Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (10 page)

“It appears to be quite
far off still so it probably doesn’t know we are here yet. We had best keep
moving,” Veronica says astutely while quickening the pace, “Astore, Kilde, you
two need to be vigilant if that mutated beast or any others approach. I am
doing my best to remember the path we are taking.”

“I didn’t think you had
the ‘Cartography’ Skill, Veronica?” Astore asks, confused.

“I don’t, but it is
useless in here anyway. My father told me a little about the Theore
Substructure dungeon and that it changes every day at midnight. Anyone staying
overnight will definitely get lost, and any maps drawn become scraps.”

“I see. I didn’t know this
dungeon was so peculiar.”

Following Veronica’s lead,
the squad comes upon a junction in the path and immediately head down the left
pathway. Every part of the passage looks exactly the same due to the steam and
the pipe walls. Becoming lost in this dungeon is likely and an extremely easy
thing to happen.

Still close to the
entrance room, the first enemy appears. With a loud scratching noise of metal
on metal and a screech that pierces the ears, a pitch black mutated rat
scuttles out of the wall between several pipes thirty feet in front of the
squad. Even though Regal has grown three inches in the last three months, the Mutant
Rat stands halfway to his knee and is nearly three feet long when counting the
tail.

“It’s a Mutant Rat! I
can’t tell what level it is but it shouldn’t be too strong. Draw your guns and
attack!”

Veronica, as the squad
captain, issues her orders while falling back to the rear with Regal, leaving
Astore and Kilde as the front line.

A simple alchemical
formulae materializes in front of Veronica’s hand as she casts ‘Chilling Wind’,
taking care not to hit Astore and Kilde in the process. The sound of gunfire
rings in the pathway as Regal and the two front liners rapidly shoot at the
rat. Regal has a bullet case of standard .38 bullets and one for .38 ‘Ice
Bullets’ attached to his waist. He is currently only using the standard bullets
and saving the more damage inducing ‘Ice Bullets’ in case he come across a
stronger monsters.`

The Mutant Rat doesn’t
just let itself be shot, dodging back and forth extremely quickly while
approaching the group. Out of ten bullets fired, only two hit the rat. A health
bar appears next to the rat after the first one, and shows that each bullet
only does about ten percent damage to it.

Astore and Kilde fire
directly at where the rat is, but don’t manage to hit it. The enemy is cunning,
using feints and dodging to the side while approaching the squad. The squad of
Soulless are helpless against its charge as they are incapable of predicting
any of the random movements of the rat and keep missing.

Just as the rat reaches
nine feet from the squad, Kilde uses his alchemy and creates an ‘Ice Spear’.
Firing it at the rat from point blank range, there is no method for the rat to
dodge it. The attack removes a large portion of damage to the rat’s health and
also sends the enemy nearly back to where it emerged from, giving the rear line
time to reload their guns.

Astore and Kilde put away
their weapons, drawing ‘Blunt Training Knives’ instead. The rat is quick to
react to being knocked back, quickly dashing in a zig zag forward and pouncing
at Kilde. Kilde’s combat knife traces an arc through the air as he attempts to
ward off the Mutant Rat, but his attack only glances the black creature before
it bites a fist sized chunk from his thigh, causing him to cry out in pain and
lose his balance.

Having a section of the
body bitten off is much more painful than an instantaneous bullet penetrating
through. Despite what appears to be a fatal injury, Kilde only lost 22 health
points.

The missing flesh and bone
is only superficial and returns moments after the attack. If his whole leg was
bitten off, or severed, it would be considered severed by the system and won’t
reappear for thirty seconds. An expert gunner can use a high caliber bullet and
this method to remove a finger or two from their enemy.

“Astore, cover Kilde.
Kilde, quickly recover and engage the Mutant Rat again. Regal, don’t stop
firing!” Veronica commands the three, adequately managing her role as captain.

Regal continues firing
haphazardly, every bullet either glancing it or completely missing the monster.
Veronica uses a new control skill that Regal had not seen before to momentarily
capture the creature in a ball of wind. The effect only continued for two
seconds, but Regal was able to take advantage of this and fire two bullets into
the rat’s body, bringing it down to a third of its health remaining.

The rat finally sees Regal
as a threat and charges at him the moment the wind entrapment dissipates. Regal
decides not to use ‘Foresight’, as expending a large amount of mana at the
start of the dungeon is unwise.

Simply aiming for the rat,
he fires off a bullet at the center of its head, hoping for a critical hit, but
the attack is dodged. Without enough time to react, Regal suffers two attacks
as the rat’s claws are used in quick succession. He loses 26 health points,
just over a quarter of his maximum health.

Kilde and Astore run over
with their combat knives while the rat is turning to attack Regal again and
successfully stab it in the back. The Mutant Rat rears up on its hind legs, and
screeches of a rage that pierces the fours’ ears and causes their minds to
spin, before turning back to the two attackers. Taking advantage of this
momentary change in target, Regal and Veronica successfully manage to shoot the
rat with the final bullet in each of their revolvers.

The rat keels over,
completely dead after the last attack. The body doesn’t disappear, and won’t do
so for the next hour. The bodies of all enemies in this world will remain for
an hour after death, allowing it to be harvested of meat and skin, and
sometimes treasures additional to the standard loot are hidden in their bodies.

Above the Mutant Rat’s
corpse, a window forms where the standard loot of the monster is displayed.

As Regal took the most
damage, he receives the ‘Medicinal Herb’ but instead stores it for a later,
more urgent use. Nobody seems to want the ‘Butter Knife’, so that also ends up
in Regal’s inventory.

After cutting off the ear,
Veronica leads the squad past the corpse and further into the bowels of Grand Theore.

Following the fight with
the first Mutant Rat, the four member squad is guided by Veronica away from the
corpse in case the gunfire attracts multiple monsters, or other squads. Shortly
after disappearing into the white mist, another squad emerges from the other
side of the path.

This squad is comprised of
six students from Class 4, the same class as Regal and the others. The squad
captain is Frederick Dennen, a person Regal had defeated in a duel previously
and whom also holds a strong dislike toward the Soulless. Frederick is the type
of person that likes to bully others, often targeting Regal and the other three
Soulless. They outsmart and escape Frederick too often though, coming across a
teacher, or disappearing from sight, with seemingly uncanny timing.

The sound of Veronica’s
squad’s footsteps can still be heard in the distance, but the echoing makes it
difficult to discern how far and in what exact direction.

“Fred, whoever it was is
already gone, are we going to chase them?” one of the other squad members, Jak,
asks the squad captain nonchalantly.

Frederick frowns as he
attempts to pierce through the mist with his eyes.

“Yes, we will. I saw those
four Soulless escape in this direction, so it must be them. My father told me
Soulless shouldn’t even be allowed to attend an academy. They keep escaping
their punishment while we’re at our academy, but let’s see if they have any
such luck here.”

“Does that include
Veronica? I know she’s a Soulless too, but she is still a girl.”

“Don’t be fooled by her
appearance. She is a Soulless just like the rest of them. Now, hurry up!”

Frederick quickly leads
his squad into the fog, following the sound of the clattering footsteps in the
distance. Despite his words, Frederick still has doubts that the Soulless are
as bad as what he has learned while growing up. His father used to be a part of
a bandit group in the wasteland, which heavily influenced the upbringing he
had.

***************************************************

“You were right, Veronica,
people did decide to chase after us,” Regal says while glancing over his
shoulders, where the sound of footsteps can be heard in the distance.

Veronica doesn’t bother
looking behind her, replying to Regal as if it is a matter of fact, “Lots of
people dislike us Soulless, even though we are still Immortalis and not very
different than them. Quite a few people try to trouble us at the academy, especially
Frederick, so of course they will try to here as well.”

The four member squad
rushes into the mist ahead of them while not trying to hide their footsteps in
the least. Two rats, the same as the one before, emerge from the walls with
screeches that alarm Regal, causing him to turn around with his weapon drawn.
Before he can engage the rats, however, Veronica grabs his arm and drags him
away.

As per Veronica’s plan,
the four Soulless leave the rats behind to hinder whoever is chasing them and
allow them to get away. The plan is successful as Regal and the others hear the
sounds of gunfire, various alchemy attacks, and the piercing screeches of the
rats. A couple of minutes later, two more rats emerge from the wall in front of
the Soulless’ squad, preventing them from proceeding like before.

“No,” Veronica says
astutely, “don’t shoot at them. The noise of gunfire will alert the party
following us even if they can’t hear our footsteps any more. We will retreat
for now and find another path.”

Not engaging the rats,
Veronica leads her squad to retreat before the rats can attack. Backtracking
the way they came, they can’t hear the squad that was following them, but the
sound of gunfire has disappeared so they most likely are finished with the
rats. When they return to the previous passage where the path splits, they
quickly proceed down the other path.

The process of escaping
ambushing rats and travelling deeper into the first floor of Theore
Substructure continues for the next half hour before Veronica and the others
are confident they have completely lost their pursuers.

“We seem to have escaped
trouble for now. Let’s fight the next rat that appears,” Veronica lets out a
sigh of relief as she speaks to the rest of the squad.

Almost as if her words
were a prediction, the scratching sound of metal on metal sounds. From between
some of the pipes on the wall, two rats emerge.

The first rat is the same
as the earlier ones, only slightly larger, signifying it is most likely level
2. The second rat is half the size as the first, with grey stripes that seem to
move like shadows when the rat moves. It makes soft clicking sounds as the
three inch long knife-like claws tap the isometric grilled floor while walking.

Kilde, seeing this new
type of rat appear, stares intently at it then says, “Be careful, my mother
warned me that sometimes different types of rats appear on the first floor and
that they are usually stronger than the standard Mutant Rats.”

“Did she tell you about
this type of rat?” Regal asks, trying to gauge how strong it is compared to a
standard Mutant Rat.

“No, she said that this is
a learning experience and I must learn about it myself. She did say they give
more experience though.”

Veronica interrupts their
conversation urgently, “It is coming this way! Regal and Astore, start firing
at the Mutant Rat. Don’t use all your mana too fast though. Klide, protect me
while we fight this smaller rat.”

Casting ‘Chilling Wind’,
Veronica slows down her enemy while moving to the rear of the party with Regal.
Despite being under the effect of ‘Chilling Wind’, the half sized rat moves
like the wind as it dashes toward Kilde and Astore. The level 2 Mutant Rat is
also quicker than a level 1, and isn’t far behind.

Kilde aims at the smaller
rat and uses a martial skill that causes all six bullets in the gun’s chamber
to be shot in quick succession, with the penalty that each will only do half
the standard damage. The small rat doesn’t bother dodging, and is hit by all
six bullets. A health gauge appears above it and shows that the attack only did
twenty percent damage to its health.

Veronica fires at the same
rat, taking smaller chunks out of its health, up until it gets too close to
Kilde and uses him as a shield from her while it slashes it’s terrifying claws
at Kilde’s legs.

The level 2 Mutant Rat is
more cautious, dodging from side to side to avoid most of the bullets from the
students who are incapable of predicting its sudden and random movements.

Seeing this as a crucial
moment, Regal loads six ‘Ice Bullets’ into his gun and uses ‘Foresight’ to
glance a single second into the future before firing his each bullet. After
knowing where the rat will dodge as it approaches, Regal’s aim holds true. Five
bullets hit the target and, due to the bullets doing a little more than double
the gun’s base damage, take away sixty percent of the rat’s health. His sixth
bullet misses, but that is a fault of his aim.

After using sixty mana on
‘Foresight’, Regal is left with only forty points which should be enough in the
event of an emergency. The level 2 Mutant Rat sees Regal as the bigger threat
after this, ignoring Astore and aiming to attack him. Astore uses the Divine
Art ‘Ice Gauntlets’ and brings an icy armoured fist down on the rat as it runs
past him, taking a further ten percent off what is left of its health.

Meanwhile, the half sized
rat attacks Kilde, its claws tearing through his pants and leg in a single
swipe, causing his red blood to ooze out. The damage is healed instantly of
course, both his pants and his leg, but the blood stains on his pants and leg
will have to be washed out later.

A single slash does less
damage than that of a level 1 Mutant Rat, but it unleashes a flurry of attacks
that very quickly adds up to around thirty percent of Kilde’s health before
Veronica hastily traps the rat in a ball of wind and fires several bullets
while Kilde retreats.

The large level 2 Mutant
Rat continues to ignore Astore despite being directly punched, and pounces at
Regal. Regal, being slow to move, suffers a large gash on his thigh that
removes a full twenty points of his health. Following Veronica and Kilde’s
lead, Regal begins to retreat with Astore following, fending off the Mutant Rat
with his icy gauntlets.

The two rats continue to
press the squad of four as they keep retreating backwards, firing off more
bullets while simultaneously taking damage. Astore, with only forty percent
health left, bumps his fists together and unleashes the Divine Art of a Martial
Skill that causes his fist to form three ‘Fist Shadows’ as he punches toward
the Mutant Rat.

To Regal’s confusion,
these shadows seem to be real, as two of them hit the unsuspecting rat and
finally kill it. Astore is exhausted and pants for breath, clearly out of
stamina. Nearly all of the skills that the students learned outside of the
academy use considerably more stamina and mana, despite them all being for
level 1 Immortalis. Using them less due to this limitation slows down the speed
in which they can comprehend the Divine Arts, but equivalency causes them to do
more damage.

The smaller rat is still
attacking Kilde, and Veronica is forced to use a second Divine Art she hasn’t
used previously in front of Regal and the others. The air around the small rat
twists and forms several ropes that tie it up, immobilizing it completely. This
effect will only last several seconds, and completely exhausts Veronica’s mana.

“Everyone, shoot it
quickly!” Veronica orders, joining in as all four squad members empty their
revolvers into the small rat before the bondage wears off. Fortunately, it is
enough to kill it.

“That was incredibly
dangerous, we can’t try to conserve mana again if we come across an enemy like
that. What was it?” Regal asks while looking at the small rat’s dead body from
afar.

The loot menu hovers above
the corpse, at the top of which is the level and name of the monster. “It is a
level 2 Shadow Rat,” Veronica says blandly emptying the inventory of the Mutant
Rat and giving one of the items to Kilde. “The loot from the level 2 Mutant Rat
is for you two to share.”

Regal and Astore walk over
and inspect the loot of the level 2 Mutant Rat.

The party of Soulless
don’t feel any particular joy about luckily chancing upon a skill book. It is
automatically given to Veronica who is the squad leader and will sell it to the
academy later before evenly splitting the resulting coins between the four.

“I will take the bronze
coins, you take the Dusk Pill, I hear it is helpful recovering from low leveled
blinding attacks,” Regal says resolutely, willingly passing the Dusk pill that
is easily worth thirty bronze coins to Astore as he is no longer in dire need
of money and considers him to be a good friend.

“Very well, but if another
one is dropped, you take it.”

“I will do as you have
said.”

Veronica comes across and
cuts off the ear of the Shadow Rat’s corpse, adding it to the ear of the Mutant
Rat before placing them both in her inventory and saying, “Regal, I will
trouble you to supply the food needed for our health and mana recovery. You
didn’t forget to bring it, right?”

She has suspected Regal of
being likely to forget things since the incident two months ago. Without
picking up on her suspicion, Regal replies confidently, “It is a little sooner
than I expected, but I have plenty of recovery food. Although I apologize if
what it is made with doesn’t taste very good.”

From his inventory, Regal
takes out two sandwiches for each person. Each sandwich has semi stale bread,
bone dry meat, and lettuce that is bland and tasteless. Each would also restore
thirty health and mana over thirty seconds. This is food made with the cheapest
ingredients and without the ‘Cooking’ skill. If it wasn’t for the fact that
each squad member valued being able to restore their health and mana more than
the taste of food, they would have never eaten such a thing.

No appreciation is
expressed to Regal after the food, and he remained oblivious to how bad the
food actually was.

Regal checks his
experience points after the last battle, and is surprised to find that he has
only gained two percent experience points toward the next level. Most of that
came from the Shadow Rat, as the first Mutant Rat didn’t even account for a
single percent.

Once their health and mana
was restored enough to safely move one, the squad leaves the area through a
random tunnel.

Veronica leads the team
well, her efficiency at being a leader slowly increasing. The other three
members also learn a lot about working as a team as well.

Four hours after entering
the dungeon and fighting or running depending on the situation, their teamwork
has greatly improved. Surprisingly, after tasting Regal’s sandwiches the first
time, Veronica, Kilde, and Astore had their greatest improvements in dodging
the enemy to not take any damage.