New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 988: Sentient Monsters

The party resumed their march, going back to their stressful lookout, as they pushed further into a dungeon they knew nothing about. They walked for another two hours, stopping almost every kilometre to fight monsters.

To make matters worse, the first few combats were against an increasing number of harpies, whose strength seemed to get higher as distance passed. But the further they got, the more varied monsters they found until they were stumped for their next fight.

Crouched at the entrance of yet another cavern, in which the crunching of bones and clattering of teeth could be heard, Alex and Jin-Sil scouted out their next adversaries.

Looking into the cave, the pair of scouts were faced with a strange situation.

Standing above the floors, in their tightly built nests, harpies were silently watching a group of a dozen lizard-like compact figures, who were gnawing on bones in the center of the

cavern.

"Are those kobolds?" Jin-Sil asked, confused as to why the monster type was suddenly changing.

"I think so," Alex replied, with a frown.

"But what are they doing in here, being watched so carefully by the harpies? Are the harpies hunting them?" he added.

"Doesn't seem like it," Jin-Sil replied, looking at the harpies.

They stayed there, hidden, for another few minutes, both coming to the same conclusion.

The kobolds and harpies seemed to be coexisting. There also seemed to be a kind of hierarchy amongst them, where the kobolds responded to chirps and squawks of their flying over watch, bringing them things expeditiously.

It quickly became obvious that the harpies lorded over the small lizard-like creatures with a hand of steel.

"Let's report back to the others. If this is like we think, then we might have to deal with some actual sentient enemies from here on out," Alex said, crawling back toward the tunnel.

Jin-Sil nodded, following him back out, before they ran furtively back toward the rest of the group.

They had begun scouting the tunnels ahead after one room looked empty as they all entered, only for them to be prey to an ambush of harpies wedged in cracks and holes in the ceiling.

It didn't help that aside from their light source, which was Kary's fireball and Cory's glowing mace, there was no longer any light source deep down here. And they had to extinguish those when entering new caves.

Relying only on their magical senses was working, to a certain extent, in the early exploration. But the further they went down into this tunnel, the more their enemies were getting hard to locate..

Even Alexander was starting to have trouble sensing them through mana sensing alone. And that was a lot to say, considering his perfect mana senses passive.

Their only option quickly became having scouts ahead of them. And only two people were capable of being sneaky enough for that role: Alexander and Jin-Sil.

Arriving back where the rest of the group was resting, Alex and Jin-Sil shared what they had seen, giving their opinion on it, as Kary took mental notes.

It wasn't long before she came up with a plan that took into consideration the possibility that the kobolds were indeed being lorded over, and the harpies were sentient.

Their earlier arrangements would start proving useful from now on if that was the case, but she still added layers of protection to their composition.

"We'll form three larger groups, with each assigned pair keeping tabs on their partner pair. This will make sure that if I miss an enemy slinking in the shadows, no one gets suddenly stabbed in the back, or grabbed into the air by a harpy," Kary instructed.

"Shouldn't we work as a full party?" Liu Yan asked, confused.

He had seen many parties, even though he preferred to play solo, but this was a first for him. Kary had split them into pairs from the start, and now she was tightening the ranks.

He'd seen large parties split into two smaller teams, or even three when need be before. But she was going the other way around, starting from smaller groups to larger ones. He couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"We can't work as a full party yet. There is no use for us to all work as a unit just yet, and I doubt we are ready for it either," Kary said, looking at him with a side glance.

"What do you mean, not ready? Everyone here has played enough video games to know how to function in a party, no?" Liu Yan rebuked, unsatisfied with her answer.

Alex put his hand on Liu Yan's shoulder, pulling it back a bit.

"Listen, Yan. I know you are a pro player and might be used to working with strangers. But the situation here is not the same," Alex said, trying to stay calm.

Liu Yan interrupting Kary was not sitting well with him, especially since the man had agreed to obey her orders and follow their lead.

"But it makes no sense," Liu Yan replied, frowning.

"Yan," Kary interrupted them, her tone almost frigid.

The man looked at her, the glare in her eyes making him shiver slightly.

"This isn't a game. Working as a full unit would be ideal, I won't deny it. But let me ask you this: Would you trust us with your life? Eyes closed, without a doubt in your heart? Because this is what we are talking about, here. Lives," Kary said, pointing around her.

"Everyone here has only one life," she said, pausing.

"Well, almost everyone," she retracted.

"And I already said this more than once, and I'll say it again. I don't want to bring anyone home in a body bag. We are fighting with our lives at stake, and a single mistake could be fatal," she pointed out.

Liu Yan understood the concept, but he couldn't understand why she was separating them if losing someone was such a concern.

Wouldn't they be safer as a full unit?

"I don't understand why we aren't all working together, then," he replied with a groan.

"Because we don't trust each other," Kary blandly replied, her face stony.

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