VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne
Chapter 316: A Grimm Discovery
The Black Hills, once called the Black Forest, was home to a large and abandoned Quarry that was initially started for Granite mining, but was eventually expanded for other resources, such as iron and copper, once they started to run low.
The reason for the name change was simple. There was no forest anymore. It had all been chopped down decades ago. The only hint of its former life was a small, privately owned nature spa, although you had to pass a certain net-worth threshold to be allowed entry.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, it was the Quarry that they were interested in and not the spa.
Flying his ’winged pod’ Ren guided the party over the hills, his eyes scanning them intently, before they landed a few kilometres from the quarry itself. One by one they disembarked the Brick, and checked their gear.
They hadn’t prepared for any Dawd gear to transfer over, not yet at least, but that didn’t mean they were completely helpless. Ren had prepared some modern gear for them, which included lightweight bullet proof vests and full body padding. Although it did give them the look that they were about to go play paintball instead of fighting a horrifying monster, but it was better than going in raw.
There was however, the issue of weapons.
"I might have something for that," Ren muttered when they brought up the issue.
He moved over to the brick, dragging the duffel back from the vehicle, and started to root through it. From its contents, he pulled a pair of collapsible Bo-staffs and a collapsible police baton. He then waved his hand, creating a small portal in front of him made of pure darkness, that he quickly reached into.
He snatched something from within the dark portal, before ripping his hand out like it burned him just as it snapped closed. Taking a deep breath, Ren opened his hand to reveal the three refined Source Crystals resting in his palm.
He pressed one against each of the weapons, muttering incantations under his breath as he did so, before pulling his hand away to admire his work.
It was shoddy and half baked, but he had managed to melt portions of the fibreglass weapons so that the melted recesses acted as sockets for the crystals. Each one placed where the user would hold, or right next to it in the case of the baton, which had the crystal in place of a pommel as it had been turned from a baton into a wand.
"Here, these should work the best. Blood sucker doesn’t need a weapon, and neither does the demon. Right?"
"Right," Lucy answered, holding her stomach in slight discomfort. She had gobbled down all of the ’Essence of Sins’ and was still processing them, all whilst she was realising why gluttony was considered a deadly sin.
Valerie simply nodded, as Ren passed out the weapons. The wand went to Elise, while he handed one staff to Jason and tossed the other towards Trivian.
"Tree boy, catch!" He shouted as he threw it, only for it to smack against Trivian’s arm as he had been lost staring into space blankly.
"D-did someone say something?" Trivian muttered, glancing around in confusion, before rubbing his arm from the pain and noticing the staff laying on the ground. He plucked it up the staff with an awkward smile, before turning away from the group and frowning as he stared off into the distance again.
Ren gave him a strange look, before shrugging it off and sighing with irritation and apathy. He could easily imagine the emotions going through their heads, because he had experienced many of them himself in the past. Or should that be the future?
Either way, he knew exactly what they were going through, so he didn’t chastise it too much. If it continued into the important parts, however, he would not waste the time holding back. The weak and incapable deserved death, he learned that lesson the hard way.
With a wave of his hand, he led the group through the Black Hills, following a mixture of GPS and his own memories towards the monster that was waiting for them. This time around, they would kill this thing for good, before it could take any innocent lives.
’Help us. Save us. It brought the poison. The poison is spreading. Please... Save us. Save us. Cleanse the poison. Save us. We see you... You are the one who must save us.’
Countless whispers echoed in Trivian’s mind as he stared out at the barren landscape that had been ravaged by lumberjacks, harvested by mining equipment and drowned in acid rain. Yet despite all of that, despite the land being desolate of life, except for those standing here right now, he could not deny the forest of whispers speaking in his mind.
Over and over and over. The same words. Save us. The Poison is spreading.
With every whisper, he could feel the misery and torment of the dead forest. He flinched, as he felt countless memories of blades hacking into his flesh. He felt his skin sizzle and melt from contact with what once nourished him.
The air suffocated him when he tried to breathe in, and burned his throat with every breath.
Trivian clutched at his throat, wheezing and gasping, as the skin peeled from his fingers and-
"Figg. Figgy. You okay?" Elise said with a confused frown, before flicking his antler again.
The sharp, irritating pain of that overwhelmed every other feeling he was having in that moment, snapping him out of his stupor with another pained whine.
"Ow.. what was that for?"
"You were... Nothing. Come on, don’t want to leave you behind. I’ve heard people say this place is haunted"
"Haunted?" Trivian said with a strange laugh. "You don’t actually believe that, do you?"
"Dude, you can do magic and there’s an undead dragon. How are ghosts ridiculous to consider?"
"Yeah, I guess you’re right..." He said, glancing down at his hand. He turned it over, seeing that his flesh was still there. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling the rough bark texture that had replaced his finger prints.
"So tell me about these ghost stories then."
"Okay, well as far as I’ve heard it started with these two brothers. The Grimbles, or something like that..." Elise started to explain, as the two of them walked together and caught up with the rest of the group.