“You wanted to see me for yourself,” Jason said. “Call this me wanting to make a good first impression. At the very least, I’m capable of piquing your interest until Rufus gets back. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take three months.”

* * *

Jason stood in the ruins of a coastal village. It had been one of many such villages scattered along the desert coast. They made an industry out of scouring the waters for water quintessence, which formed in larger than normal proportions due to the magic of the Mistrun River washing out to sea. Villages up and down the coast made a living from that and fishing, but it was not a practice without risk.

“Sundown, right?” Jason asked.

“That’s the normal pattern,” Vincent said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

They glanced around at the broken remains of the village. It was very small, mostly constructed from bamboo, and it looked like a hurricane had passed through. Boats and buildings ranged from severely damaged to smashed into pieces. There were net-drying racks and other paraphernalia of a coastal village, none of which was left untouched. Scraps of netting, broken barrels and the remnants of objects too destroyed to recognise made up a carpet of debris.

The only two-storey building was stone on the bottom floor and bamboo on top. There was a dinghy jutting out of the wall of the upper level. The doorway on the ground floor had been ripped wider, brickwork cast aside in huge chunks. Inside was some kind of nest made out of debris and the bones of large sea animals. Jason spotted the skeletons of fish upward of a metre and a half long.

“That’s where it’s been coming back to,” Vincent said. “That’s the normal pattern. Roam the waters attacking deep-sea fish and coming onshore to raid villages. It picks the first territory it conquers to make a lair.”

“But it's slower out of the water, right?”

“Very,” Vincent said, “but you can see for yourself how strong it is. If it’s hurt badly, it will retreat into the ocean. Submerged, it will move faster and heal very quickly. Do not pursue it into the water.”

“Other than that, though, no exotic abilities?”

“No.”

Jason knew all of this but wanted the assurance of double-checking. The tidal troll was the first bronze-rank monster Jason would face on purpose, and he was facing it alone. He brought up his character sheet to help his resolve.

Jason Asano

Race: Outworlder.

Current rank: iron

Progression to bronze rank: 10% (2/4 essences complete)

Attributes

[Power] (Blood): [Iron 2]

[Speed] (Dark): [Iron 0]

[Spirit] (Doom): [Iron 0]

[Recovery] (Sin): [Iron 2]

Racial Abilities (Outworlder)

[Party Interface]

[Quest System]

[Inventory]

[Map]

[Astral Affinity]

[Mysterious Stranger]

Essences (4/4)

Dark [Speed] (3/5)

[Midnight Eyes] (special ability): [Iron 7] 84%.

[Cloak of Night] (special ability): [Iron 6] 19%.

[Path of Shadows] (special ability): [Iron 6] 21%.

Blood [Power] (5/5)

[Blood Harvest] (spell): [Iron 5] 18%.

[Leech Bite] (special attack): [Iron 5] 78%.

[Feast of Blood] (spell): [Iron 4] 97%.

[Sanguine Horror] (familiar): [Iron 5] 16%.