of experience and training, this picture could be very accurate.
This arrangement, while swell, was a rarity. Most people capable of this feat didn’t do it. The long-held monster stigma played its part, but the main reason came down to the constant maintenance one had to do.
A monster’s Mental Domain was a very turbulent place. If a human’s Mental Domain could be thought of as a gentle pond, then a monster’s was a turbulent sea. Telepathic arrays didn’t last long in these stormy conditions, meaning that High Telepaths had to regularly reconstruct them. When it came apart, the shackles binding the monster would break as well, and it would immediately revert to its base instincts.
This had happened enough times that people were scared off from becoming tamers. And even if the individual psionics weren’t, many nations were. Said nations went out of their way to erect high walls for one to climb in order to become a tamer.
With all these factors as they were, it resulted in humanity’s current arrangement with monsters. They were just cogs in the wheels of human society, objects meant to be killed and harvested endlessly.
Rei took a sip as he considered this bitter reality.
‘What a pitiful existence monsters are forced to live. Though, what’s the solution? It’s not like you could just leave them be, they multiply so rapidly, grow stronger with time, and eventually roam into human lands. Their numbers have to be kept low. Kill them all? I guess it’d be less cruel, but the human world would suffer greatly without them. The only hope is that one day a psionic is born that’s able to edit out the problematic code ingrained in their souls. Until then, ‘ Rei’s narrowed eyes refocused on the screen, ‘we’ll have to live with this reality.’
*Slash* *Slash*...
Ralf was still at it, reaping goblin lives.
[[We must be near a goblin settlement or something, they’re endless. And those expressions…even a heroin addict going through withdrawals wouldn’t look this bad.]]
Goblins howled and shrieked as if on fire, spittle and drool gushed from their widened maws, and their facial skin was stretched and twisted to the point of tearing. It was a visceral and horrifying sight, that left even Rei a bit taken aback.
[[I imagine they’re not usually this frenzied. The size of our soul must be the reason. To them, you probably look like the ultimate delicacy.]]
Ralf decapitated another line of goblins and agreed, [[Definitely, they weren’t as agitated last time I saw them. But popular with monsters…I don’t know how I feel about that.]]
‘He’s hopeless,’ Rei thought with a shake of his head.
[[If they’re this excited, I wonder how they’ll react in his presence. Let’s find out,]] Rei mused.
Ralf’s eyes lit up at the words. [[Let’s.]]
[[Sure.]]
Following these words, both focused inward.
Then...
Fusion!