Paladin Of The Forsaken Lands (Monster Crafting "Nature" Paladin Lit-Rpg) 123- The Hunt Begins

Vraxious—The Forsaken Lands

Vrax was hanging out in his workshop putting the finishing touches on a rather unconventional creation. Torvald sat off to the side eating a massive haunch of at and enjoying how the Everthirst chairs in the room conford to his every contour.

“Sooo…what the hell does it actually do, Vrax? I an, it's…hmm… How do I put this…it’s a weird shrub, sure, but compared to what you normally make, that’s almost more concerning. There are no eyes…no acid. I can’t even see a single fang; it’s just a really, really square shrub…” Torvald took another bite of his dire boar leg and gave an appreciative grunt before taking a swig of so of Hans’s “fruit wine.”

Stereos walked in from outside, also having gotten a small portion of the feast that Torvald had just roasted over a spit in the dead center of town. He had opted to use a plate and even had a fork and knife from sowhere. He sat at a table far enough from Torvald to avoid any splattered bits of at.

Stereos settled into a chair and then addressed Vrax. “What was the purpose of the summons here? What did you want to inform us of?”

“Wait, shit, one second, guys; let finish this really quick!” Vrax answered while dodging a strange flash of mana from the large bush in front of him. He leaned in to inspect it again, careful this ti not to poke it too hard.

The bush was an absolute unit of layered leaves as thick as a man's hand and perfectly squared off on each edge to make it a rectangle roughly the size of two chests put end to end. It quivered violently when Vrax lightly touched it, his mana flashing as he channeled more finishing touches into it with Adapt Life.

The outside leaves compressed in even farther at this point, making it look nearly like a single block of solid plant matter. With another push of mana, even more thick growths sprouted from the base, wrapped upward, and condensed again.

“Seriously, what does the super bush do?” Torvald nudged again.

“I also find myself strangely entranced by your latest project; it doesn’t seem to have any visible ans for death, destruction, or slaughter. Which puts it far outside the realm of your normal creations.

Vrax looked at them in irritation. “Okay, not everything I make eats people.”

“Na three,” Torvald said deadpan.

“Screaming orange tree, ambulatory apples, the uhh...shit, what did I call those eyeball vines? The glowing vines that are everywhere for light—those don’t eat people either!”

“They wish they could, though,” Torvald vibed back.

“Still counts!” Vrax finished his adaptation with a final flash and stepped back, looking at the bush appreciatively. “Okay, to answer your question, the ‘super Bush,’ as you call it, is my stopgap solution for when I don’t have enough life to drain for my armor’s shield, or cistern—well, everything I do, really. If I can plop this bugger down in the field, it should work like a giant dense block of life for to use.”

“Wouldn’t you still need so life to call it from your nagerie?” Stereos asked

“Yes, but not much. I’ve done so tests, and getting one critter out doesn’t take too much, unless it’s Duchess or Sunshine. Those guys take a whole lot of life to yank them from their little hell dinsion.”

Torvald shrugged, looking a bit disappointed. “Hh, damn, it’s practical but kind of boring.”

Vrax rolled his eyes. “Okay, I actually called you here to have a little chat about who’s in charge of what while I’m gone. I'll make it short. Stereos, you’re in charge of everything remotely bureaucratic and based around logistics.”

Stereo sputtered in surprise, “That is not a responsibility I desire! I have research to pursue!”

“Do you want a blood puppy? This is how you earn a blood puppy.”

Stereos looked conflicted for about half a second before relenting. “Ahh, if that is my paynt for this task, then I am honored to act as the logistical director of the Ravenous Grove in your absence.”

Torvald started trying to sneak out a doorway. Vrax touched the everthirst on the floor, and it sealed the doorway he was creeping for shut. “Nope, you too, oh best friend of mine! You get a really important job.

Torvald cringed, and Vrax kept going. “Don’t worry, it’s easy. I just want you to start seeding my creations outwards from the city towards Hope’s End. You know, a mangler tree here and there, a few retrievers. Plop a pack of daisies a bit outside of the city, that kind of thing.”

“Dammit.”

“Oh hush, have Jonathan help you. I’m sure you guys will get lots of levels, and it’ll help with pushing the borders out.” He added the bush to his nagerie in a flash. “Alright guys, I’ll see you in a week or two. Maybe a bit longer; I'm not exactly sure this will be the farthest into the Forsaken Lands I've gone before.” Vrax looked gleeful at the re ntion of his trip.

They shared so more conversation and hamred out a few details before he left, such as where to stick the knights if they showed up and what to do if Rembrand’s forces showed up. That boiled down to let the grove eat them and don’t get yourselves killed; I can make another anchor if I have to.

Vrax loaded Malice up with supplies for a long trip. Made sure to replenish his supplies of slter moss and mage bane worms, and triple-checked he had brought enough water, a map, and all the other essentials.

He gathered the rather large group of creatures he was taking with him; it was much the sa as the trial run: a flock of devourers above, Lux and Duchess on the ground with him and Malice. He gave one last trip check to make sure his nagerie was packed with what he needed and headed out with a cheerful wave, angling towards the Grove of Vurune and the hunting grounds beyond it.

***

Vrax made it past the Grove in record ti; he skirted through the edges of the unsettling crystalline forest and avoided the center of the grove, where the Betrayed Spriggan lurked like the plague. Now that Lux was out and about, he didn’t even want to know what that psycho would do if it saw one of its precious babies.

He figured there was about an even chance he would suddenly gain the world's most murderous insane babysitter for Lux, one that he had no ans of getting rid of. Or instead the Spriggan could also decide to just gut him and take back the “baby” to rear it himself. Neither option was a win, so Vrax did the safe thing and stayed the hell away.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to for the genuine story.

Malice leaped up a treacherous, sudden cliff face that seed to mark the end of the grove heading north. The damned rock face had ledges as wide as a boot, and this thorny tan grass stubbornly peeked out from inside every single crack it could fit in. Even with Vrax’s talent and stats, it would have sucked to climb by himself.

Malice didn’t have a single shit to give; the guy ran up the thing more than he climbed. Honestly defying gravity in a way that made Vrax wonder if he had missed sothing about what Talents Threshers normally had.

Duchess floated to the top like the world's laziest gargoyle, not even trying to help Lux. He was slowly making his way up his bark, having shaped it into four great grasping hands with hooked tips he was using to moor himself to the wall. Every ti he ran into a spot where he couldn’t reach the next handhold, he focused his skills outward and forced the grass to reach down in little loops.

Where there wasn’t any grass, he just made so, forging it from pure mana to jut out as needed. It was honestly impressive; the little monster's skillset had so fantastic versatility beyond just murder.

When he gets his mana reserves up, he could make himself little fields of death from thin air that he can then control against enemies. Again, jealous of the monsters' starting abilities. Guess it's why everyone is so shit scared of spriggans to begin with. Ahh, crap, I'm starting to get far enough into the Forsaken lands—now I must just run into wild spriggans.

That might well be a death sentence if we can’t either sneak past them or talk our way out. Most of them should be a solid tier two enemy but are bound to stay within a few leagues of their tree. I’m cheating that whole system by keeping Lux either on the saddle or in the nagerie; I really don’t mind that loophole, otherwise he’d just be stuck at the grove forever.

Malice finally crested the edge of the cliff, revealing the landscape below, the so-called ‘reserve of Vurune.’ He had a fantastic elevated vantage that looked over the pristine expanse. It was a stark, gorgeous landscape of rolling hills with short, tufty green grass blanketing every stride of them. Streams wound between the hills themselves, lazily trickling into the distance.

The tops of hills sotis contained dense collections of eclectic vegetation acting like miniature bios. No two were the sa; one to the left held a trio of large white trees sagging under the weight of what looked like bulbs filled with water. The trees emitted a cold so intense that ice crept down the slope towards the water, and the slight spray from the streams flash-froze into a light, sideways-swirling snow.

To the right a hill held a single jagged yellow stone that looked like a god's arrowhead that had been jamd into the ground. Every half minute or so it would crackle, and a bolt of lightning would boom downward.

The small creatures living within the rock would flutter skyward before the bolt hit, and it would arc between their tallic glimring forms, creating dazzling patterns that burned into your eyes with their sheer intensity.

Yet another notable bio lood in the distance on a hill far larger than any of the others. A tree as big as any lord's prize tower twisted upward, its sparse branches just as gnarled and winding as the trunk. Each held bunched leaves that wrapped lovingly around small wooden structures grown from the sa branches.

The base of the trunk showed a single vast doorway with a symbol of the cycle glowing brightly above its fra. The longer Vrax looked, the more astounded he was.

It looked like a castle grown from a tree. The kind of thing you would only expect to see within the Elven capitols to the far east. Or on a much smaller scale in so of the druid enclaves in the heart of the empire.

How…how have I never heard of this place before?

Vrax waited at the top of the cliff, taking it all in for a while his creations caught up. He knew that for a place like this, which frankly wasn't that far into the forsaken lands, to stay a relative secret even from him ant one of two things.

This place was exceedingly dangerous for the area, holding so kind of nightmarish abomination. Or other hidden dangers that had caught most explorers lethally off guard. Or there simply wasn’t anything of real note here for the average explorer other than danger and a really big tree house.

Vrax secretly hoped it was the latter; he would personally find more value in eclectic creatures and fauna than most, but he knew it was most likely just a hidden abomination and lethal bullshit. It was always lethal bullshit in the forsaken lands.

Lux flopped over the edge in a sowhat comical slashing flurry of claws whirling as if he were under attack. He slowed down when he saw Vrax looking at him with a cocked eyebrow. “Uhh, y’all good there, little murder tree?” He asked with a stifled snicker.

Lux looked slightly embarrassed for a mont before pointing forward sternly. “Hunt!” he creaked out a bit shrilly.

“Yeah yeah, co on, try not to eat anything explosive.” Vrax lightly tapped Malice on the shoulder, and they started ambling down a sharp slope towards the nearest stream winding between the hills.

Vrax skirted down the streams, staying just out of the water on the edges of the hill bases. There wasn’t much cover here, and staying low was the best bet for not being highlighted against the skyline. Well, it would have been if Duchess wasn’t soaring overhead like a dark shepherd prodding forward the flock of devourers every ti they slowed down and occasionally crooning out so dark line that sounded like it was from a dark cult leader’s worst monts.

Vrax sighed and kept going, his eyes peeled as they pressed onward. There was a noticeable amount of flickering motion within the stream that wasn’t just water, making him really happy he had decided to stay out of it. So truly horrible things had a tendency to hide in waterways around here. If there was a lake, you could be almost certain it had sothing in it that wanted to and was very capable of eating you, or your soul.

Vrax slowed after a few hours of travel; the stream's path shifted sharply to the right, so he would have to start crossing rolling hills if he wanted to keep going north. He looked at the two most northward ones available; one was topped with a jumble of rocks, and the sound of stone grinding against stone rang out from it.

The other had a jumble of blue plant shoots sticking straight upwards all across its top and a small trickle of water coming from it like it was the source of one of the streams. With a shrug he dismounted Malice and began creeping that way. The grass made his footfalls utterly silent on the slope but unfortunately wasn’t tall enough to shroud his form like he preferred.

The hilltop was an impressive jumble of narrow winding paths ford by the gaps between the tall stands of plants. They were so dense that they cast the entire area within heavy shrouded shadows that were slightly illuminated by fluttering golden moths that danced from side to side nibbling on the blue shoots.

Vrax squinted, picking out more movent just along the sodden ground—sothing subtly inching along, nearly more transparent than the slight shimr of golden light dancing across its rounded surface. The shape oozes from the shoes into a rare beam of light piercing through and highlighting its form.

It was a round, clear blue jelly that slightly quivered as it inched around in the shallow waters. A single truly demonic-looking skull floated in the center of its gelatinous mass.

Holy shit, is that a sli? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the Forsaken Lands. I wonder what kind of horrific hunting thod it uses to have earned itself a spot inside of Vurune’s own hunting grounds.

Vrax angled his spear forwards and got ready to cast a smite forward with his offhand. Most slis were extrely acidic. He didn’t want to get up close to it, and he didn’t really want to lose a devourer or a plant to it either.

He was practically invisible as he wove between the foliage; they bent so the shadows never left him and shifted just enough to allow him easy passage even in places that once were too tight to traverse. Vrax settled behind an especially thick stand a handful of strides from the sli.

He gathered mana, shaping the smite into a piercing javelin, and was about to throw it. When the bamboo-like shoots past the sli swayed noticeably, a thick fleshy limb with a bizarre suction cup on the end snaked out and above the sli. It hovered there for just a mont before slamming down with titanic force and suctioning the sli into its grasp. Then a pair of thick cleaver like dewclaws whirred within the suction cup, scrambling the sli and its skull core in a flash before gulping it down into the sucker.

Oh, okay, what the fuck? Well, that sort of answers that question: the slis aren’t what’s housed here; they are just the damned food.

Vrax crouched even lower, making sure he was well hidden as sothing large rose in the densest patch on the hilltop. Lux behind him tried to mimic his stealth with lesser success, just lying flat in a patch of mud.

The air moved as the unseen beast lashed out with trendous force skyward. Duchess narrowly avoided the blow, and her eldritch scrawling simred with rage. Aww hell, I don’t think she’s going to let that go. God, I hope this is sothing we can handle.