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Energy Eater - Chapter 105 - Take your pick
🕑 Added 2025-04-17 16:46:31 +0000 UTCConrad took us outside first. It seemed like the place where he kept the records was not in the same room as the village chief was staying. Instead, we were taken to a smaller house that was also filled with people. A very different kind of people. Not that the ones who we saw in the chief's house were more clean or looking like they only worked indoors or anything of the sort. But the people in this particular house were more rugged. And all had the faces of seasoned veteran hunters.
There was a certain quality about them. Something in their eyes that showed they were always aware of their surroundings and ready to act if anything were to happen. It was a look that took me a long time to learn, but once I did, it became a natural part of me. And although they were wary about the presence of these strangers who just arrived and were carrying weapons, they also seemed to be not as on edge as one might expect.
To me, that made it clear that while these people were worried and careful, they were not dealing with anything that was too strange. The refugees were not causing problems in a sense of trying to attack people or rob anyone. And there were not any monsters that were actively attacking the village.
Conrad took us to an area to the side of this building. It didn't look like it was a house or anything of the sort. Instead, the area looked more like a gymnasium, but without the floor setup for people to play sports. Maybe this was once the gym before everything happened? It was hard to tell. Still, Conrad led us to a map of the city that was encased in resin on the side of the wall. It didn't look like it was something that existed here since forever, but instead something that someone brought to this area, as the elegant framing didn't really fit the vibe of the room.
On top of the resin, there were several pieces of writing and some drawings. Not particularly good drawings, but they conveyed the message. For instance, to the north of the city was a large tentacle monster covered in shadows, which I was assuming was an Eater. There were also red circles in a few areas and x's in others that seemed to signify areas people should go searching for supplies and places people should avoid since they had already cleared out. All of that was just my assumptions since Conrad didn't explain anything, but unless they were trying to do something that was wildly unintuitive, that was the only way I could see making sense.
"Okay, since you're supposed to be big monster hunters, here are the monsters that are in the city. We have a pack of wild coyotes roaming the east side of the city. Most of them are coyote size, but there are two who can get as big as small horses."
"So a pony?" Michael asked.
"No," Conrad replied with a blank stare. "A small horse, is not a pony. A pony is just a big coyote. And if you're going to keep asking these stupid questions, I'm going to leave you to figure this out by yourself," the man huffed, but Michael still just kept his smile, doing his best not to cause any problems.
But I had to admit, Conrad's attitude was starting to piss me off. We were here offering to help, but he still acted as if we were just a bunch of freeloaders.
"Anyway here," he pointed to a location near the center of Spokane, "that's where you find the king toad."
We all frowned at that name. "The king toad?" I asked.
"Yes," Conrad replied, but refused to elaborate.
"Those are the only two groups that are giving us problems." I pointed to one to the east, which should be the nearest creature to the village. "What about that one?"
"That's Thunder Hoof. Do not mess with it." Yet again, Conrad didn't say anything else, but in that situation I couldn't just let things slide.
"Okay, why not? And what is the Thunder Hoof? If we are not supposed to mess with it, we need to at least know what it looks like. By the drawing, that's a bull, right?"
"It's a moose," someone shouted from the back.
"I told you that looks like a bull," another voice added.
"Do you think you can do it better? Then go ahead," the first voice snapped back.
"Shut up all of you," Conrad interrupted everyone. "Like I said, it's a moose. We gave that name because of the noise it makes when it starts to gallop. Sounds like thunder. It doesn't bother us as long as we don't bother it. So leave it alone. Besides, it's the only thing stopping the coyotes from getting close to the village," Conrad continued.
"And if you want to get killed, go to the sewers. I'm sure the ants will have a party with your bodies."
"Ants?" I wasn't super fond of them but I knew that bugs tended to reproduce rather quickly. If all of them had particles, it could be a nice way to gather some progression to the next level.
"Yes Ants. Do you have a problem with your hearing?" Conrad snapped at me.
"I think she was just trying to confirm what you said," Michael stepped in before I could give the man a proper reply.
"If you have trouble understanding what I'm saying? Then you're going to have trouble finding monsters out there," the man huffed, "They are ants. The size of a dog."
"Do you mean a Chihuahua or a Labrador? Dogs come in different sizes," Michael said in a bit of an annoyed tone. It seemed like even he was starting to get annoyed at Conrad.
"What about that one over there? The black one with tentacles?" I asked, changing the subject before I started cussing at Conrad.
"That's an Eater. It's been there for a very long time, but stay clear of it. People get weird when they get close."
"An Eater?" Again Conrad snarled. "Woman, can you not understand what I'm saying?"
"I can understand you just fine. I was just surprised." As far as I knew, no one ever saw one of them that died. I wasn't about to say that I had seen Eaters and they were not supposed to last very long.
"Yes, there's an Eater there. We don't know what happened to it, but as far as we know, it was always there. Like I said, don't get close. Or do and die. I don't care. The ones that are really giving us trouble are the coyotes and the toads. And leave Thunder Hoof alone."
"Isn't there something else we have to worry about? I mean, there was an entire area of the city that was covered in some strange markings. Are those monsters really the only things that could be a problem?" I pressed, but Conrad just scoffed.
"If you're monster hunters, deal with it. I'm not going to tell you anything else." I heard a low grumbling from a few of the people who were here as Conrad turned his back to us and left without giving us a chance to ask anything else.
I waited a few moments and then looked at Michael, pointing my head towards the people that made the noise. He seemed to understand my idea, and we spread out to talk to the hunters in this building. Astrid didn't seem to want to talk to anyone, and I couldn't blame her. After all, speaking with the Frosted Lumberjack was a bit of an acquired skill. Not everybody was able to understand her as well as I did, especially if they didn't have the practice. And Pamela, who was still following us, just sat there staring at the room.
It didn't take long for us to get some more information. Apparently, the king toad was responsible for that strange blue and yellow growth. No one was entirely sure how, but the creature seemed to be able to create those strange formations once it spat some sort of sticky goo. It wasn't toxic, at least not in the sense that if people were hit by it, they would be poisoned or something. But it was particularly hard to remove.
When it came to the coyotes, for the most part they were just regular animals. However, the bigger ones had a few strange behaviors. Specifically, they seemed to be intelligent enough to use weapons. Not full-blown weapons, but they were known to have grabbed metal pipes and other types of debris to attack those who got close.
Lastly, was a warning about the ants. Although Conrad was being a bit of an ass when talking about them, he wasn't wrong. In the sewers of the city, there were thousands, if not millions, of ants. The people of the village had no idea how they were not yet devoured by those creatures, but they had no intention of disturbing the ecosystem. It was better to just leave the Ants alone. If they were dealing with something else, the last thing the village needed was to help them get rid of it.
As much as I hated to agree, I had to. It would be one thing to attack something that was causing problems, another to disturb someone who was not doing anything. If we tried to hunt the ants, there was a good likelihood that they would start attacking. Then again, that was always the case if we were to attack the frogs. If we were not talking about monsters, frogs would be able to control the population of ants. And if we got rid of the king toad, then maybe we would also make the ants free to do whatever they wanted. It was a bit of a sketchy situation and I honestly didn't know if that was the right way to go about it.
From what I could understand, the only group of monsters that were more or less safe for us to hunt were the coyotes. And maybe we should start there. But that was a problem for tomorrow as today we were just going to find a place to sleep and do just that.
After we traded with a few people in the village for water and a roof over our heads, we headed to surprisingly a private house. A place just for the four of us. The chief had already told people what was going on and was kind enough to offer one of the vacant places to us. We felt a bit strange since there were refugees who were still living in tents and seemed to be like that for a while already. We even got the stink eye from a few of them as we entered that empty house.
Unfortunately, Pamela was coming along, since she was still being considered part of our group. But at least she had stopped trying to make one of us give her the System. Then again, I wasn't very sure if she had truly given up or was just trying to come up with a different plan. But I refused to let that woman make me waste anymore brain power.
So instead, after taking some of our rations for dinner and returning to our rooms, I called Michael over to where Astrid and I were sleeping. There were only two rooms here. One of them was Pamela's, and the other was being split by me and the Frosted Lumberjack. We very much preferred the idea of sleeping together than to have Pamela in the same bedroom as us. Michael was going to stay in the living room even though we offered him to stay with us. But the man refused, saying that this was the better place for someone to stay, considering it was the first night we would spend in the village.
Our late night talk was quick and about a very specific topic.
"So, we are going to check out the Eater, right?" I turned to Astrid, who just nodded with a spark in her eyes.
"Wait what? Why would we?" Michael asked.
"Because an Eater doesn't stay around when it dies."
"How do you know?" The Hawaiian frowned.
"Because I have killed an Eater before. Thanks to the System. As a matter of fact, I have already three or four kills under my belt. I lost count," I said with a smirk.
"Really?" Michael sounded doubtful. Which was understandable. He only had the System for a couple of days and he had yet to understand the true difference in power between who he was before and after getting it.
"Killed one too," Astrid said.
"You too?"
"Yeah one of the ones I'm counting I killed with Astrid. But here's the thing, once they die, they kind of rot away really quickly. It takes just a few hours for them to start to smell real bad and in a day or so, they're gone. If they are saying that there's an Eater that's been there for a long time, I have no idea what that might mean. And in a worst-case scenario, it might be a nest."
"Nest?" Astrid turned towards me. Which made me remember that I had never told her about what I saw with Pops.
Quickly explaining what happened to my home from the hidden harm village, the two of them stared at me with a serious expression after I was done with my explanation, "So? Are we in agreement?" I asked.
Astrid nodded right away, which wasn't much of a surprise since she already wanted to go there. But Michael paused for a bit longer before sighing. "Yeah. If this village is in danger, I would very much like to know. Especially since they're getting refugees. Imagine if there is a nest here and Eaters just come out in force? It would be a massacre. Maybe we could..."
I just gave him a blank stare.
"So far, I'm not going to. Conrad is a dick and I doubt anyone would be able to keep the System without giving a copy to him."
Michael stared at me for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, I suppose you do make a point. And I don't really think letting someone like him having it is really a good idea."
With that conversation over, Michael went back to the living room while Astrid and I just got ready for bed. In the morning we would have a long day getting ready to travel into Spokane to see what was the body of an Eater, the toad king, coyotes and maybe even ants. But more importantly, I wanted to see if I could find a building that was still standing up.
