Master Of None

Walker sifted through the books and was about to head toward the building to search a little more. But when he found the thin journal that Midnight had grabbed off the desk he stopped. ”Production month fifteen. That’s the title of the journal. I wonder what the village could be producing?” Walker had no idea what this could mean. Eh thought that this was a merchant stop and not a production village. There were no overgrown fields here so it couldn’t be food.

”Production? What did they make? What does it say?” Gil was a little more interested and caught the journal from Walker who let him explore while he looked at the other books. ”There have been a lot of travelers lately that don’t seem to understand the value of what we are producing. The starlight cricket eggs will last for a month without any rot or death. They are much more sustainable than the average chicken. They can also be raised to be monster feed for tamers. People are blind!”

Everyone was looking at each other. ”What is a starlight cricket?” Remey had to ask first. She had never seen anything special like that. Just small black crickets in gardens.

”You’ve got me stumped. I didn’t know that there were more types than garden crickets.” Su was equally at a loss. ”Gil, what else does it say. Move to a further entry.” This seemed to work since Gil widened his eyes while he read silently. He stopped and looked at everyone before speaking out loud.

”The magic we used to influence the starlight crickets seems to work too well. We are growing them to the size of cows in just a few weeks. We can even harvest them like cattle. They are perfect to change the world! I knew that this idea would make us the best village out there. Soon everyone will want to eat what we produce.” His eyes were still wide with surprise; he wasn’t sure why anyone would try and eat a cricket.

”That’s…”

”Gross!” Remey finished Su’s sentence. Alice was nodding firmly to support this. The only ones that were not too grossed out by it were Midnight and Onyx. Walker just seemed to be a little put off since he still wasn’t sure how this was possible.

”Wait, the last entry is weird.” Gil seemed more confused than anything. ”The spines on the male crickets’ legs seem to grow sharper every generation. They are also getting too aggressive and eating at the grasses. We lost some to cannibalism just the other day. I swear, if we can’t get rid of this” Gil looked up. ”That’s the end of it. From there it just has a few small scratches and wrinkles but no new entries.

”

So, was this place just conveniently also a merchant stop? There were actually some weird farmers using magic to try and grow crickets in to food?” Rmeey was pretty disgusted. She thought that the idea was a huge mess and it had failed rightfully so. However, Midnight seemed a little more distracted. The entire group was trying to piece together the problems here while Midnight turned her head toward the darkness of the night. The only thing that was making any noise or light was the campfire.

Her soft growl caused everyone to stop their thinking. Midnight was glaring down a ton of small white dots in the darkness. ”I think we just learned why they are called starlight crickets…” Gil slowly moved to pull his bow from the ground nearby and notch an arrow. He felt Zephyr stir in her slumber to figure out what was happening. She knew that she would not feel Gil’s mana reacting with hers unless he was in trouble.

”Gil, stay behind Su with Alice. I will change to my fill size. Midnight and Walker will use their shadow wrapping skills. I know you don’t want to use it much, brother, but it will work well now with any skill you pair it with. Remey, you use fire and blind them. Elemental fists for every gross bug you see.” Onyx played in to Remey’s dislike for the crickets they had just read about. He also had learned how to direct everyone from Walker’s previous actions on other adventurers. He was calm and slowly watched everyone prepare without causing sudden movements.

Walker used his all around appraisal skill on the eyes of the starlight crickets. He had to see what else they were made of so that he might warn everyone.

’Starlight cricket (starved)

The starlight cricket is a mutated cricket. The human tamers and mages that worked together to forcefully change this small species of monster created a true monster. Their magic caused them to grow and desire larger food items to survive. Plants were completely forgotten and they began to eat any living animals around. They are active for an extremely short period of time right after the snow melts. Other than that they sleep in the ground beneath large patches of grass to conserve energy. They are able to use their legs to create disruptive and confusing sounds. Beware their spiked legs and sharp pincers. They have lost their ability to hop far and fly short distances due to their weight and size. Their eyes are the only thing visible against the night, therefore, granting them the name; starlight cricket.’

”Alice, sing and stop them from making noise to confuse and disrupt our actions!” Walker souled out as he used the shadow wrapping skill with Midnight. The two were hidden from sight better than the crickets. Onyx changed size in a blink and reached his full height. It was incredibly intimidating which bought time for Gil to let loose a few arrows. Then, the sound started and their ears began to ring.

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