DING!!!!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Regional Quest: Bloody Goblin Horde
The Sanguine Monarch has been defeated, the bloodstone captured, and the portal destroyed. While your actions today might not be called a total victory due to the thousands of goblins roaming through the area and two goblin chiefs you failed to kill, you have, nevertheless, ended the threat of further goblin incursions into this part of the world.
Objectives:
Destroy or Capture the Bloodstone: 1/1
Destroy or Capture the Gate: 1/1
Bonus Objectives:
Kill all of the Goblins: 21,467 / 98,956
Kill the Sanguine Monarch: 1/1
Kill Seraphel: 0/1
Kill Goblin Shaman: 1/1
Kill Fur-rog: 1/1
Kill Goblin Necromancer 1/1
Rewards:
You have gained two extra levels. You have gained one Skill point. You gained bonus XP for your actions today, you have earned 5000 Settlement Points, and your guild has gained the Winter Event Token.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<Level up>
<Level up>
<Level up>
<[Best of Both Worlds] has Reached Level 15>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 17>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 18>
<...>
<[Art of Water] has Reached Level 21>
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 17>
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 18>
<...>
<[Art of Earth] has Reached Level 21>
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 7>
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 8>
<...>
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 13>
<[Art of Life] has Reached Level 28>
<[Nascent Guild Leader] has Reached Level 26>
<[Nascent Guild Leader] has Reached Level 27>
<...>
<[Nascent Guild Leader] has Reached Level 30>
<[Leadership Ⅱ] has Reached Level 28>
<[Leadership Ⅱ] has Reached Level 29>
<...>
<[Leadership Ⅱ] has Reached Level 31>
<[Raider Ⅰ] has Reached Level 27>
<[Raider Ⅰ] has Reached Level 28>
<...>
<[Raider Ⅰ] has Reached Level 39>
<[Coordinate Ⅱ] has Reached Level 25>
<[Coordinate Ⅱ] has Reached Level 26>
<...>
<[Coordinate Ⅱ] has Reached Level 30>
<[Logistics Ⅲ] has Reached Level 22>
<[Logistics Ⅲ] has Reached Level 23>
<...>
<[Logistics Ⅲ] has Reached Level 30>
<[Spell Trap] has Reached Level 5>
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 14>
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 15>
<...>
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 22>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 10>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 11>
<...>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 20>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 8>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 9>
<...>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 20>
<Awoken Myths Members may now participate in the special Winter Event starting December 24>
Fighting entire armies was profitable. Tom immediately assigned his new levels and stat points. He might need them.
DING!!!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
You are now a Level 10 [Exorcist]
You have purchased the [Exorcist] Capstone skill [Divine Protection]
You have upgraded [Tactiction] skill [Coordination 2] → [Coordination Ⅳ] using two skill point
[Divine Protection] - Historic: The gods protect their followers. Ironic that you have yet to pick a Patron god, and this skill is not dependent on any of them. Instead, you have a 1% chance per level to ignore any debuff or affliction used against you. This skill cannot be negated or bypassed by any method other than soul damage. +10% to SPIRIT
[Coordination Ⅳ] - Epic:
Effect 1: [Warmap]: Your party constantly adds to your understanding of the battlefield, allowing you to see their locations in real-time as they clear the fog of war. Increase the amount of information party members feed to you by 5% per skill level.
Effect 2: [Master Cartographer]: You can share your map information with others, allowing your party to rapidly share information on the topography. In fact, you are so good at sharing information that you can now teach others the [Mapping] skill. Increase map detail by 5% per skill level.
[Coordination Ⅳ] level has been reduced to 15
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Tom smiled as he felt the new effects of [Coordination Ⅳ]. He could probably afford another upgrade of it later. [Divine Protection] was mostly useless for him now. Hell, it would still be mostly useless later on. But when he finally acquired the capstone skill for [Tactician], it would become one of his most critical skills.
Tom took back to the air and did a quick scan with his map. Every living party member was already retreating. The only people still here were Alex, Abaddon, Ignis, Starkiller and Skippy.
Tom noticed Ignis out of the corner of his eye. Should he try and kill him now? The [Apocalypse Force] was not an ally. They weren''t even a rival guild. From everything Tom had seen, it looked more like a dark guild bent on dominating the region and generally being assholes about the whole thing. Whatever Ignis'' true reasons for being here without the rest of his guild? Tom doubted it was out of altruism. Mutual defence, quest rewards and even internal politics made more sense.
It brought him to the following question: Could he kill Ignis? Probably not. Between Ignis''s unused [Escape] skill and his unused [Immortality] skill, Tom doubted they could kill him before he escaped unless the pyromancer was a complete idiot. Further, Ignis didn''t appear to be gearing up to attack them.
No, it was much better to improve his reputation than try and fail to swat an enemy.
Starkiller and Skippy leapt onto the roof of a building that was only partly burning.
"Alright," Tom called out. "It''s time to move out. We''re heading back to the fallback point. Except for Skippy, I need you to stay behind and grab any corpses we''ve left behind."
"Oh, come on!" Skippy groaned. "I''ve been out here since yesterday."
"Yeah, and right now, morale is mostly held together by the fact that nobody can die, so grab all of the corpses so I can bring them back. You can also grab the goblin corpses for loot. We can divide it later."
"Yes, master, order me around like a slave. Why don''t you master?" Skippy grumbled. "Now I know how the slaves felt."
"Skippy," Alex said oh so sweetly as her hand crackled with electricity.
Skippy froze as his face paled. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"Lighting bolt!!" Alex flung the spell at Skippy, causing him to immediately activate his skills and zip away from the attack.
"Get the fuck back here, you racist asshole!!" Alex called out.
Tom rolled his eyes as he picked up a shrunk Abaddon in a basket of paper and levitated him out of the burning remains of the university. It took a ridiculous amount of WILL and a not-insignificant amount of mana to lift the massive lizard man into the air.
"How are you feeling, big guy?" Tom asked.
"Everything hurts," Abaddon groaned, practically lying prone in the basket. "Heals."
"You should have asked before I started to carry you; seriously, man, you weigh a ton," Tom groaned as he pulled him into the sky.
"The moment I get my [Alchemist] class, I''ll get a [Focus] skill, so I won''t have to deal with pain anymore." Abaddon groaned.
"Stop complaining. You''ll be fully regenerated before we even get home," Tom said.
Abaddon had already stashed the bloodstone in his inventory in case Ignis or Starkiller got ideas. Dividing up the loot improperly would quickly end in bloodshed.
"Alright, well, I''ve been paid. I did my deed. I think I''m going to take the walk of shame now." Starkiller said, giving a mockery of a bow before he lept her into the sky, disappearing from view.
Tom shrugged as the four of them flew over the suburbs. The goblin army was in complete discord. Some were burning in the university, and many more were fighting each other as they all tried to establish superiority.
<hr>
They arrived at the fallback point. It was a bit of a mess. Injured people were everywhere, and as soon as Tom dropped off Abbadon, the big guy was already fully healed, as he had predicted.
Eve and Chester were already on the scene and working their way through people. Well, Eve was. Chester just applied basic first aid while his auras did all the actual work. Despite that, it wasn''t nearly as bad as Tom feared. He had been expecting people to be screaming as they gripped their lost limbs or something. But as he approached, he used [Art of Life] on whoever looked the most injured.
Some people looked like they were barely holding back tears as he restored their limbs. That took a lot of mana and a dozen different spells, and the injury had to be recent. Others were weirdly nonchalant about it. Two people who looked like jocks were lying on the ground with limbs missing, and they were joking about how one of their friends had died from a spear to his skull. Stranger still, they were the normal ones. Only a few people actually seemed to be appreciating the magnitude of their injuries or of the battle as a whole.
Most people had taken Tom''s advice and learned a pain management skill. Between that, the healing, and the fact that everybody was going to be resurrected or restored to perfect health later, the general feeling was more along the lines of ''we just did something stupid, and it worked out regardless.''
Honestly, Tom was starting to wonder if mental trauma was more a response to physical damage than to anything actually happening in the brain.
"This is really messed up," Tom said as he healed another person.
"Yeah," Eve said as she reached a limb with her new [Reconstruction] skill. "This feels almost fake. Like I''m playing pretend."
"Would you prefer the actual horror of warfare?" Tom asked.
Eve grimaced. "I''m not that naive. I''ll take whatever this is over an actual trauma room any day of the week."
"The magic really helps with things," Tom pointed out as he healed a dozen cuts on someone''s arm.
"Definitely," Eve chuckled. You have no idea how much easier this is than actual medicine. I could walk into a hospital and cure everyone in a day with this stuff."
Tom wasn''t sure about that. Disease wasn''t nearly as easy to treat as trauma, and he wasn''t sure how magic would react to something like cancer. If nothing else, she probably didn''t have the mana pool to heal anything too terrible yet. While Tom was thinking of meaningless things and healing people, Ignis walked up to him.
"Hey," Ignis said. "Can you give these people some healing? We''re heading back to our settlement."
"Yeah, sure," Tom said. "How many do I need to resurrect?"
"None. Altan can resurrect them later in the evening." Ignis stated.
Tom did his best to hide his surprise, as Ignis''s words suggested that Altan had both a soul collection and a resurrection skill. That was annoying and useful to know. He didn''t say anything, though, as he moved to heal Ignis people.
Although it wasn''t technically a high priority, Tom didn''t really want Ignis around. He was only an ally of convenience, and he wanted him gone as soon as possible.
Only a handful of people needed to be healed. No more than twenty.
"Are you sure this is everyone?" Tom asked.
"Everyone else is dead or a deserter," Ignis stated.
Tom was starting to like Ignis. He gave up critical information far too easily. Tom watched as Ignis and his riders marched off. Adams walked up next to him as he watched Ignis leave.
"How are you handling yourself?" Adams asked.
"I''m fine. They''re just goblins. It''s not like we were killing people." Tom said
Adam frowned at him.
"You shouldn''t think like that," Adams said. "It can lead to dehumanizing your enemies. That''s a dark path and not one you should be walking down."
Tom gave Adams a look.
"They are not human. They are an invasive species intending to outcompete us for our ecological niche. This is very much an us or them situation," Tom said, not really seeing his point.
Adam signed but didn''t push the issue. Tom didn''t really see a problem. He would believe humans and goblins could live in harmony when he saw it. Until then, he would stick to the goblin''s own philosophy: kill on sight. He would skip the raping part of goblin philosophy.
"Can you revive the rest of the council members so we can have a quick conversation?" Adams asked.
Tom shrugged and nodded.
Initially, all of the corpses were in someone''s inventory, and Tom''s [Logistics] skill allowed him to pull them out of whoever''s inventory they were actually inside. Tom pulled Luke, Gareth, Jaime, and Sam, a dozen volunteers, and a few minutes later, all four of them were back among the living.
"Did we win?" Luke asked as he spat out blood.
Tom shared the notification.
Tom watched as the four other members of his council looked over the notification.
"Haza, we have won the day!!" Gareth cheered as he nursed the phantom pains in his arm.
"Pretty much," Tom said, leaning against a parked car. Eve was still dealing with the injured, but a not insignificant number of council members were available for the meeting.
"We still have an army of goblins roaming around," Sam pointed out.
"They are disorganized. Without a [Goblin King], they are little better than animals at this point. So long as we cull their leaders, they won''t be a problem," Alex said.
"On a more important topic," Luke cut in. "Are we sure we didn''t leave anyone behind? I wasn''t sure anyone was going to pick us up after we lost to Seraphel."
"That was stupid, by the way." Tom pointed out, "But don''t worry, Skippy is staying behind to collect any corpses we left behind, but he''ll be back before nightfall," Tom said.
"Why was anyone left behind?" Sam groaned as she rubbed his neck.
"Because we put this army together in what two days." Major Adams stated. "This whole system thing has only been here for a week, as crazy as that sounds. Frankly speaking, if we didn''t have Tom here, we would be looking at over a fifty percent casualty rating. I''m still worried about how so many people are reacting to … this."
Tom winced at learning just how many had died; he didn''t know it had been that bad. He considered implementing more training programs, but he quickly dismissed that idea. It was hard enough to get people to train and fight when faced with a goblin horde, but getting them to train for something they couldn''t anticipate would be difficult. He would leave that task to the major. He would just have to grab some skills like [Drill Sergeant] to improve the average skill growth.
For all he spoke about not underestimating the goblins, they were some of the weakest creatures in the Legend of Noralon. His level 100 characters would have decimated the goblins on their own without even dipping into their trump cards. Not for the first time, he was left wondering if putting his levels into [Exorcist] was the right move. Too late now.
"There are still seventy thousand goblins running around," Luke pointed out. "What are we going to do about them?"
"Goblins aren''t like humans," Alex interjected, "Our experiences today align with what we know about the game. Mostly, Goblins require [Party Leaders] with the [Coordination] in order to organize beyond a simple mob. With so many of their leaders eliminated today, the remaining ones will be in a rush to the next Goblin Kings. They''ll be attacking each other as much as us."
"So what do we do now?" Adams asked.
Tom shrugged as his eyes were drawn back to the storm clouds on the horizon. Massive white clouds were moving in on them, threatening snow.
"There''s a blizzard coming, so as soon as we''re done putting everyone back together, we head home," Tom said.
"I meant more long-term?" Adams asked. "What''s Awoken Myths next move."
Tom looked up at the sky. Two of the three moons were clear in the sky above them, with only the edge of storm clouds ruining the image. Tom was cold and hungry, and his body was sore everywhere, but perhaps most of all, he was tired. As much as he liked levels, he needed a break.
"Right now, let''s head home," Tom said.
You may skip to the next chapter.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Name: Tom Bruner
</td>
<td>
Race: Half-Elf ()
</td>
<td>
Type: Humanoid
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
LVL: 23
</td>
<td>
SubRace: High Elf / Caucasian
</td>
<td>
Age 18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Health: 1150
</td>
<td>
Stamina: 1610
</td>
<td>
Mana: 4600
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Health Regen: 16.7 per hour
</td>
<td>
Stamina Regen: 21.3 per min
</td>
<td>
Mana Regen: 28.2 per min
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Titles: Beta-Tester, First, Awoken Myths, Guild Master
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Immune
</td>
<td>
N/A
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Resistances
</td>
<td>
Mental 74% Soul 43%
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Weakness
</td>
<td>
N/A
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Bane
</td>
<td>
Manslayer
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Classes: Augur 10, Tactiction 3, Exorcist 10
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Total
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
STR: 46
</td>
<td>
AGIL: 46
</td>
<td>
DEX: 46
</td>
<td>
CON: 92
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
END: 46
</td>
<td>
PER: 253
</td>
<td>
INT: 230
</td>
<td>
WILL: 207
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SPIRIT: 75
</td>
<td>
EGO: 46
</td>
<td>
CHA: 161
</td>
<td>
LCK: 46
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Base
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
STR: 46
</td>
<td>
AGIL: 46
</td>
<td>
DEX: 46
</td>
<td>
CON: 92
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
END: 46
</td>
<td>
PER: 253
</td>
<td>
INT: 230
</td>
<td>
WILL: 207
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SPIRIT: 69 +10%
</td>
<td>
EGO: 46
</td>
<td>
CHA: 161
</td>
<td>
LCK: 46
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT
Bloodline: +5 PER +5 INT
Level Bonus: +2 to all Stats
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Keeper of Akashic Records]—Forgotten: Through your vein runs the blood of the forgotten Keepers of the Akashic Records. These monks, scribes, and scholars helped create the system, and within their blood are the keys to its secrets.
<ul>
<li>[The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] - Level 32</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Words Will Always Retain their Power] - Level 26</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Library of Akashic Records] - Level 22</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Universal] - Level 26</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Wordsmith] - Level 31</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[My Mind is My Temple, My Soul the Altar] - Level 43</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Thirst for Knowledge] - Level 19</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Visions of Akashic Records] - Level 11</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Soul Forge] - Level 31</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>+5 PER per level</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>+5 INT per level</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Skill Slots: 25/60: Skill Points: 1
Personal Skills
<ul>
<li>[Analyze Person] - Level 28</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Best of Both Worlds] - Level 14 >> Level 15</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Art of Water] - Level 16 >> Level 21</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Art of Earth] - Level 16 >> Level 21</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Teacher] - Level 15</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Misalliance Crafting] - Level 6 >> Level 13</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Mana-Infused Weapon] - Level 6</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Basic Swords] - Level 15</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Flyte] - Level 6 >> Level 16</li>
</ul>
Augur 07/16
<ul>
<li>[Augurs Eye] - Level 7</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Bright Arts] - Level 32</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Art of Life] - Level 27 >> Level 28</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Prophetic Meditation] - Level 49</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Far Seeing] - Level 20</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Capstone: [Hand of Mercy] - Level 50</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Quest Giver] - Level 12</li>
</ul>
Tactician 05/6
<ul>
<li>[Nascent Guild Leader] - Level 25 >> Level 30</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Leadership Ⅱ] - Level 27 >> Level 31</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Raider Ⅰ] - Level 26 >> Level 39</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Coordinate Ⅳ] - Level 24 >> Level 15</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Logistics Ⅲ] - Level 21 >> Level 30</li>
</ul>
Exorcist 06/11
<ul>
<li>[Spell Trap] - Level 4 >> Level 5</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Karmic Contract] - Level 18</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Shape Paper] - Level 13 >> Level 22</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Paper Armour] - Level 9 >> Level 20</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>[Paper Wings] - Level 7 >> Level 20</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Capstone: [Divine Protection] - Level 1</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>