What awaited me on the other side was suprising. Instead of a cave, a colorful marsh spanned as far as I could see. Pink and blue mushrooms lay everywhere and little folk stomped along in the distance. I don't like this place. Kess just looks baffled.
"Well, lets try hunting one of those guys." Gin
We walk until we get close to one of the little folk. He looks like a garden gnome except he is wearing pink and blue. His face is more look a pink goblin's as well. He turns around and roars.
"What're ya doin' 'ere!" Geoffrey
It can talk.... It has a weird deep acent and it looks pissed. I'm not sure what to make of this.....!!
"Wait Kess don-....."Gin
*Shiiink
Kess just spiked him. It's went through his jaw into his head carrying him up into the air. All the other gnomes look over and start shouting.
"Oii, Did tha' fud, shank Geoffrey?" Merkel
"Tha's right Merkel, get 'im!" McGregor
A dozen or so gnomes start running at me from a distance and a bestiary page pops up.
Fairy Gnome(uncommon)- Fairy gnomes are completely different creatures from Earth Gnomes. They are rude twisted creatures that can use basic fairy and blight magic. Most other fairy creatures avoid them due to their behavior.
Despite their looks, these guys may be very troublesome. I think blight may be under either poison or disease. I'd rather not find out though so, I start running along with Kess. Their legs are very stubby so I quickly outpace them. I shoot a couple poison lances behind me, hitting 2 of the gnomes melting their faces off as they scream insults. One throws a small pink bag letting lose small creatures. I shoot a poison lance at the bag before they spread out and I get another bestiary page.
Pixies(common)- most common fairy species. Creatures with almost no intelligence that are known to be extremely ravenous. Their sharp teeth and claws make them very dangerous as they have been known to rip eyes out and chew their way into wounds.
They hurl insults rapidly, most of which I cant understand. Kess seems to be getting pissed though. She starts spiking gnomes at an incredible rate. After most of them have died a few flee at an even faster speed than they used to chase me.
"Fuc' off ya wankstain!" McGregor
With that last insult they are gone. They sunk into the marsh to get away which I'd rather not get close to. Who knows what lies in 'that' marsh.
I wanted to talk to them.....Well, I doubt that I would have been able to have a useful conversation with them so maybe Kess' decision to just kill was right. I guess we should explore the rest of this place for now. There is a sort of path made of small mushrooms leading from the entrance so maybe I should follow that.
---------
We made our way back to the entrance and have followed the path for a couple minutes. Luckily we haven't encountered any more gnomes. Kess is still pissed and is even more determined to hunt. Earlier she showed no interest in the corpses of the gnomes which suprised me. She may have been that angry.
Looking forward, I see a large village of dirt huts. Ahhhh..... A gnome village.... Kess' eyes focus on the village and she cools down. She may have realized that these guys pose a serious threat. It may be better to try to avoid it but. I can see several other villages in the distance. Don't tell me this is a kingdom? I.... have an idea. It is cruel but, it should work. I order Kess to stay back and enter stealth. After reaching one of this houses I convert a large area into a pool of poison, immediately dunking dozens of gnomes into it.
Poison Pool is a very useful skill as its magnitude increases with every level. Right now I can convert 4 meters of earth or rock into poison which is extremely useful for a very crowded village of small folk. Combining this with stealth makes this a very dangerous force. If I do this a couple more times and Kess will level.
All the gnomes are freaking out and are shouting terrible things. I quickly flee before any of the patrolling gnomes find me breaking my stealth. Reaching Kess, she seems to be in a great mood. I think she is developing a real hatred towards the gnomes. I'm not proud about what I did but, she seems to have loved it..... This is just for gnomes right?....
Putting aside the possibility of Kess developing sadistic tendencies, I start observing the way that the gnomes are dealing with what happened. They quickly block off the area around the poison pool and start a manhunt in the immediate vicinity of what happened. A couple gnomes with mushroom armor and spears start organizing it.
---------
The gnomes never really spead too far out from the village. They tried looking for any signs but I left none behind making them think it was another gnome that did it. The spear gnomes got upset and blamed it on a couple of other gnomes which led to them being hanged. It's weird how they had a stage set up beforehand for that.
Anyways, now that everything is quited down, I sneak into the village again. Searching around a little I found a place where the density of gnomes is much higher. Weird noises are coming from there..... I convert that hut and the ground around it into poison, then quickly flee. Rather not see the outcome of it. Not going to be a pleasant sight.
Kess levels up(5)
....
....
Set levels up(6)
Surprisingly enough gnomes died to level both Kess and Set up. A little more and Xelu might have leveled as well. That's enough dungeon delving for now. Hard to tell how much time has passed so we should get back to the nest. Set and Xelu should already be done.
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Walking upto the nest, Set is waiting outside with Xelu who is staring at a butterfly. She seems confused.
'It's weird seeing you come back with no feed for sister, master~.' Set
"I did most of the fighting today so, the corpses were not really salvageable. Kess is ready to evolve if you want to watch." Gin
'Sure~!' Set
It's Set's first time seeing another creature evolve so she is a little excited. We go to the main room of the nest and I bring up Kess' screen
*Ding