RE:Monster Ex Quest 132

>Old Guard

Lemmy guess, the dungeons throwing cheap fodder at us because its listening to the moth.

It appears Old Guard is in the lead.
Writing!

The time has finally come

FINALLY THE SPIDER RETURNS!

Hey, anyone else worried we're changing history by fighting all these weird ghostly past battles?

It is a shame lyra's not shed her entire shell in one piece yet.
She always had a team tear it apart into little pieces.
lyra should master the one-piece molt. I bet a whole family of halflings could live inside one of our moltings.

Oh shit, I finally caught one of these live! You rock, REQMX, I am hooked on your series!

You're not dead! Yes!
>Old Guard

I'm just waiting for the god of the dungeon to put down a "Stop camping my spawns!" sign.

> I bet a whole family of halflings could live inside one of our moltings

Or an entire rhumba of sneks. That's the right word. I just looked that shit up.

See, this is why we need to master the moult.

Reqms new once-a-month schedule has made me constantly paranoid that they died. Send help.

Would the shell come off around the skull or do we grow a new skull?

>Reqms new once-a-month schedule has made me constantly paranoid that they died. Send help.

Just accept that all good fanfiction dies long before it's done and enjoy it while it lasts.

>A group of snakes can be referred to as a den, bed, pit, or nest. The exception to this is a group of rattlesnakes, which is called a rhumba.
We're going to meet a rattler lamia in the desert by the name of Cuban Pete, I'm now certain of it.

I'm just hoping we can find some sort of sandworm-girl we can constantly bounce Dune references off of. Doesn't matter if nobody else gets it.

She also has a somewhat simplicistic, but still elaborately carved wooden mask.

all we're confirmed for finding down there is scorpion people.
Which I'm fine with.

>Old Guard
Best Guard!

So, I had some terrible thoughts. Should I use them productively, or hide them in the shame corner?

>terrible thoughts
>all the protagonists are like 2 years old

always be productive, man
being productive and lewd is also fine

T'Be honest, you aren't even on duty.

Really, you haven't been on duty in... a decade now?
You're tired. Retired.
Tired twice.

Normally you'd say it out loud, just to here the guards groan, but you're busy laughing again at the moment.

As per your favourite hobby, you've sat yourself at the edge of the village, keeping the gate guards company, whether they want it or not. It's the best spot in the village. You've got a literal captive audience, and a front row seat to anything fun that makes its way here.

At the moment, your current favourite distraction has once again proven herself better entertainment than the rest of the village combined.

The girl- An arachne, and a child- is currently heading an entire mob of locals, having apparently recruited a significant portion of the village in order to drag her day's hunt back to town.

You're not quite certain where she managed to find a crab that large, but she does seem the type.

Jin, the astonishingly loud little thing that she is, is all but singing about their fight.
Everyone else is dragging the surplus seafood towards the inn.

Any night you don't have to cook is a blessing all its own.

"Even'n Lass."
"Good evening, yes."
"A bit of hunting on the side?"
"No? I eat every day."
"Are you sure you've enough to share, then?"

She grumbles.
"I do not eat that much, yes."
"Ah, I'm sure you could if ya tried."

You laugh at the look that earns you, puffed cheeks and six glaring eyes.

The rest of the night is loud- Everyone turns out to eat, and bonfires light the village. There's likely more than a little liquor moving around, and someone started dancing at some point.

It's a good day, you conclude. And you're sure there'll be many more to come.
And soon, too, if the spider has anything to do with it.

____________________________________________________________________

"She killed sssomething that large?"
"Of course! 'twas only the first of the forest titans to fall 'neath her bladed feet!"
"What?"
"I don't have a horn, so I was trying some more classic speech."
"It doesssn't work."

You can practically feel the moth crossing her arms. It's a sixth sense at this point.
Wait, does that work? Do you have five senses? There's the whole earth tremor thing, and webbing, and magic- Eight sense? Ninth? It doesn't have the same ring to it.

You smash the last of the defenders to the ground, reducing your opponent to golden particles-
It'd likely be more impressive if they were real, you suppose.

The glowing points of light have formed a river, coiling its way back into the village- Jin alights on a horn, and Sheszka trots alongside in her rather large wolf-form as you follow it into the mismatched buildings-

"The next piece is relevant!"
"Relevant?"
"It has to do with what's happening now! Our heroine, unfazed by such timid enemies, ready herself for a true challenge- A descent into an uneplored dungeon, an ancient tomb of lost treasure and true foes!"

>Aria
>Sara
>Jin
>Sheszka
>Other(?)

>>Sara

That old man just keeps getting better.

>Aria

>Sara
We haven't gotten one of her yet. Bookspider pov?

>>Sara

man all these perspectives had a bad time.
I guessss aria?
Or sara?

>Aria

>We haven't gotten one of her yet.
We did actually, she was the first one.

>>Sara

>Jin
Aria probably makes more sense, but I miss Jin, she always says so little in the story.

>Sheszka

>Aria

I want to be able to compare how superior we are to fourth best spider.

Yeah, but pre-magic magic spider doesn't really count. It's like.. pre-flight Jin or something.

>>Sheszka

What does the wolf think of our adventures?

>Sara
after the best old man, the best sister

Looks like Sara wins!

Writing!

man.
I enjoy nin's dramatic retellings, but I still can't wait to see our... aunt? great aunt? whatever it is, pop when she finds out we're related.

Kind of want to hang out with the bee princess some more, she seems fun.

well, good thing she is also at the same place our great aunt is.
And our cool aunt.

yeah, she's a bit simplistic, isn't she?

>Fourth Best

>Nialla
>Lyra
>NotAria???
>Aria

Who the fuck do you have in third?

Aria easily best spooder after Mom and us.

he probably has sara in mind.
Sara's pretty keen.

Though I also really appreciate and miss elle.

Lyra
Sara
Elle
Aria
Easy.

Your limbs are clattering softly against the stone, the passage leading you deeper and deeper, blindly into the dungeon below.
You feel scared, to tell the truth.

Throwing magic at Lyra is one thing. And deer can't really fight.

But she promised, yes? She took your hand, and she swore she would keep you safe.

So even though you can't see even centimeters ahead of yourself- You can still walk. Your hand is against your sister's shell, and you can feel warmth there, her heartbeat steady. She's laughing a little bit as she walks, unconcerned with whatever it is that's ahead.

So you follow along.

She leads you all quietly, speaking of what's ahead, what's behind, how far you've come- Her magic is telling her about the dungeon. About traps and monsters and magic.

It's exciting.

You know Mom was scared when Lyra went nto the ruins.
You were too.

But here-

The flare of your magic is bright enough to blind someone, stone hissing and melting, bubbling away as your spells strike the golems.
Your- less magically inclined- companions shout warcries all their own, smashing against the things with physical force, shattering the construct's body and limbs.

You sneak past traps, into hidden rooms of treasure, past illusions and guardians.

And there was a library.
A library!

......

It is a library about a very dumb wizard. And now you are angry.
Lyra encourages some graffiti, and you are only too pleased to oblige.

You feel slightly better after defacing the mural. The mural the wizard made of himself. It isn't even enchanted. What is the point of learning this must magic and wasting it, yes? The golems are nice, but they don't do anything. They don't explode, or fly, and they can't wield weapons of pure magical power, or continue fighting by chaining their broken pieces together with the stuff stars are made from-

Sara. Librarian spider makes my heart go doki doki

Oh, there's treasure.

No, it isn't treasure. It's enchanted garbage. There is a little bit of treasure.

"This isn't evena real dungeon, is it," you say. "This is an idiot hole."

That seems to cheer Lyra up a bit. She was starting to look down with all the stupid wizard stuff.
The small magical library hidden in the treasure room cheered you up a lot.

You don't quite remember the rest of the dungeon to be honest. There was more golems, and the stupid wizard had left behind a stupid skeleton.
And Lyra told everyone well done, and you went home.

And while you would have liked to read your new books until you passed out, you did have to sleep. And then your sister was inconsiderate enough to grow a giant skull overnight, and you had to wait even longer to read.

You still gave her a hug though.

______________________________________________________________

"That is when she grew?"
"Yes! The shell that would become the mark of the queen was formed that very morning, amidst the dawn's light!"

Speaking of light, all these motes are gathering on an altar.
There's no way this will end well.

Brighter and brighter-

"Of course, our story is not solely a tale of heroism, yes? Our Queen is one who stands with her people, lending her strength to each and every one. She turned her efforts to the forge, to learn what she could-"

>Lann
>Mikhael
>A very nervous young guardsman
>Other (?)

>I'm also going to need 3d100, please

Rolled 24, 24, 10 = 58 (3d100)

>>Lann

Rolled 28, 12, 89 = 129 (3d100)

>>Mikhael

>>Lann
Best elf is best choice

>A very nervous young guardsman

Rolled 45, 100, 53 = 198 (3d100)

>A very nervous young guardsman
Okay, I'll bite.
What could he POSSIBLY know about our smithing?
wait, does that mean he was spying on us?

Rolled 50, 68, 18 = 136 (3d100)

>Lann

Rolled 60, 65, 31 = 156 (3d100)

>>Lann

Rolled 49, 85, 63 = 197 (3d100)

>Lann
Time for best fellow fang.owner

>Lann

We had to walk by him every day to go to the forge, so he probably saw a lot of us.

>No Nialla
>(Cr)Lazy and Hogwarts over Tsunsister

The fuck you smoking?

Rolled 43, 17, 61 = 121 (3d100)

>Mikhael

dat crit

Sisters are best.
Honestly Nialla kinda pales by comparison to all but Aria.

>Lann
Like there was any other choice, really.

>Lann

45 100 89

Seem to be the winners.

and yet, she still kicks all of our asses.

>A very nervous young guardsman

Rolled 88, 69, 10 = 167 (3d100)

>A very nervous young guardsman

She's 30 years ahead of us, and honestly I doubt she'd beat Lyra by this point.

Rolled 43, 31, 92 = 166 (3d100)

>Lann

Rolled 1, 58, 9 = 68 (3d100)

>Lann

As I see it she'd pull out a dirty trick or two and sneak ahead in a spar, but in a straight up fight? Mom would probably loose, yeah.

No, spider mom will still kick Lyra's ass until Lyra gets more experience, then the evolution advantage will begin to tell.

This. Lyra is a mega earth bender. I don't think the tactical value of having the stone under someone's feet liquify and then reharden can be understated.

Pretty sure Lyra would beat Nialla by now, those evolution buffs are crazy and their skill ranks are not that far apart anymore.

Look at the charsheets user, Lyra is already nearly at her skill level and 2 stages ahead of her.

Alright, so its the elf, then.
And 45, 100 and 89.

Writing!

Lyra already nearly beat mom, what was it, 2 ranks ago? 1 rank ago?
The skill difference isn't that big anymore either, and the huge tactical advantage all that magic gives Lyra not even counted.

>so its the elf
>implying there was a choice

Mikhail is pretty cool too, to be fair.

This is pre-lyra elf, though. No fangs.

>inb4 mom has already prepared some way to deal with earthbending like batman

Lyra didn't nearly beat her, she just managed to be physically stronger than her.

Which encouraged Nialla to stop /holding back/.

Does beg the question, when Lyra keeps evolving, how long till the elf comes looking for us out of frustration for new clothes? Or ends up as ellies constant companion because of it.

>Which encouraged Nialla to stop /holding back/.
Eh, considering Lyra is always holding back too by not using magic, that isn't saying much.
And as I said, the skill difference isn't big enough anymore to make up for Lyras sheer physical superiority.
In a straight spears-only duel Nialla "might" still squeeze in a victory depending on how we roll, but in a real fight, no way.

she's already pissed at us for breaking her bowstrings.
She just doesn't know for sure it's us yet.

Lyra needs to make her a new bow, one with her iron-silk as bowstrings.

>Lyra evolves again
>Lann has a copy of Elle's crossbow made or just runs around punching monsters to death between wolfspeed bursts.

Now that could be scary. Speaking of, should Lyra look into archery at all? The bowstings and her strength would give her some poundage usually found on some seige engines.

THINE HERETICAL DOUBT HAST BEEN A CLARION CALL!

SHE SHALL COME FORTH NOW, AND PROVE THINE HERESY FALSE!

ALL PRAISE MOM, QUEEN OF INTENSE TRAINING

I doubt even her own strings could reliably withstand her strength by now, the bow that Lyra could draw would be epic stuff of legends indeed.