The Shaman approached the shrine to speak with their god. The strange disk set in the stone floor hummed slightly as they turned one dial and then pushed a button on a metallic console. It buzzed louder and the Shaman moved to get in position. He had followed the summoning ritual perfectly. Using the strange nobs and buttons on the metal box attached to the disk. A ghostly figure flickered into view. It was huge and towering, a featureless shadow partially translucent.
"Why have you called me? I was busy." It spoke in a slightly nasally voice as it looked down at the groveling Grim, even without features it appeared to gaze at it with disgust.
Slowly and carefully the shaman did their best to explain the situation. Their god demanded many words, far more than they were used to using. Several times it grunted or demanded they elaborate but otherwise just listened.
"So you allowed some of those coddled children to slaughter most of your tribe, kill the champion you had cultivated with my guidance and then just let them get away? Why didn't you hand over all my experiments as well? I wasted all this time on you. Gave you the knowledge to evolve your pitiful race and the secret to growing advanced gear." They continued to mumble and grumble lowly to themselves while the Shaman cowered. It only understood about half of what the god said.
"Fine." Their god sucked in a deep breath and let out a sigh. "I've wasted too much time to just give up on you. It is a bit ahead of schedule but we have no choice. Extend the jamming field, then wake up the PreFall weapon. Use it to lure them in and kill them where those pampered assholes can't just warp them away before they die. Then feed their bodies to your new chosen. If we are lucky some of them might even be developing cores already, not that it is likely. They don't normally let anyone near that level of growth stay around that area long." The god looked down at the shaman that looked up at it with four confused eyes.
The god let out a long groan and cleared their throat. Their voice became booming and menacing. "Expand my domain. Give light to the old monster. The ones that escaped and those like them will come. Lure them into my domain and kill them. Use their bodies to feed the spawning pools. Their stone hearts, if they have them, feed to the one that grows my blessing upon your kind."
For a moment they thought they needed to grunt and speak in single words but the Shaman finally nodded. 'At least this one is somewhat intelligent, a pity they never developed the fifth eye. The old chief was the only five eyed one we have seen and his body was necessary to use as scaffolding to grow the equipment. Oh well. Maybe what comes from feeding high evolution potential humans to them will be more interesting.' With one final look at the awe struck shaman, they closed the connection between the communicators.
**********
Jake was worried about Killgore and his gang when they logged in next. They saw no signs of them but he just didn't trust them at all. Instead of splitting up, they resumed traveling as a group. It was Saturday before they found a good target. An underground cave complex, this one not a permadeath zone, filled with Chitterlings. They were humanoid insects that walked around on four scythe shaped insect legs. The humanoid body was incredibly thin and sprouted two huge praying mantis-like limbs. Two additional tentacle limbs jutted from their back while their head looked like a triangle. Three multifaceted eyes gave them a good view in all directions. They were only three to four feet tall. They were also able to walk on walls and ceilings while their longer than they appeared tentacles would attempt to grapple anything out of the reach of their bladed limbs. Once they got ahold of them they dragged them close.
Like the Grims, their main danger was sheer numbers with the little ones being only D rank monsters. There were larger ones that were simply bigger as well as some that looked less humanoid and most monstrous. These were the C rank monsters and their numbers were only about a dozen. The final boss of the hive was a semi truck sized queen. Her gigantic abdomen kept her from moving from the lair. Only when the fight started looking particularly bad for her did she rip herself free of that bloated abdomen. Scuttling along the huge underground chamber on twenty legs, each a man-sized bladed limb. Clacking mandibles, flailing tentacles, and a corrosive spit rounded out their abilities.
Compared to the Grims, this raid was a joke. Gadget's two gun drones were fitted with slow firing autocannons that punched through the hard carapace of the monsters. Aero's lightning had no problems piercing their natural defenses. While Jake and Cass learned that creating the Bladenados in a tunnel turned them into fast moving blenders that filled the tunnels and drilled down them like a screw following a predrilled path.
In the tunnels, Ella couldn't use her rain of arrows ability but her charged up arrow attack could pierce through multiple of the monsters at once. The same with Cass. The two would stop at a long straight tunnel and mow down the charging bug monsters while Gadget and Aero knocked any ceiling runners down.
Jake felt less useless now that he had an active ability. Sure he still had to punch or smash any enemy but being able to blink to one was a great help. Like with the Grims he focused on the larger ones or singled out lesser ones that separated from the other monsters. While the others were better at dealing with multiples he would pick off any by themselves to save the others the trouble.
Against the queen's extra durable armor Cass and Jake did the bulk of the damage while the rest dealt with crowd control. Hundreds of eggs had hatched during the fight sending juvenile Chitterlings swarming them. They weren't much of a threat and apparently not worth any loot. But by numbers alone, they proved a distraction.
With no need to worry about escaped monsters the group looted everything before returning back to the hub city. The only oddity was that as they combed the hive for loot they noticed it wasn't all natural caves or even dug out tunnels. Solid walls of ancient crumbling concrete could be found. After searching the whole hive they came to the conclusion. It appeared as if a huge building had been buried and partially filled in. There were multiple levels based on what they could find. Gadget used her drones to project a map at the end and it almost looked like a multistory shopping mall had filled in overtime. Then been partially dug up and tunneled out. They went back in to see if there was some hidden secret but could find nothing.
After dividing the loot Gadget announced she had found a vehicle dealer who was willing to make them a custom vehicle for a price they might be able to afford.
Everyone was suspicious. With Aero believing she was getting scammed. She assured the group that the vehicle they were getting wasn't a scam. It was a custom design that would initially have only the most basic of basic features. It would underperform even the cheapest of the mass produced models at the start. But had almost unlimited upgrade potential after that. With the ability to upgrade it as they got more money and resources.
It still sounded like a too good to be true deal. Gadget eventually confessed with the first blush any of them had seen that she thought the guy might be doing it to get in good with her. Apparently, he had recognized who she was named after. Jake and the rest were confused, they didn't realize she was named after anyone. She wouldn't tell them who but it sounded like a cartoon maybe? That had started up a conversation and apparently more than a little flirting. Aero grinning hugely elbowed her hard before telling her, "Way to take one for the team!"
Gadget kicked him in the shin making the rest laugh, she was beet red. Jake and Cass shared a look. Gadget never missed a chance to tease them. They were looking for some payback.
Even with Gadget's discount, it would take combining everything they had saved up and then some. There was some more debating before the group agreed. They would pool their money from then on and commission it as soon as possible.
Over the next few weeks, they did some sparse hunting but weren't having much luck finding any other large nests. They even checked on the Grim village but saw no signs of any Grims on the surface. No one was willing to go underground to check.
During that time school started to wind down, and summer break was coming up. Jake and Cass had their first real date. Jake despite his introvert tendencies liked hiking in the woods around town. Their small town was surrounded by lush temperate woodlands. He and Cass went on a hike before stopping for a picnic, it was the first time he had gone hiking with anyone else. It had always been his special alone time, he didn't come out and say how much it meant to him to share it with Cass. But, it seemed she got the message. Jake had daydreamed of what might happen alone out in the woods with his girlfriend. Sadly, his fantasies didn't come true though Cass had caught up to Ella with how far along Jake had gotten. Sure, she had immediately moved his hand but hadn't seemed to get mad. Jake had lacked the courage to push his luck a second time though.
With school finally letting out both Jake and Cass logged in early on the first day of their vacation. Unlike Tom and Micky who had passed but needed summer school the two top scores in their grade had no such worries. They planned to spend the entire break leveling, they had been steadily absorbing mutagen. Jake's attributes were all still D rank, making most of the group believe his game must be broken. But the idea was that one of them would hit B rank soon enough and piggyback the rest up a level.
They had paid the commission price for the vehicle but it would still be a while before it was ready. Apparently crafting a full on custom vehicle was a ton of work. So, the goal now was to use Aero's spell to travel to other Hubs. They were both going to expand the area they hunted and start making their way towards his cousin who hadn't made any progress alone on getting to them.
They were just getting ready to depart when every one of them froze. A flashing message almost identical to the Perma Death warning filled their vision. Only this one read:
[Regional Quest issued. All players are needed to defend the Hub from an encroaching threat. This is a mandatory quest. Until it is completed no players may log out. See Regional Game Master Clive for more information.]
"I thought there weren't any quests in this game?" Jake was the first one to speak, using the group chat as the neutral bar had erupted into chaos.
"Maybe it is a special event for summer break?" Ella replied. "Games do that kind of thing sometimes."
"I'm more interested in finding out Clive is a Game Master. I should have known." Gadget grunted.
The bar was already swarmed with players asking a shocked looking Clive for details.