Aethelgard: The Survival Game (Chloe) novel Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Stockpile and Slay

Five liters of water and one grill netted her 198 logs, 148 stones, 77 iron scraps, 27 glass panes, 11 units of slime ooze, and a handful of oddball materials she’d never seen before: brass ingots, red agate, quartz sand. It was only the second day, and plenty of players had already leveraged their talents to build a comfortable lead. Some had far better luck than Chloe, with higher stats across the board in strength, endurance, and fortune alike.

Her magic was strong, but in the early game, her stockpiling pace lagged well behind the pack.

The grill she’d listed at 300 materials sold almost the second she posted it. ‘Place is crawling with pros, Chloe thought.

A glance at her growing stockpile drew a small smile out of her. The slime cabin was within reach now, just four more glass panes and six units of slime ooze short. Everything else sat ready to go.

Once she dealt with tonight’s monsters, she would comb through the trading post one last time for any overlooked deals.

Night was closing in fast. Chloe lit a small flame and wrapped her fingers around the new novice staff, her pulse hammering in her ears as she waited.

The second true darkness fell, just like the night before, pairs of red eyes blinked to life in the void.

Something about those blood–red eyes felt deeply, instinctively wrong. They crept closer through the pitch black, slow and deliberate, while the tiny flame she’d set in the corner guttered like a candle in a storm. Every second pressed down heavier than the last.

Chloe swallowed hard. The blood–red eyes were nearly on top of her before she finally lit the grill. Firelight spilled across her five cubic yards of soil, exposing everything around her.

A pack of knee–high creatures ringed the edges, their crimson eyes glowing in the dark and locked right on her.

A mutant rabbit… A mutant fowl… A mutant lamb… And lurking behind them all, a mutant hound. Four mutants had shown up at once.

Calling them mutants was generous. They still bore traces of their original species, but tough, leathery hides had replaced normal fur, and their bodies had warped into grotesque shapes.

The claws and teeth were the real nightmare. Every edge was razor–sharp, and dried blood still clung to their fangs.

The pack seemed wary of the fire burning at the center of her territory. None of them charged in, but none of them fled the way monsters had on the first night either. They lingered just inside the membrane along the border, testing the line.

A protective barrier lined the edge of the soil. It kept the territory’s owner from tumbling into the void below.

Chloe had found that out the hard way. When a slime nearly dragged her over the edge, she’d slammed into an invisible wall she never knew existed. The barrier caught players on one side and prevented any accidental falls.

Her eyes stayed locked on the mutants. She tightened her grip on the staff, fed another log into the grill, and raised the weapon.

“Aqua Sphere,” Chloe whispered. A basketball–sized orb of water launched from the tip and slammed into the mutant fowl on her left.

Her aim landed true, clipping the bird square in its flank, but the thing had flapped off the ground at the last second and dodged a clean headshot.

The spell cost five energy.

On impact, the fowl let out a piercing shriek. The blast caved in part of its belly, yet the creature was still on its feet.

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Chapter 9 Stockpile and Slay

These mutants were far tougher to bring down than she had expected.

The staff made a real difference. Her casting speed had jumped, her accuracy was sharper, and each sphere came out larger with noticeably more force behind it.

By her estimate, a single hit now packed the force of two grown men slamming a brick down with everything they had.

The slime’s water attack that morning had left nothing worse than surface welts. The aqua sphere she wielded now was a different beast. It dealt true magic damage, the water laced with an arcane charge that hit harder than brute force alone.

The water didn’t just sting. It carried a magical charge that dealt bonus damage on impact.

The mutant fowl dodged the killing blow, but its waterlogged wings gave out within seconds and sent it crumpling to the ground.

As a ranged mage with creatures too scared to close the gap, Chloe still held the advantage. The energy drain was manageable, and aqua sphere hit even harder than she’d expected.

[Congratulations! You have killed: Mutant Fowl!]

Chloe gripped the burning log in one hand and kept firing aqua spheres at the remaining creatures, one after another.

Each cast came easier than the last. She steadied herself, then launched two spheres at the rabbit and the mutant hound.

The rabbit was fast, way faster than any house rabbit had a right to be. Several spheres splashed harmlessly against the dirt.

The hound hung back instead, far more aggressive than the lamb or the rabbit. It circled the edge of the firelight, waiting for an opening.

The creature was born and bred in the wild, all instinct and raw aggression. Those blood–red eyes locked onto her, empty of everything except cruelty and madness.

Twenty years of city life hadn’t prepared Chloe for a stare like that. A chill ran down her spine.

She shook it off. ‘The hound goes first, she told herself. One good hit from those jaws would cause bleeding, and after that, things would go south fast.

Chloe was well–fed, well–hydrated, and the bruises on her body had faded after drinking the dew. No flesh wounds, nothing that wouldn’t heal with rest. All things considered, she was in decent shape.

She feinted toward the rabbit while keeping the hound locked in her peripheral vision.

The thing was smart. It crept forward in a slow, deliberate arc, inching its way behind her.

A full night of casting had burned through her energy fast, but her learning curve was just as steep.

Chloe tried splitting a single sphere into two, one weak decoy carrying barely any magic, and the other loaded with real killing power.

Once launched, the spheres answered to the caster’s will. Chloe split her focus and played distracted, pretending the rabbit had her full attention.

For the first time, she left her back exposed to the hound. Staff raised toward the rabbit, she let the decoy fly.

The hound took the bait. It blew past the burning grill between them and lunged straight at her unguarded

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