《Master of Learning (Color coded)》 Prologue From the beginning of time. A god drifted through space all by himself for thousands of years. He became bored by himself. So he started creating a world with his vast magic. After years upon years of making the world. He was finally satisfied. With the world created, he started making living creatures. After thousands of years he became bored again. The creatures he made were from his own imagination. Meaning he could perceive everything they would do before they would do it. He then split a portion of his power off and created four lesser gods. With him still retaining the most power between them and becoming the greater god. He assigned them rules to follow each overseeing a different aspect of the world. Thus the five gods were formed. The god of life- creating humanoids and animals who would create life themselves through birth. The god of death- tasked with killing the humanoids and animals so they didn''t become complacent. The god of creation- creating all forms of buildings items and jobs of the world. The god of destruction- his only goal was the destruction of everything in the world, he created natural disasters. The first thing the god of life did was start creating beings to roam the land. The god of death swiftly killed everything... This angered the greater god. Who began to place rules on the world. All the god''s weren''t allowed to interfere with creatures after they''re created. Leaving them to grow and have free will to live their lives how they wished. With the rule being set. Each god began to make creatures to serve their purposes. The god of life created most of the humanoid creatures. Building cities and protecting themselves as well as trying to further their lives. It seemed fitting to the god of life. The humanoids didn''t know how to build anything at first but quickly borrowed ideas from the god of creation. The god of death created creatures to try and cause as much chaos in the world as possible. killing and eating everything that was possible. His bosses were so strong that he could only create very few of them. They needed to live in high mana areas to continue living without being weakened. With the god of deaths boss monsters were weakened without areas with high mana in the world. So the god of death also made weaker creatures known as monsters. Who would attempt to kill the humanoids. The monsters were easily killed by the humanoids. So the god of death had to make the humanoids have a reason to fight the boss monsters in high mana areas. The god of death asked the god of creation to make fortresses later called dungeons that would protect the bosses. He then tied items to each one that would be created with the mana in the area. Along with the bosses themselves should they die. These items were extremely valuable. The first dungeon clearers quickly used their new found items to became royalty. This sparked an interest in clearing dungeons that hasn''t disappeared from the world yet. The bosses could move around and destroy humanoids but the only way they would be at full strength would be to make fortresses or lairs to gather mana from the area. So the bosses quickly devolved into hit and run tactics with towns to try and force humanoids to invade the dungeons and lairs to fight. While this was happening the god of destruction was creating natural disasters. He also created traps inside the dungeons and many other deadly things towards all creatures. A few years had passed but a few problems started occurring. The humanoids children when born would be soulless and wouldn''t move on their own. While it would be easy enough to make souls for each human in the beginning. It would quickly overwhelm the god of life''s capabilities if they kept giving birth to an increasing number of people. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The god of life asked the greater god for help. So he created another god to help keep the loss of souls down called the god of rebirth. While the god of life would still have to make new souls to keep up with the increase in humanoids the god of rebirth could use the souls of the dead to reduce the amount of souls needed to be created. Things went on this way for thousands of years. Many new creatures, humanoids, bosses and monsters were created. It was becoming boring again for the greater god. So he created two more gods. The god of balance and the god of chaos. Each god would have slightly more influence over the life forms of the world. The god of balance''s job was to keep everything running smoothly. While the god of chaos''s sole goal was to cause disruption throughout the land. It kept the greater god entertained watching the two opposing gods clash with each other. The god of chaos loved inciting wars with thousands of deaths brought about by his simple influence. The god of balance tried to keep everything the same. To the point where it hindered progress in the world. After thousands of more years though, all the gods started to become bored as well. The god of chaos suggested to the greater god that they should each be allowed to make demigods to roam the land. The greater god agreed and all the gods were given the right to make three demigods which would do their bidding. While extremely strong, the demigods could be killed. This was to avoid the god of death from creating demigods that would kill everything. Or the god of destruction creating demigods that would just destroy everything. Each god created their own set of demigods. The time it took to make a powerful demigod was fifty years. So losing a single one would disrupt the balance between the opposing gods. Thousands of more years later...Boredom struck again. All the gods had been alive for thousands of years now. Seeing everything play out multiple times. So the gods all combined their powers creating a human race. With some of each god in them. Humans could do everything but they weren''t the best at anything. Compared to other races though, they were still too weak. While being balanced they didn''t excel at anything and were targeted by everything from monsters to other humanoids. Almost being pushed to extinction shortly after being created. So the gods gave them extra strength in the form of a class called learning. With enough work and effort the humans could create new classes with the first class. Humans quickly gained their footing back. Humans had become too strong. To the point of pushing other creatures and races to extinction. Learning class was too strong. So the god of balance weakened it. It was made to have an extremely difficult time leveling. Also reducing the stats gained by a huge amount. The learning class could no longer make new classes anymore. He also put a limit on the number of classes you could have when you reincarnated. He combined all the souls so that human souls would mix with the humanoids giving them the ability to use classes. Without a clear advantage or disadvantage the humans became just another humanoid race. All the classes made were further balanced. So none were too much stronger than any other class. The god of balance also worked together with the god of reincarnation to make a system to determine the strength of classes for each reincarnated person. Thousands more years have passed. Everything has calmed down since humans have been created. It is present day now. All humans have forgotten about the learning class. No one even looks at the shrine anymore. Chapter 1 Reborn anew ¡°I am dead¡±¡­ Those were the last words I could remember thinking from my previous life. Most of that life has started to disappear from my memory now as I float through the void. I see something in the distance and float towards it. I look down at my legs and nothing is there. The object in the distance is getting closer. I''m being pulled towards it. I can''t move any other direction. As it gets closer, I can see that it''s far more than one object. It is many objects. With an old man holding a baby at the entrance. The old man beckons me towards him. As I get close, he explains. ¡°I am the God of rebirth. You have died and now you get to pick the path you''ll lead in your next life. If you haven''t noticed yet, there are several shrines behind me. The shrines allow you to pick the class you''ll be in your next life. You will also need to pull a card to see which rank you''ll be. The ranks start from novice and go all the way up to master.¡± I move towards a shoddy table with a bowl on it that has a few dozen cards inside¡­ You''d think being the God of Rebirth, he''d have a better method to determine which rank you will be. As if reading my mind, the God states. ¡°They just don''t give me a big enough budget to improve this place.¡± I can''t tell if he''s joking or not... I pull a card from the bowl. It''s a card that has master written on the underside of it. ¡°Ah, very nice! Out of all the cards you manage to pull a master card. Your luck must be incredible. The master shrines are in the very back row.¡± As I head to the back row, I notice that as I head deeper towards the back, the shrines get more elaborate. Near every shrine is either a weapon or a piece of armor or a book of some sort. These are heirlooms given to you on your 10th and 15th birthdays. Lower ranks don''t have heirlooms and are also harder to level. They don''t get to pick a secondary class either and are forced to learn it through tutors in the world. When I eventually make it to the back of the room. I start to inspect each shrine with more detail. Near the base of each shrine is the class name inscribed into it. The one I''m closest to is warrior. It''s a well maintained shrine. Almost with a polished shine to it. Compared to the other shrines, it seems this one gets the most attention. On the shrine is an extremely fancy looking sword, helmet and shield. A sticky note applied to each shrine giving the details of about the shrine. The sticky note for warrior states. "High damage as well as survivability. Some skills include headbutt, heavy slash, charge and armor break. Passive increase to strength and rage." I look at a few more shrines, with a similar sticky note on each one. As I head to the left, I count around 15 classes. If each side has that many I can pick between 30 classes as my main and secondary class. The God of Rebirth says. ¡°As you meet specific requirements. More classes are unlocked during rebirth. You''ve got more than the average person.¡± I head to the other side of the shrines. One sticks out more then the rest. It''s very old. Older than the other shrines by appearance. Its covered in cobwebs, as if no one has picked it for a very long time. I clear the grime off the plaque to read the class name. ¡°Master of Learning¡± The sticky note had fallen off this shrine. I pick it up with my ethereal hand and read. Able to learn all classes and jobs as well as most skills. I cry out. ¡°What?! That seems extremely overpowered!¡± ¡°It would be if there wasn''t such a negative aspect tied to it. In order to level classes and jobs, you have to put effort and training into learning them. Unlike if you picked the class, it would get stronger automatically as you leveled. The speed at which you level classes and jobs is dependent on the level of your master of learning class. So it''s very difficult to level up initially¡­ The few people I remember picking this class couldn''t even make it to level 20. To make this class level other classes at a similar speed to if you have chosen them as your main class. You''d need to be around level 400. You also receive a huge stat penalty for choosing this class.¡± Hearing that set me back a bit. Getting to level 400 would take hundreds of years to accomplish. It gets harder to level as you get higher up. Very few people manage to make it to level 200 in their lives. I know from reaching it in a few previous lives. That when you hit 100 with a normal class it evolves in branching paths. Like warriors can become elite-warriors or siege-breakers. Thieves become elite-thieves or assassins. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. As I think about it though. Why would they make a class that was unusable¡­ I turn my ethereal face towards God and point at the shrine. ¡°I pick that one.¡± The God of Rebirth smiles from ear to ear and says. ¡°Oh, you''re not going to regret it later are you? You only get this choice once every few reincarnation cycles. Otherwise if you die you''ll be put as a random class in your next few lives.¡± As I keep thinking about it. It keeps getting weirder that not many people have made it passed level 20. Maybe if I can break that hurdle. I''d stand a chance to figure out the class more than other people have so far.The God looks at me and his already big smile gets wider. ¡°You''re very interesting to think that way. I know it''s not my place to give you outside help... If you can manage to hit certain levels. I''ll give you a little bonus with the first starting at 20.¡± He moves towards me and touches my ethereal form where my head should be¡­ Nothing changes though. He points at the shrine. I look at where he was pointing. Something so small I hadn''t noticed it yet. Its the tiniest sword I''ve ever seen. So small to the point it wouldn''t be usable as a weapon. A weapon close to the size of a finger tip is visible. I inspect it to see the effect it has. ¡°Sword of Learning¡± As you level more classes and jobs the sword will grow. I pick the tiny sword up and notice something behind the shrine. It''s a book, as I pick it up. Before I can read any of it I''m born into the world again. I''m reborn as a human. It would''ve been unfortunate to be reborn as something else. Humans have the numerical superiority. Any nonhuman races get discriminated in some parts of the world. Humans are top of the food chain so luckily I was made one. Now that I think about it... It''s kind of weird that I''m able to think since I''m a baby... Wait! How can I remember my past life?! Normally when you''re reborn your memories disappear until you die again. I look up at my new mother, she''s very beautiful. I think... It is hard to tell for some reason. I can tell from how many people are overlooking the birth. I''m from an important and wealthy family. I look around and my eyes stop on a slightly overweight, short man crying like a big baby. He must be my father. As I think that, he opens is mouth blubbering. ¡°Elise, Elise! Look! He is looking directly at me, our child is going to be a genius!¡± The woman who just birthed me spoke up. ¡°Of course Kite is. He''s got the blood of a nobleman and the most beautiful women in the village running through his veins.¡± She turns her nose up after saying this. It off put me by how arrogant it sounded. She points at the wet nurse holding me. Elise is visibly tired, sweat dripping from her face. ¡°You there. Give Kite to Geoffrey.¡± The nurse who''s name I haven''t heard yet gently hands me over to my father. I feel his hand give way as he almost drops me. My mother, even having recently given birth, starts to move then stands up as she yells at the nurse. ¡°You idiot you almost dropped Kite!¡± I don''t think after giving birth you''re supposed to start moving within minutes of it... The more she talks the more I begin to hate my mother. In no way was that the nurses fault. Feeling more exhausted than I''ve ever felt in my previous life besides when I died. I only remember parts of my past life though. I fall asleep.
New title gained Heir- increased gold gained throughout ones lifetime
New title gained Child- increase learning speed for classes
New skill gained Early bird- wake up two hours earlier than most other people with no repercussions to your well being
New skill gained Inspect- Able to scan items for valuable information
Chapter 1.5 This chapter is for class/skill/job descriptions, you can skip this chapter if you want as it might contain spoilers to what Kite will unlock eventually. As the story goes on more of these side chapters will be added when Kite gains a power spike through a long period of training. These chapters cover more of the technical aspect of the book and I understand that some people only want to read a story and not be bogged down by the technical aspects of each fight. When Kite is reincarnated he remembered most of the details to each class. So his decisions are based on trying to get the best classes for himself. Strength based classes are Spoiler :
Warrior- passive skill gained is Survivability- decreases damage you take as you level, passive stat increase strength and total rage Level 1 skill Headbutt- smashes head into opponent to temporarily stun them
Fighter- passive skill gained is Light armor proficiency- able to wear light armor with no detrimental effects to movement speed, passive stat increase critical strike chance Level 1 skill Opportune Strike- strike with increased damage and critical strike chance but only when opponent is off-guard
Berserker- passive skill gained is Berserking- go into a frenzy that increases damage dealt but prevents magic usage and lowers defense slightly, passive increase to total rage and rage regen Level 1 skill Frenzied Strikes- attack in succession with more force and strength, need to be in berserking
Dragoon- passive skill gained Leap- able to jump higher as you level/ deal more damage based on fall distance, passive stat increase strength Level 1 passive skill Polearm proficiency- able to use polearms more easily
Dexterity based classes are Spoiler :
Bard- passive skill gained is Music knowledge- able to learn instruments more easily, passive stat increase dexterity Level 1 skill Strength ballad- play a song that increases the strength of all allies
Archer- passive ability is Ranged weapons proficiency- able to use bows, throwing knives and other ranged weapons more easily, passive stat increase dexterity and energy regen Level 1 skill Focused shot- Puts more focus into your shot dealing more damage and accurately targeting weak points
Thief- active ability is Hide- harder to detect easier to blend into crowds (cannot move or skill releases), passive stat increase maximum energy and energy regen Level 1 skill Steal- attempt to steal items
Beast tamer- passive skill gained is Taming- able to tame monsters to fight for you (can tame more as you level), passive skill increase maximum fatigue points and energy
Intelligence based classes are Spoiler :
Black mage- passive skill gained is Mana control- able to increase or decrease the mana and effect of most magics, passive stat increase intelligence Level 1 skill Fireball- cast fire magic
White mage- passive skill gained is Mana recovery- able to sacrifice fatigue points to regenerate mana, passive stat increase mana regen Level 1 skill Heal- cures injuries (cant heal complicated injuries, lost limbs or cure death)
Red mage ¡°Spell-sword¡±- passive skill Infuse- able to empower weapons with magic, passive very slight increase to all stats
Blue mage- passive skill Monster copy- Through watching monsters preform skills have the chance to learn from them, passive very slight increase to all stats
Purple mage ¡°Warlock¡±- passive skill Darkness absorption- Able to absorb mana during the night time, passive stat increase to total mana Level 1 skill Ignite- burns the target causing fire damage over time.
Grey mage ¡°Time mage¡±- passive skill Quick thinking- Increased thought processing speed as you level, passive stat increase to mana regen Level 1 skill Haste- increases the movement speed and attack speed of allies it is cast on
Orange mage ¡°Illusionist¡±- passive skill Sharp mind- Harder to be controlled by magic, passive stat increase to intelligence Level 1 skill Throw sound- can toss sounds to distract opponents
Green mage ¡°Nature mage¡±- passive skill Natural Absorption- Able to absorb mana from surrounding nature, passive stat increase to health regen Level 1 skill Nature shift- Able to move earth and able to increase the size of wood slightly
Summoner- passive skill Mana cost reduction- permanent reduction to all moves that consume mana by 10%, passive stat increase intelligence Level 1 skill Summon Familiar- summons a familiar to do your bidding, can slightly control whats made with thought, any summoned familiar reserves 10% of your mana per familiar
Warden- passive skill Mana tide- increases maximum mana as you level, passive stat increase to intelligence Level 1 skill Shield- casts a defensive shield that reduces physical damage
Stamina based classes are Spoiler :
Druid- passive skill Shape shifting- Able to change into different types of animals, passive stat increase to stamina Level 1 skill Rejuvenate- casts a healing effect on an ally that persists for a whole day, heals 10% of their health every hour but causes mana backlash for half the value of the spell making the mana unusable unless sacrificing health equivalent to the backlash (can shape shift into a mouse)
Monk- passive skill Unlock chi- Able to use chi which is hidden/stored energy within your body through meditation, passive stat increase to stamina Level 1 skill Chi wave- uses stored chi to cause damage to everything in front of you (damage is relevant to amount of chi used)
Paladin- passive skill Charismatic- Increased charisma as you level more likely people will like you, passive stat increase to charisma Level 1 skill Mock- attempt to provoke the enemy into making a mistake (can make the target attack you if it fails)
Shaman- passive skill Totem user- Able to use totems that give buffs to surrounding party members, passive stat increase to fatigue points Level 1 skill Purge- removes a beneficial effect from an enemy
Knight- passive skill Endurance training- decreases fatigue point consumption by 50%, passive stat increase stamina Level 1 skill Stamina boost 1- permanently increases stamina by 10%
Guardian- passive skill Heavy armor proficiency- able to use heavy armor with only slight negative effects to movement speed, passive increase to health and health regen Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.Level 1 skill Defensive stance- take a more defensive stance dropping your attack stats to increase your psychical resistance
Specialty classes Spoiler :
Scout- passive skill Visual perception- increased field of vision as you level, passive increase to running speed and reduces the cost of fatigue points from running
Freelancer- passive skill Growth- gain more stats from leveling (one to each stat every level), passive slight increase to all stats
Scholar- passive skill Speed reading- able to read faster, learn more from each book, passive increase in leveling from reading Level 1 skill Calculate- able to do math more easily, helps keep track of money easier
¡°Master of Learning¡±- passive skill Learning from seeing/Learning from doing- able to learn classes, jobs and skills from seeing or practicing towards becoming it, passive increase to memorizing
Classes I know exist but haven''t unlocked yet Spoiler : Ninja, Spellthief, Pirate, Elementalist, Bandit, Blood knight, Viking Extra class information Spoiler :
Most classes have secret skills that unlock like titles and achievements. Most classes learn new skills at levels 1, 10, 25, 50 and 100. Some class skills, if similar, will merge combining the two. It doesn''t happen normally until the classes level up. Some classes like the ones above are reliant on where you''re born. An example being, if you''re born in a ninja village, your primary and secondary classes have a high chance of being ninja. Now that I''m done going over the classes in my head it feels like I''ve memorized far more of the classes than I would have without the passive¡­
Jobs Spoiler :
Alchemist- Able to make potions and poisons more easily
Blacksmith- Able to make metal based weapons more easily
Woodworking- Able to make wood based products more easily
Jeweler- Able to make jewelry more easily
Leatherworker- Able to make leather based equipment more easily
Chef- Able to cook monsters to make them less poisonous and increase in food produced
Tailor- Able to make cloth based equipment more easily
Engineering- Able to make mechanical based products more easily
Gatherer- Increases you''re capacity to harvest everything needed for other jobs
Fisher- Increases success rate for fishing
Doctor- Able to diagnose illnesses and treat injuries
Farmer- Increases production of plants grown as well as animals raised
Detective- Upgrades Inspect skill to detect, increased chance to prevent, detect and stop crimes from happening
Tutor- Able to teach people skills, jobs easier (some skills can only be learned from tutoring)
Land Owner- Able to manage land more easily
Construction- Able to draw up plans and build structures more easily
Deconstruction- Able to see weak points in objects you can take advantage of, helps deconstruct items more easily
Mason- Able to build concrete based objects more easily
Merchant- Better buying and selling rates through haggling
Enchanting- Able to add stat boosts to items or add magic spells to an item (Not both will cause explosion) unless enchanted with a rare quality enchant
Synthesizing- Able to combine two like objects the stronger one has more dominant characteristics in the finished product
Automaton Creation- Able to make living dolls that can understand and do basic commands like cleaning and fighting
Extra job information Spoiler :
Jobs work the same way classes do. When they hit level 100 they can change and grow into better jobs, either by becoming a master of that job or changing it into a different one. I''ve mastered the chef job in my old life and I can remember either becoming a master chef or a glutton. I only remember that the definition for glutton meant that I couldn''t cook food anymore so I didn''t pick it. Not sure if I''ll have to specialize with the ¡°Master or Learning¡± class or if I get both but it will be awhile before I have to worry about it. When you become 10 years old, you get your first heirloom piece and at 15 you get your secondary heirloom piece. I really want to know what was on that book but I''ll have to wait 15 years to find out.
Stats Spoiler :
Strength- Determines how strong your melee attacks are, also effects blocking ability and total rage
Dexterity- Determines your attack speed, also effects evasion ability and total energy
Intelligence- Determines how strong your magic is, also effects magic resistance and total mana
Stamina- Determines how much damage you take, also effects total fatigue points and total health
Auxiliary stats
Critical strike- increase the chance of inflicting extra damage every hit
Resistance- increase the chance of resisting status effects
Hit chance- decreases the chance of missing attacks
Health regen- increases the speed that your health naturally recovers over time
Mana regen- increases the speed that your mana naturally recovers over time
Energy regen- increases the speed that your energy naturally recovers over time
Rage- increased through dealing and taking damage
Fatigue points- determines how quickly you are worn out from physical activities, also determines your carry weight without being worn out through activities
Chi- form of stored power in your body, can only be increased through meditation but there is no cap on the amount that can be generated
Chapter 2 My first birthday I wake up and check my stats, they are far below average in almost every category¡­ I''ve never seen the stats of a baby before. I have no memories until I was around 5 in my previous life. I have a few titles that weren''t announced and a few skills that weren''t announced either. I also inherited 4 classes and 4 jobs from my parents. Warrior, probably from my mother. Berserker, well that would explain some of her attitude problems. Thief, guessing from my father. Archer, he seemed kind of inept and clumsy for having 2 dexterity classes. Merchant, guessing father again. Farmer, probably mother. Blacksmith, guessing mother again. Leatherworker, guessing from my father, it would make sense for his classes
Title Past life king- Increases chances of becoming a king again.
Title Past life guild leader- Increases chances of becoming a guild leader again.
Skill Learning through doing- Able to learn classes, jobs and skills from hard work and practice
Skill Learning through seeing- Able to learn classes, jobs and skills from watching other people use them
Skill Insomniac- Able to stay up two hours later than most people with no repercussions to health
With insomniac I only need 4 hours a sleep every night. Even so I need to start getting control over my body as fast as possible. I spend the rest of the day learning to control my body, strengthening it. It''s been 2 months since I''ve been born. From the skill learning through seeing I''ve learned 3 classes. Bard, white mage, and scout. I also learned 3 jobs doctor, gatherer and tutor. All from the maids and butlers around the house. With the speed I''m learning. I have no idea how no one has ever made it passed level 20... Something else must work against me to impede my leveling. I''ve picked up a few classes I definitely needed early on in my life. Warrior and scout in particular. Since they have passive skills that increase when I level. Bard isn''t bad either since the passive skill is going to help me pick an instrument to play later on in life.I make a mental list of all the classes I need before I start leveling through combat. I can train my classes through practice until I''m ready for actual combat. Monk- it unlocks a new resource for skills called chi. If I start channeling that at a young age, I could build up an incredible amount of it. Blue Mage- the ability to learn monsters attacks especially early on would go a long way. Paladin- once again a permanent increase as I level, I''m not sure what charisma is though. Time mage- the ability to think in battle is the key to victory. Knight- decreasing how quickly I''m fatigued will help me train for longer. Warden- this is probably the most important passive skill out of them all, as soon as I''m able to speak or crawl I''ll have to ask for a book of some sort to explain warden to me. Dragoon- the ability to jump higher seems pretty weak but I''ve known people with this class and could jump over 50 feet in the air. Freelancer- its and extremely easy class to get and to level as well and it gives passive stats as you level. Scholar- almost as important as warden. Decreasing the time it takes to read something would help me learn quicker through reading. It''s been another 2 months. I can barely crawl now. Still cant control my vocal cords enough to talk yet. I can only make grunting noises. Everyone is amazed at how fast I''m learning. Normally it would take a baby around 6 months to start crawling. Funny enough I gained a level in scout from crawling. Making my crawl speed slightly faster. It''s been 2 more months since I''ve been born. I can speak very clearly now. I have asked for a book on warden magic. Most of the maids and butlers amazement has turned to fear for some reason. The ability to read at 6 months would be extremely freaky to see. Especially since no one has taught me. Another month and I can barely walk. I''ve learned warden, scholar, freelancer and time mage. I haven''t had a chance to practice them yet. I keep hearing whispers under the breath of the maids and butlers at the house. Some of them had grown to hate me and I don''t understand why. Could it be because of my parents? I haven''t seen much of my parents since I''ve been born. My mother tends to laze about in her room or outside on the patio sunbathing... She''s so vain it makes me hope I didn''t get a lot of her genes. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. My father is always locked in his study. The few times I''ve seen him has only been when he''s visited me or while we eat. The few times he''s picked me up since I was born, he hasn''t almost fumbled me. While walking out of my room once, he tripped on nothing. He called a maid in to clean the water he spilled knocking over a flower vase while making a joke at her for making him trip... Nearing my first birthday I woke up to a maid staring down at me. It was the one my mother yelled at when I was born and also my wet nurse. She was holding a knife in her hand... I pretended to be asleep. It''s not like I could defend myself against a knife. I''m a freaking baby. She was muttering loud enough for me to hear her. ¡°This boy isn''t normal... If I let him live, he might have a bad influence on Lance when they get older... He might even try to kill him.¡± I barely open my eyes. Trying to be conspicuous without being noticed. I can see her visibly shaking almost in fear. After a whole hour of staring at me with my eyes closed she finally left. I have no doubt she is afraid I''m going to turn out like my mother and bully her son... This is still a problem that needs to be dealt with. I told my mother the next day what happened. The wet nurse was thrown from a window on the second floor. Falling onto the patio my mother would always sunbathe on. Breaking the chair she would lay on. The wet nurse died from her injuries. My mother is extremely scary. I''ve decided to tell my father that I can use more than 2 classes. He broke down crying from happiness at how talented his son was. He took me into his study where I watched him work on bills for the small village. He''s the mayor of the village we live in. From what I understand, most people outside and inside the village hate both my parents. Geoffrey for the heavy taxes he puts onto the village and Elise for the belligerent attitude she has towards everyone¡­ Since I''ve been born I haven''t seen either show affection towards the other. It''s hard to treat them as my parents... In my previous life I was older than both of them when I died... I can''t really look at either as an authority figure when I''m certain I''m smarter than either of them. On the day of my birthday, I was woken up for a party. Normally most people don¡¯t celebrate each birth, only focusing on the 10th and 15th birthdays. Each signifying the thresholds into adolescence and into adulthood. I probably got a party because I''m the mayors child. With money to throw around I can understand why he would throw his child a party. My father bent over, getting close to my face as he spoke. ¡°Very good, very good Kite do you know what today is?¡± Elise in the midst of finishing a glass of wine chimed in. ¡°Of course he wouldn''t you jackass, he''s never had one before!¡± Geoffrey''s shoulders dropped, as if a huge weight was put on them. I answered his question anyways. ¡°It''s my birthday.¡± Everyone in the room went silent as their eyes showed surprise in them. ¡°Hahaho! I knew Kite was smart enough to figure it out.¡± Geoffrey boasted while Elise filled another glass with wine and glared at him. He continued to speak. ¡°On your birthday, you get gifts from all the members of the house.¡± I looked around the room at people facing me. Obviously forced to do this. ¡°Shouldn''t they have a choice to buy me something if they wanted to? They shouldn''t be forced...¡± I said meekly, trying to act my current age. The looks of surprise on everyone''s faces deepened by what I just said. Some showed fear of retaliation from Elise. It didn''t come. After a few awkward moments, Geoffrey finally broke the silence. ¡°Of course they wanted to buy you gifts Kite. Why would you think otherwise?¡± I couldn''t answer him honestly. I already knew that. ¡°It seems unfair that I have a party but none of the other children do. Shouldn''t we all have parties?¡± The room is completely quite. I ruined my own party trying to be the good guy. At that moment I learned 2 new skills.
Secret Thief skill Capable liar- Able to more easily lie to others
Secret Thief skill Predict lies- Able to tell whether someones lying easier
As I go through my presents I got, Elise is constantly critiquing everything about each gift. I received a few outfits to wear. A tiny practice sword, so small it would be silly to anyone who wasn''t a 1 year old boy to have. Books, some class books to read and few of which are language books. The language books were on the dwarven and elven languages. I''m actually surprised by how many good gifts I received from everyone. Finally it came to my parents gift. It was a golden comb. Probably valued at more then all the other gifts put together¡­ Even so, it wasn''t nearly my favorite gift. My parents don''t understand me at all. After a good portion of time had passed, both my parents were the first to leave. I thanked everyone from the bottom of my heart. I really enjoyed the thought they put into each gift. A maid thanked me for having her children in my thoughts. From the look on her face it was sincere as well. With that, I slowly started to gain everybody''s trust. Chapter 3 Getting stronger every day The next year flew by without much incident. I managed to get the classes blue mage, knight, dragoon and druid. All from either reading books or the few times I''ve left the manor with a maid to go into the village. Only a few off of the ones I need before I would can start leveling in the most efficient way possible... If I wasn''t still a baby that is. With how everything is going, I don''t understand how no one has made it passed level 20 as this class yet. Through my training I managed to get most classes I have unlocked to level 3. Freelancer and scout are level 4. I didn''t get a second birthday. It seems my parents are too busy to bother with something like that. It is fine though, I shouldn''t. It seems like a waste to me. The unnecessary celebration of when I was born seems unimportant to me. I''m now 3 years old. A whole year has went by. I managed to train myself to unlock the fighter and guardian classes. I begged my father to get more books in black mage and red mage. Even going as far as forcing him to hire a tutor for the monk class. My father doesn''t see me as anything more then a nuisance that spends all his hard earned money now. The good news is I only need 1 more class before I can start leveling. Maybe I should focus more on learning jobs for the next year. That is what I decide to do. Collecting as many jobs as I can. It was very easy to get the chef job. Just entering the kitchen to watch them cook a few times was enough. I started asking my maid while we were out to visit different shops as we go. Over the next few months ,I managed to learn the alchemist, woodworker, jeweler, tailor and fisher jobs. It''s now getting close to my 4th birthday. All my classes are level 4. Another year without a party. It is understandable and I know I probably wont get another one until I''m 10. Nothing very exciting happened the next year. Everything just proceeded like normal. I managed to watch a house be torn down and replaced with a stable. So I did manage to get the construction, deconstruction and mason jobs. The only jobs I don''t have are the ones I need the most. The past few years, besides acquiring my new classes and jobs, I''ve been working on leveling them through training. Just focusing on getting stronger all the time, my classes reached level 5. Another year passed without a birthday. I noticed that most of the classes I don''t have are now intellect classes. They are much harder to learn through training. I''ve asked Geoffrey if I could be sent to a school for magicians. ¡°Maybe when you''re older Kite. You are still too young and might get kidnapped heading anywhere outside of the village.¡± My father is clumsy and a little forgetful but he isn''t a fool. I took what he said to heart. I started visiting the stables because the owner happened to be a beast master and by watching him I managed to unlock beast tamer. Which to my surprise was already close to level 6. I started hitting myself thinking of how I should have held back on learning some classes. At least until a master of that class was around so I could learn from them. My life right now consists only of training. From the moment I wake up I go for an hour long run. The next hour was mixed weapons training for all my class weapons. I managed to make them out of wood with the woodworker job. For spells, throughout the day I''m constantly casting spells. Keeping any buffs active like defensive stance that I possibly can. I go out and punch a training dummy until my hands are bleeding. Then I heal the wound by chanting the heal spell. I sometimes head into the village to look for books I don''t have and greet the villagers. I''m very bad with faces and names... Often forgetting them even in the same conversation. My sole mission is to get stronger, so I often get bored with any conversation I''m in. Most people know me by name at least. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. After that I''m either self teaching myself dwarven and elven languages. Which I''m almost done mastering or building chi within my body to use later as a last resort. Monk is going to be my secret weapon. Just waiting for someone to come by that can teach me how to be a paladin. Finally it happened! A paladin named Zeke, from the city to the east named Shienta passed through the town. I asked for a demonstration from him and managed to pick up the last class I needed. I learned paladin. If I had a set of gear I could possibly start leveling. I started begging my father again for a nice set of armor but he shut me down. It''s understandable, it would cost as much as a house to get a high grade set and being so young I''d outgrow it in a year. I started to work towards buying a plain set of equipment. I started working as an apprentice at the local blacksmith. A few people gave me weird looks since I''m the son of the mayor of the village. Surprisingly, my mother Elise came to visit me at work. She watched me work for a little bit. Giving me pointers on how to do some of the grunt work for the blacksmith. Its the first good memory I''ve ever made with Elise. She has tried to talk with me before but I would quickly trail off. It was normally questions about myself or something along those lines. I just can''t deal with talking to people as I quickly become bored and stop listening or abandon the conversation completely. I started to dig into both of my parents histories. As it turns out, my mother used to live on a farm near the village. When she was old enough, she started working at the blacksmiths just like me. She quickly became well known for her particularly heavy sets of weapons. As she started getting more famous, she started to get a bigger head on her and it eventually snowballed into who she is today. That is only my guess though. Elise also started adventuring with a few other village members and actually became fairly famous as an adventurer. At least to the people of the village. Geoffrey was mayor at the time and 15 years older than my mother. He went to ask for her hand in marriage. Her father didn''t want to determine her marriage but Geoffrey started talking about how much money he had. How well off she would do for herself as well as other family members. Her father still refused him but eventually word got back to Elise. At the promise of helping her father and mother live a more comfortable life. She agreed to his proposal. They were married and actually lived somewhat happily together. Until she got pregnant with me. Geoffrey said that she should quit being a blacksmith since she didn''t have to work anymore. She lost 2 things she loved, adventuring and blacksmithing. I think this started to make her more bitter and mean. The biggest shock was that near my first birthday her mother had died. That might be why she acted so violently around that time. Chapter 4 Changing point I decided to visit the farm where my mother grew up. It was only about a 5 minute walk from the village so it was safe enough. As I got closer, I can see fields upon fields of all vegetables. I assume these fields are what feeds our village. No, there is too much being grown here. This food probably feeds several villages worth of people. A man with slightly graying black hair was out working the fields. I approached him. Without looking away from tending the field he talks. ¡°Might I ask why a little boy like yourself would venture to my farm?¡± ¡°My mother grew up here I was just visiting.¡± The man lays his sickle down, he was cutting wheat with it. He turns towards me offering a handshake while speaking. ¡°Oh, I must be your grandpa then, my name is Grey.¡± I give him mine and we head inside his modest home while talking more. ¡°So why now? After almost 7 years, why do you decide to visit?¡± Grey asks. While I could have told him the truth, I decided to test him with capable liar. ¡°Well most kids don''t leave the village until around this age and I was afraid of getting attacked by monsters.¡± Judging by his face he could see right through my lies... This man has something different about him. ¡°I know that''s a lie, not only can I tell by your face but you could have also come visit with your mother the few dozen times she visited.¡± I feel dumbfounded. I don''t remember Elise ever coming here to visit. We don''t really talk much but now that I think about it, she did ask me a few times while I was training or reading and I blew her off. He could get a read on my face of what I was thinking. ¡°I guess you just now remember her asking. What were you doing that was so important you couldn''t visit family?¡± I decide not to lie. ¡°I was training...¡± He looked slightly disappointed by my answer. ¡°Well if you don''t have time to visit me, at least have the time to learn the names of the maids and butlers at your house.¡± I looked at him shocked. Thinking now, I don''t remember a single one of their names. I can''t remember many of the conversations I''ve had with them or my parents up until now... I''ve been so worried about training, I didn''t bother to live like a normal person at all. Thinking that living is tedious is just not a good way to live. Grey softly smiles as he almost reads my mind through the facial expressions I''m making. ¡°As long as you get it now. Oh and before you leave take this.¡± He hands me a necklace with a cross on it. After inspecting it, I can see it has very weak protection magic enchanted on it but that''s not why he gave it to me. ¡°Something to remember your grandmother by since you''ve never met her.¡± I clutch it in my hands. I''ve never felt so ashamed in my entire life. I need to start caring more about other things besides training. I need to be a better person. I''ve spent the last few days learning everyone who lives in our houses names and their appearances. We have 5 maids all ranging in age from 15 to almost 50. Starting with the youngest and working my way up is Kora. She''s actually related to my mother, they''re cousins making her a relation to me through my mother. She loves her job here since she gets to live in a giant house, even if she has to clean it. Hard to explain how she looks... Reddish hair, similar to mine and my mothers, slightly shorter than an average women her age... No apparent scars or anything like that either. The next 2 are twins... How did I not notice before?! I must have thought they were only one person. They are named Ashley and Kattie. Ashley loves cooking and she makes all the food for the house by herself. I think she is pretty, it is hard to tell. Blonde hair... I''m really bad at caring what people look like. Same with names, it had taken me a considerable time and effort to learn their names. Kattie has a slight almost unnoticeable scar below her lip. It is a distinguishing feature I could use to tell them apart. Kattie was one of the adventurers that with in my mother Elise''s group. I probably learned the white mage class from her. She reads books in her spare time and dislikes housework. Often getting scolded by the older maids who catch her snoozing in different locations throughout the day. Even though she has bard and white mage as her classes, she is still in surprisingly good shape. Through constant travel during adventuring she has built up a physique. Often needing to help with more of the laborious tasks around the house. The second oldest maid was named Beatrice. From her eyes I could tell she still holds a grudge against my family. I think she might have been related to the wet nurse my mother killed. Perhaps she just doesn''t like serving people... I''m not sure. She isn''t very pretty, at the same time she isn''t ugly... I''ll put more effort into fixing the broken relationship between her and my family... I need to be more caring to her children. Lastly is Donna the oldest of the maids and also the head maid. She has a very kind face to her. A soft beauty peaks through the crows feet on her face. She must have been a real beauty in her younger days that is somewhat faded now. Always holding a smile and from talking with her, I found out she''s actually a druid. That''s probably where I learned it from. The very few mage classes I have are from the staff around here. It isn''t like mages are rare or anything, it is just the size of the village is so small I haven''t been able to learn many of them. They are more rare then strength or dexterity based classes though. Donna is the only one who doesn''t wear a maids outfit, instead wearing her robe that makes her stand out far more. She is also the only doctor in the village and often leaves to make house visits to the few dozen other occupants of this tiny village. I met with the 3 butlers, all 3 are brothers. Thomas, Timothy and Theodore¡­ Not very creative names but they all seemed nice enough. Thomas was an inventor, who often liked to tinker with items. I would say the best way to describe him is covered in self inflicted injures from experiments. All 3 brothers have the same height, build and hair color so finding other distinguishing things about them is important. He''s actually well known for the few improvements he''s made to some of the local businesses. Timothy was also an adventurer my mother traveled with for a short time. It turns out the he was a scout and a freelancer. So that''s where I learned those 2 from. It seems like quite a few of the people in this house were adventurers at one point. Timothy took a blow from a hobgoblins mace in the leg. This ruined his career around the same time my mother had gotten married. He talks about her a lot. When I talk with him I get the feeling that he was in love with her at one point but it wasn''t reciprocated. He normally walks with a limp and sometimes carries a walking stick with him. His wound is in a place that can''t be healed with normal healing magic unfortunately. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. The last and oldest brother was Theodore. He was a well respected librarian at the magic school in Shienta, the city to the east. Until someone caught the library on fire while practicing magic. He was blamed for their actions. He picked 2 support magic classes which is extremely rare. This is where I learned time mage and warden from. With learning they have to be actively practicing for me to learn them. Each person was using each of their classes almost unknowingly except for Theodore. He was using them passively to continue to level them up. Casting haste on himself to make tasks go by faster or a warden shield to protect himself when doing something dangerous. Classes can be used in everyday life in this way. There are 2 children living with us as well. A boy around my age named Lance. He''s actually the son of wet nurse who''s name I found out was Rosie. She might have died because of my grandmothers death. It seems like Lance was too young to fully understand what happened. When he was old enough to understand everyone else told him a lie that his mother left to go on an adventure. Beatrice has been taking care of him since. It turns out even though he was still so young I might have picked up some classes from him. If I had to describe him in one word, that word would be energetic. Often bothering me while I was training to also train, then getting bored halfway through and running off. Beatrice forbade him from sparring with me so I have no combat experience in a body this small yet. There is also a 10 year old girl named Trice. She''s living in the house training to be a maid. She''s Beatrice''s daughter and she''s very small for her age. Smaller then someone over 3 years younger than her. When Trice turned 10, I knew enough about her to get her a few tools for gardening. Which was a hobby of hers. Trice smiled the biggest when she seen my gift. It made Beatrice happy as well.
Title Gardener- Able to grow plants and herbs faster and with more effect (stacks with farmer)
I''ve kept working at the blacksmiths. While doing so I was still training in the morning for a few hours. The blacksmith I work for is named Duece. Back in the day he was a rival of my fathers. I would say he is a very dirty man, often covered in soot from the forges fire. He has a straggly beard and is one of the few truly strong people in this village. I''ve started to talk more with my mother. She doesn''t really act coldly towards me. Sometimes while we talk I''ll get a smile out of her. We talk about blacksmithing the most. The one thing I know about my mother is she is beautiful. At the same time her temper often gets her into trouble with other people. One of the reasons she had to quit being an adventurer is she got into a fight with the leader of the adventurers guild in Merideth, the capital of this country. We also talk about her days as an adventurer and her father who she respects more than anyone else. It seems Grey was actually an extremely important adventurer when he was younger. Even being in the party that managed to kill a dragon threatening a city to the north of the capital. Talks with my father are far more boring. He''s always busy with the financial problems of the village. Even with that, it''s very easy to get him to laugh at even the dumbest of jokes. I can tell he is a kindhearted person now. He just gets so easily embarrassed by his clumsiness that he doesn''t know how to speak to other people when he trips or falls or drops and breaks something. He''s truly sincere about his love for Elise. When I mention her missing the work at the blacksmiths it seems he gets somewhat angry. I normally drop the topic by then. Perhaps there was a love triangle between the 3 of them? Duece is hiding a muscular and tanned body underneath that layer of dirt... I don''t think so, I''ve never seen my mother show any signs of affection for him... Perhaps it is just my father just being paranoid? It''s getting very close to my 7th birthday I think while I go to sleep.
Title Inventor- Able to see potential inventions easier
Job learned Tinkerer- Able to make improvements onto other jobs with the jobs you have
Job learned Engineer
Job learned Enchanter
Job learned Librarian - Able to more easily find books you need, slightly faster reading speed
"Wow! Thank you Thomas!" I thought to myself when I woke up. I got a job I didn''t even know about. It seems like a very strong job. Thinking about all the modifications I could do to my gear once I level it up a bit makes me happy. I wonder if there is a limit to the amount of modifications I could make to something. Could I make a crossbow with woodworking and automaton creation so that it can take simple commands. Also with engineering so that it self loads bolts. Also enchant with some type of magic¡­ The modifications could make a seemingly useless weapon into something truly powerful. I could also sell heavily modified weapons for more than what I would buy them for. It seems brokenly overpowered if so. I head to Thomas to talk to him about it. He says at low levels it can only do 2 modifications. As tinkerers level increases, you can add more as well as increasing the effectiveness. So it isn''t brokenly strong to start but as I continue to use it, it will slowly get stronger. That is good to know. ¡°But don''t you already have 3 jobs? It wouldn''t be possible to do all of those things since it takes more jobs than what people can learn. Since you''re already a blacksmith you can''t possibly do half of those combinations, let alone all of them.¡± Most people, including the staff at the manor don''t know that I can use more than 2 classes and 3 jobs. When I first told Geoffrey about my class master of learning he warned me I shouldn''t tell many people. Most people fear things they don''t understand. I might even get kidnapped because of this. I avoid telling him for now with a lie. ¡°I was just asking a theoretical question.¡± Chapter 5 First steps of adventure My 7th birthday came. I walked downstairs for my daily run and I caught Kora and Ashley setting up for a party. Putting it together, I guessed it was a birthday party for me. I ran my morning routine and when I got back everyone was there waiting for me. They didn''t bother yelling surprise since I already knew about it. Kora and Ashley both looked a little sad that I figured out. Even so, the party went on. It didn''t look like I was getting gifts. I was fine with that. It just seemed to be a celebration this time. Everyone far happier than my first birthday. We had a little food, nothing fancy though. My last birthday we had a dish containing sugar. Sugar is very rare on this continent, especially because of the pirates cutting off trade between us and the country to the north. Even my mother is smiling and getting along well with everyone. Seeing her happy makes me happy. As the party winded down though Geoffrey made an announcement. ¡°Everyone, I''m glad everyone could get together today to celebrate Kites birthday. Also a going away party for him and Lance.¡± I looked at him slightly confused. ¡°Today is the day you are going to be heading to Shienta to study magic.¡± Geoffrey got to the point. ¡°We can''t forget. We have some parting gifts for you and Lance as well as Kattie. She''ll be escorting you there so you can adventure while you travel.¡± He walked to the closet door and opened it. Inside was a full set of armor, a sword and shield. Lance ended up getting a spear. Kattie got a new wand which amplified healing magic. She didn''t have a weapon previously (this was probably the most expensive piece of equipment). Everything was so expensive looking. In all honestly I didn''t expect this much from my family. We are richer than most but this is such a frivolous purchase. Most equipment this size will be replaced in a few months, buying someone so expensive to only get so little out of it shows how much they care. This gift is far better than comb they had previously gotten me. I graciously accepted all their help. I was very happy how everything turned out. I started crying, realizing I wouldn''t see any of them for a few years. I just started enjoying life here. Lance didn''t understand why but some of the girls as well as Geoffrey started crying too. Tomorrow we leave for Shienta. The next day I woke up. It was probably around 6 in the morning, so I still had some time to kill. We agreed to meet at the gate around 12. Skipping my morning routine, I went straight into town with my new armor on. It was mostly leather armor but had metal to protect certain weak points. A gauntlet on my right hand which was the hand I had a shield in. A very strong but comfortable steel helmet. I had seen it getting made previously by Duece, wondering who it was getting made for. I should have started figuring it out but I still was surprised by this turn of events. I could move very freely in the armor with none of my movements hindered by it. Heading into town, I see people and tell them farewell for now. I head to each business saying the same things. I had been given some money from my father. I also had some from my job as a blacksmith. So I was buying some things I''d need for the journey. A few health and mana potions at the alchemist. Some food from the local chef. I also bought a few carrying pouches for things we might find along the way. I had plenty of time to spare so I haggled the price down 10% with my merchant job. When I finally make it to the blacksmith, my old boss is standing at the entrance. Someone must have told him because he was waiting for me. With a big dumb smile on his face. I could see that he was holding something for me. It was an enchanted gemstone for the sword I had. When I first got the sword, I noticed that it seemed to be missing something but now that question was answered. Deuce placed the gemstone and gave it a few taps with a tiny hammer to secure it. When he did the sword started lighting up, almost as if glowing. Further inspection revealed that it increased the damage of the sword by 10%. It was a high priced gemstone from what I remembered. Probably more then I''d make in a few years of work. Deuce seen me off as I headed to the gate. I checked my equipment and counted the money I have. 10 silver coins from my father and 88 copper coins from my job as a blacksmith. Not much but you can buy a decent piece of armor for around 1 silver. So it might be better to worry about buying Lance some equipment as well. I met with Lance and Kattie. We head off towards the farm where my grandpa lived first. We see him in his fields, he is being diligent as always. I''ve visited Grey a few more times since the first conversation we had. He wasn''t that old but he still had more wisdom to give than what I knew from my previous life. Trying to soak up any last words of advice. ¡°It doesn''t matter how everyone else see''s you. The only thing that matters is how you see yourself.¡± It sounded kind of corny but I get the advice more or less. We''re about to leave before he hands over a stack of vegetables for the journey. We had enough food but more wouldn''t hurt. The road to Shienta would take around 2 weeks to travel without any stops along the way. Since we''re going to be training off monsters the entire way there. It will take longer than 2 weeks. Without much trouble, we almost make it the whole day without getting attacked. We finally get attacked by 3 slimes. Wanting to judge my skill, we pair off. Them fighting 2 on 2 and me fighting one by myself. I start the fight by chanting the black mage spell fireball into my sword with the red mages infuse ability. I pour almost all my mana into it with mana control. Saving just enough mana to heal if I need too. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Going way overboard for a slime that is weak to fire. I engage after the preparation. 6 attacks later it is finally dead. Headbutt didn''t even stun a whole second. Opportune strike did no extra damage because it wasn''t off guard. I have only a fraction of my health left. 2 more well placed hits and I would''ve been done for. I turn to see how Lance and Kattie are doing. They have both been watching me since before my fight even started. Lance managed to kill both his slimes in 1 hit each. Which was faster then I could chant my magic¡­ I feel completely defeated. A slime which isn''t strong enough to kill anything. Almost beat me trying my hardest... We set-up camp for the night. As useless as I am now, I understand how no one has ever managed to get to level 20 as this class. I''ve been training for almost 7 years straight. So much time spent training for such little results... Constantly learning how to use all sorts of different classes to help me. Being outfitted in armor no one my age should have¡­ And still almost losing to the weakest monster... I''m in utter despair at the situation. Now that I think about it, even my magic has never been that strong and it is my best stat. Thinking back to my beginning stats. Most were around 1/4 of any other class¡­ Constantly trying to think of some way to get stronger. I finally go to bed angry. I''ve been thinking about the situation and there is no way to get around not telling Lance and Kattie about my class. I wait for them to both wake up. I had woken up so much earlier than them. If you camp on the road you won''t get attacked by monsters. Only by bandits, so we didn''t bother with a lookout. We are still too close to the town to worry about bandits yet. They both woke up and I pull them in to have a group meeting. ¡°So before we begin the first meeting. We need to think of a group name for our adventurer team.¡± I announced. We agreed the name ¡°Nooby Squad¡± for now and I chime up. ¡°The first meeting of the Nooby Squad commences. First order of business, lets go over each others classes and jobs so we can prepare better for fights.¡± Lance went first. ¡°Lance here! My classes are dragoon and guardian. I haven''t picked any jobs yet. Any heavy armor we get I can wear. Also I should probably be in the front.¡± It seems he thought this through. Kattie went next. ¡°Kattie reporting! White mage and bard are my classes. I have doctor and tutor as my jobs. Please don''t underestimate my support ability!¡± It was my turn. ¡°Kite and my class is master of learning. This class is a special one that gives me the ability to use any class and job I put effort into training. I currently have many classes unlocked and a bunch of jobs unlocked...¡± We sat there for awhile before Lance finally spoke. ¡°Why are you so weak then?¡± He put bluntly. ¡°It''s one of the negatives about this class. It has very poor beginning stats and its very hard to get more until I level up. So until I''m able to fight against enemies by myself. I''ll be relying on you to handle the front Lance.¡± Even more awkward silenced filled the air until Kattie broke it. ¡°Is that why you''re always training?¡± ¡°Yea, that''s the only way to level up classes other than master of learning.¡± Kattie and Lance both understood the situation. We ate breakfast since it was still early and went on our way.The next enemy encounter was 3 more slimes. This time I used the fireball infusion on Lances spear. Casting haste on him which is a time mage ability before the fight started. He didn''t need the buffs but I didn''t want to feel useless. The first attack Lance did blew apart the enemy. Apparently the fireball magic I cast unto his spear was enhanced by his strength. I''m not completely useless thankfully. I can make other people stronger at least with support magic. Support magic is also pretty rare, so I doubt many people will question how weak I am when we get into fights. We get into a few more fights that day before we went to sleep in the road, still no reason to have a lookout. The next day was more of the same. I infused my weapon with fireball magic to see how long it would last. It lasted around 3 hours before my weapon started to cool off. That''s a pretty powerful weapon buff for when I get stronger myself. We fought a petty wolf. Which is a weaker version of a regular wolf. I told Lance not to kill it. He spent a lot of effort just weakening it and I managed to tame it with beast tamer. Comparative to the slime, it''s very weak but it''ll help me level my beast taming up. We set-up camp that night and I wire around the perimeter. If anyone approached our camp it would make noise and we''d be able to wake up. Still no need for a lookout but when it comes to it. It''ll be nice to have a wolf''s keen senses of hearing and smell as an added precaution. I just need to think differently... I''m not strong by myself, but I can be very helpful to a party with a mixture of my skills from all sorts of different classes. Even if they are weaker than normal, anything can still be helpful in the future. Chapter 6 New mission: Kill the Lich We''ve made it to the first fork in the road. It splits two ways and both eventually lead to Shienta. From asking about the route previously, I knew that both were fairly safe. The road to the left does go through a forest. Which has some tougher enemies, like skeletons and a shadows. The path to the left also has a village in the middle of the forest. We could stock up and rest. The path to the right curves around the forest. We might still get attacked by skeletons and shadows but the chances are lower. We unanimously vote to go through the forest. I''m the only real hindrance to the party at the moment. Even so I can still provide some backup. It isn''t long into our journey through the forest that we get attacked by a skeleton and a shadow. Skeletons are exactly as they sound. These are lower level ones so they don''t have any armor or weapons. Lance''s weapon isn''t very effective against them, so it takes more than one hit to kill them. As for the shadows, they''re extremely weak mimics that copy peoples shadows. Extremely weak enemies but if they touch you, they can inflict the status panic. Which might make you more susceptible to other status effects as well as a slight decrease to your resistances to magic. Scout isn''t a very good offensive class but even low level I feel I''m slightly faster at spotting enemies then Lance and Kattie. I start calling them out when I see them so we could start preparing for the fight before we''re noticed. The wolf I tamed died along the way fighting a few skeletons. One of them got a critical and he died in one attack... I feel it was my fault for not being stronger. I''ve only just started getting close to him but... I was still sad to see it die. He would''ve gotten stronger, at least strong enough from me having higher beast tamer skills to survive... I need to get stronger so this doesn''t happen again... We''re halfway to the village when we see something ahead. I alert the other two and we move forward to get a closer look. A merchant is being ambushed by 8 skeletons. A man with a full set of heavy armor is leaning against the cart the merchant has. For some reason the skeletons are armed with swords, shields and helmets. Which shouldn''t be possible in this forest. We rush in to help. I already infused both mine and Lances weapon. I told Kattie to heal the guard as soon as she was in range. We rush forward and get sneak attacks in on the skeletons. Thankfully I had cast haste on Lance before the fight. So he got there first and took most of the threat of the other few skeletons close to the ones we attacked. Lance was now strong enough to kill the skeletons in one hit but these ones were stronger so neither died. He did manage to break off the arm of his and I slashed at the feet of my hobbling it with opportune strike. We found the weakness to the skeletons was their joints. My job was normally crippling them when I could. Kattie managed to get in ranged to heal the guard. The face I could see under his helmet had a scowl on it when she did. I wonder why? He stood up and managed to bludgeon the closest skeleton to him. It was attacking the horse pulling the cart. Before the skeletons we surprised attacked, we managed to crush both of them. Lance killing his and I targeted both of my skeletons arm joints leaving it as just a body. 5 skeletons left. Kattie used magic she hasn''t needed to use so far in the journey, weaken undead. A bright light flew out of her staff. Some of the skeletons started to shake a little. The effects weren''t clear until Lance attacked another skeleton spearing clean through it. I ran towards the cart and cast infuse magic fireball onto the guards mace. He looked confused at first, then understood. His attacks were already powerful enough to kill the skeletons. I just wanted to leech experience from him. A few more minutes and the fight drew to a close. We did pretty well for being such a new group. The merchant thanked us kindly and the guard bowed his head. We stripped the skeletons of all their equipment. Totaling 4 swords, 6 shields and 9 helmets. The guard managed to kill 3 before we showed up but 1 got a lucky critical on him or he might have been able to beat them just by himself. I asked why so many skeletons were attacking and the merchant responded. ¡°A new lich moved into the forest and has been spawning more of these skeletons. I tried to leave before the forest was filled but it looks like I''m too late.¡± We escorted the merchant back to the village he came from. During the fight, I level up once. I started to get a little happy until I heard Lance say. ¡°Alright! 2 levels from that fight!¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I became dishearten again by how slowly I was leveling up. Being level 2 ¡°Master of Learning¡± probably wasn''t any better than level 1¡­ Once entering the village we all split up. I had all the equipment we looted minus a helmet Lance took for himself. I was planning on selling everything. As I was approaching the blacksmith to sell the swords, shields and helmets. I noticed a crowd forming in the center of the town. I quickly sold the gear for roughly 5 percent more then I would''ve gotten if I wasn''t a merchant. I started making my way towards the crowd. I could have possibly gotten around 5 percent more than I did. I would''ve had to haggle the price up with merchant and that would''ve taken time, so I just went with the slightly lower amount. He gave me 1 silver and 20 copper coins. I bought a pair of heavy boots for Lance around 60 copper. I managed to find Kattie near the very back of the crowd. I asked her what was going on. ¡°They''re forming a raid to take down the lich.¡± It seems obvious after I asked. I handed her the 60 copper coins left from the equipment. I didn''t take any money that time for myself. I''m already happy with just getting levels. I''m sure Lance will be fine with not getting any money since I am giving him a pair of boots he can use. On the far side of the crowd, standing on a makeshift podium was the leader of the raid. He was speaking to the whole crowd asking for more people to join. It sounds like they really needed a white mage. Before I could get out a rebuttal that Kattie was a white mage, the guard we saved spoke up. ¡°This women right here is a white mage.¡± He pointed at Kattie. I already planned on joining them but it seems we may have been forced into it anyways. The raiding party ended up being 10 people. The 3 from our group, the guard, the leader and 3 of his members and 2 villager kids. The leaders name was Karn and the guards name was Olaf. Olaf looked dumb... He had a dumb looking face that peaked through his mask. Karn had a very serious face in contrast to Olaf''s... I couldn''t see either of their hair as they were wearing helmets. They''re the only ones I bothered to remember. The other members were kind of bland background characters. Preparations needed to be made so we decided to wait until early morning tomorrow to head there. If we attacked the lich at night he''d have the advantage. I casually asked what everyone''s classes and jobs were. It didn''t seem like any of them had ones I didn''t until we got to the end. One of the villagers who''s name I didn''t learn earlier said their class was summoner. ¡°Oh I''ve never seen a summoner''s familiar before can you possibly summon a few so I can see them?¡± I asked in an inquisitive way and she showed me and a notification popped up one I''ve seen many times now. For that I''ll remember her name¡­ Leaf.
Class learned Summoner
With how tall she is I had mistaken her for a boy until she had spoken. She wasn''t very pretty, I wouldn''t call her ugly either though... Her hair definitely makes her stand out. A very light green color, possibly the inspiration of her name. Besides that she is fairly forgettable. I guess her heirloom robes make her stick out as well. Sort of showing people that she is at least 10. So she is at least 3 years older than me. It has been awhile since I''ve gotten a class. I was extremely happy and the passive skill for summoner is very strong. Reducing the cost of mana consumed by magic spells. Once we leave the village, I''ll summon a few familiars to protect us. While we waited until tomorrow I could finally enchant my gear. With the new skill mana reduction so I could enchant slightly stronger enchants onto them. It still takes an hour to regenerate my mana fully. Since we''re going into a fight against a raid boss level enemy. It would be best to do it now instead of holding off. I enchanted all of our chest pieces with a mana control to 100 percent of my mana to warding magic shield that increases physical defense. The armor felt slightly heavier after doing that. Before I went to sleep, I also enchanted the new boots Lance got with the strongest haste magic I could. Chapter 7 First raid boss Before everyone woke up I enchanted mine and Kattie''s boots with haste. Even using all my mana which shouldn''t be possible for most enchanters, the movement speed increases was only around 10 percent. I guess it''s better than nothing. I went to the local supply shop and bought some enchanting paper. Which has the ability to hold magic, enchants and spells on it. Each piece costs around 10 copper. I bought 10 and enchanted a few with haste magic. A few with heal magic. If I had that weaken undead skill Kattie used, I would also do a few of those. My class isn''t even close to the same level as hers. I head back to the inn we decided to stay at and they are both up. Before we head out, I infuse Lance''s spear with fireball magic again. We head out of the village. Leaf still has her familiar summoned. I asked how long it lasts and Leaf said forever or until it dies... Wow that seems strong and you can summon multiple familiars. The downside is it reserves around 10 percent of your total mana to do it and since Leaf is also a black mage she cant really waste mana on more than a few summons. Leaf says with mana control you can make the familiars stronger. It still only reserves 10 percent of your mana. So that''s good to know. I can tell from the heirloom robe that Leaf is wearing that she is at least 10 years old. When you turn 10 and 15 the class you picked when you reincarnated, you get a piece of equipment from it. It looks like she picked intermediate summoner as her main class. The robe is still a little big on Leaf but she''ll grow into it. On our way there, we are attacked by a few waves of enemies. I''ve warned of every single group before anyone else has noticed. Karn seems to like me since the groups are easy to kill when we have the drop on them. Olaf is an extremely fast fighter. Even for wearing heavy armor and wielding a heavy mace. Both aren''t in his classes expertise bonus so he often misses attacks and gets critically hit¡­ I''m probably the only one besides Karn that realizes this. Which makes you wonder why he just doesn''t wear leather armor and use a different weapon like a sword. Slowly but surely we make it to a freshly erected castle in the forest. It is made out of trees and bones from fallen skeletons. It is still freshly and hastily constructed. Many holes in the building are visible, the sheer speed the building had been constructed most likely left it not structurally sound. There''s also some stone in the design as well. As we head in, I''m at the front of the group acting as a scout. I can see the enemies faster and further away than everyone else. Before we fight I fall back to the middle of our formation. I sense a huge number of skeletons in the next room and tell Karn. He makes a plan to have Kattie cast weaken undead before we go in to give us a better chance. Most of the front liners are situated near the wall of the entrance to the room we''re about to go in. Kattie is also close to the entrance and I can hear her chanting the magic. ¡°Oh great lord of light, give me the power to weaken the enemies with your greatness.¡± Before she finished the whole chant she walked to the very entrance of the door. ¡°Weaken undead!¡± And casts it into the room. Karn, Olaf and Lance having fireball infused weapons and hastened feet ran into the room. They cleared out all the enemies before anyone else could do anything. Around 12 skeletons were in the room. It might have been a difficult fight if we didn''t put all the extra effort into preparations for the fight. Olaf''s been looking at me weirdly since we''ve made it into the castle. After a few more rooms are cleared he finally asks. ¡°Hey Kite how are you able to use black magic, time magic and the red mages infuse skill?¡± It caught me off guard. I had prepared a canned speech I thought up in case someone noticed. ¡°I''ve been using haste scrolls for the majority. My mother was a time mage with enchanting so I have a few from her.¡± The planned out lie was questioned. ¡°But also you''re gear is not normal for a mage to have and you''re chanting the time magic when you use it.¡± Thinking quickly I say. ¡°You''re not wearing the right armor either! My mother taught me the chant so I know it and say it to give the people I use it on a heads up that it is being cast on them.¡± He looks suspiciously at me, with a look of anger in his eyes before he gives up. I guess he didn''t care too much. A few more rooms and we''re getting way too much equipment to carry. We decide to make a trip back to the closest room near the entrance and deposit everything. Most likely it''ll be sold by Karn and split between us. With him taking a slightly larger portion for himself since he''s the leader. We finish clearing out the wing we were in and hit a dead end. We head back to near the entrance and there''s a similar sized wing on the opposite side of the entrance. We start to clear that wing but near the end of it is a giant door. The Lich is definitely in there. Before we even open the door I can feel chills running down my back. I''ve gotten them in my previous life when a raid boss was around. I''ve only taken part in a few raids in my previous life. Even if the enemy was supposedly weak, almost always someone ends up dead... My goal this fight is to minimize that number. Seeing as we have only 1 ¡°healer¡±. Chances are it will end up being more than just 1 person. If I could heal without my cover being blown I would. It is too dangerous... I''m still too weak, people will take advantage of my ability to fill any position if I let them. I prep some druid magic under my breath and cast weakened rejuvenation magic on everyone in the party including Olaf. The way rejuvenate works is it is a very, very slow heal that lasts for 24 hours. Healing roughly 10 percent of someones total health every hour. Since I cast a weaker version, it will be less but it wont be noticeable. The mana backlash that I can''t use is lessened down to about 1 percent per person. I would guess the total health gained from this weak rejuvenation to be about 2-3 percent health regained every hour. We do some final prep before we walk into the room. Kattie had already started casting weaken undead. Managing to get it off just like always. Everyone went rushing in. Olaf, Karn and Lance leading the charge. Even with suspicious eyes on me, I chanted haste before hand on all 3 of them. Haste lasts around 1 minute. So that''s all the help they can get from me from that. I also gave each a haste scroll just in case as well as a healing scroll. As soon as I walk through the door, fear shoots through me. I see the lich, he''s a giant compared to the other skeletons. Even so that doesn''t mean there aren''t a ton of skeletons in the room. Around 20 skeletons in the room. Most are dying in one hit. Weaken undead should last around 5 minutes. So all the ones in the room should be effected before it wears off. As soon as Kattie is done casting, she pulls out a harp and starts playing it. I feel slightly more powerful than before because she is playing the strength ballad. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. With half the skeletons being wiped out, the lich attacks with ice magic, freezing one of Karn''s members completely solid. He''ll die from suffocation if no one hurries and frees him. I rush towards the block of ice chanting fireball magic. ¡°Oh great lord of fire, free your rage onto your unsuspecting enemies, Fireball!¡± I shouted. The ice around him starts to melt and he falls to the ground. I might have also hurt him if I wasn''t such a weak mage. Leaf was also chanting the same magic as me but with no ice covered ally to assist Leaf aims at the lich. A fireball shoots out of her hand. It''s easily twice the size of mine and we probably used around the same mana to make it. I had given Leaf a mana potion before we entered the room and I see her drinking it already. ¡°Foolish¡± I think to myself. What a waste of a potion, this is still far too early in the fight. They recover more mana the lower your mana is. The fight was raging on for around 30 minutes. Fights normally don''t take this long. Even raid bosses. But we''re lacking good attackers. Lance and Olaf are carrying the damage by themselves. The only reason we haven''t been wiped out is because of Kattie''s amazing healing and Karn''s tanking. He is holding the lich at bay single handed. The lich has continued to spawn skeletons. Lance has been the person on cleanup duty for those. Leaf ran out of mana 5 minutes into the fight and was useless. With a few pot shots being thrown at the lich. The lich constantly summoning more skeletons and aiming to freeze us. The lich made a design flaw when he built his throne room. There are giant stone pillars leading up to his throne. Anyone being attacked by his magic can easily duck behind and not get hit. That being said, a few times the unnamed adventurers have been hit by it. One has already been knocked unconscious or is dead from constantly taking unnecessary damage. The other one I''ve been constantly saving with well timed fireballs and physically pushing him out of harms way. It feels like I''m herding a sheep to safety when I do. The lich notices the weak link and continuously picks him to target. I doubt he will last through this fight and will be another victim. Lance is handling the skeletons being spawned almost effortlessly. He will become a very strong person in the future, acting as a secondary tank to let Karn focus on keeping the lich occupied. If the lich was aloud to run free during this fight we would have far more casualties. Being primarily a caster he doesn''t attack very often, but with each swing the sound of its power echoes through the shoddily constructed building. Each blow making a unique sound as it passes through some of the openings in the building. If Olaf was landing more of his attacks the fight would be over already. Each strike echoes the same strength as the lich''s but it almost seems like Olaf doesn''t know how to wield it properly. He swings it around like a 2 handed sword instead of a mace. If he had any experience he would know how to wield it more effectively. He is still far more useful than the adventurers Karn has brought. The single skilled one is doing barely anything in this fight. Using a bow and arrow against skeletons isn''t working very well. He should have bought armor piercing tips designed to ram instead of pierce. The fatter head might be able to deal more damage than the nicks it is causing the skeletons at the moment. Besides myself and Karn. It feels like everyone was under prepared. We''re going to fight a deadly creature and they didn''t make any adjustments to their fighting style. Some bosses just need to be dealt with differently. I wish I had more time to prepare, I would have enchanted everyones gear with some type of effect. Knowing we were fighting against a lich I should have realized people wouldn''t understand how to avoid attacks. Even just explaining the boss beforehand could have saved a few of their lives. This is a large scale fight, the few tiny fights they''ve had in their lives did nothing to prepare them for this. Karn is most likely a knight from the capital with his few troops being his squires. They''ve no doubt had little training to no training, some being close to my age... This group is comprised mostly of children now that I think of it... I doubt any of them are above level 20. That is why this fight is taking so long. We are fighting a 10 man boss with 3 people not ready for this fight. I shouldn''t be talking though... Besides my support, I can do nothing else to help... I wish I had a weapon to strike with... Perhaps I should look into getting a long ranged weapon after this fight if I survive. What am I doing!? We''re in the middle of an intense raid boss fight and I''m getting sidetracked by other thoughts. I need to stay focused. It''s approaching the climax because the lich has started summoning more and more skeletons out. Also increasing the frequency at which his ice magic is coming out. Olaf takes a bad hit from the lich ¡°critical hit!¡± he''s down, breathing heavily. Kattie runs towards him and starts chanting healing magic. It''s to no avail though. Using a magic he hasn''t used yet, the lich silences Kattie. Black smoke appears around her face stopping her from chanting. Olaf''s already been injured a few times where Kattie has had to heal him and me as well with scrolls. There''s nothing left I can do. I start running towards him chanting healing magic. I mutter it under my breath. ¡°Oh great lord of light, give me the power to heal my allies with your greatness, Heal.¡± Trying to play it off like I used one of the scrolls that was already used. He gets a little better. Enough to stand and fight but not nearly the same healing as Kattie. The next attack was towards Olaf again which would''ve surely killed him! Karn managed to block the first half of it. The second half cut his neck. The lich is using a staff but attacking with the razorsharp fingertips of his skeletal hands. Karn toppled over like a newborn baby, falling to the ground dead. ¡°The finishing blows mine!¡± Olaf says as he strikes the lich''s face now for the first time close enough to the ground to hit from the giant attack that killed Karn. ¡°Critical hit!¡± The lich''s face was blown completely off. Dark gas starts to shoot out of the robe he was wearing. The mist that was around Kattie''s mouth disappeared as well. We''ve won the fight!
Secret Summoner skill gained Summon undead- summons a skeleton to fight for you
Blue mage skill gained Silence- silences an enemy for 30 seconds
Black mage skill gained Ice bolt- cast magic that can freeze enemies
Achievement gained Raid clearer¨C managed to clear a raid
Master of learning 2 to 4
Chapter 8 Close call 30% of our group died. Karn and two of his party members. Leaving 1 of his party, a villager, Leaf, Olaf and the 3 from Nooby Squad. I didn''t know it was possible to get skills for other classes besides blue mage from monsters. It might be from my class but I''ll have to verify that. A quick inspection shows that the room we''re in was where the lich was storing all of his treasure from looted adventurer''s. There''s a few pieces of gear. I notice a small pile of coins. On quick inspection it looks to be a few hundred copper with some silver coins mixed in. The lich himself dropped a staff and robe. The staff looks like it would increase summoning power... I would really like that staff but chances are Leaf will get it. If I put up a fight for it people might get suspicious. Olaf calls out from behind me. ¡°Yo Kite! I seen what you did back there with healing magic. That makes you a white mage as well... What are you?¡± I continue to hold the lie up. ¡°It was a healing scroll I used to heal you.¡± I said, making eye contact with him challengingly. ¡°You are a liar. If you used a healing scroll, you''d have just used it. There would be no reason to chant it. ¡± The only surviving member from Karn''s group walked up close to Olaf and said. ¡°Whats it matter!? He saved your life shouldn''t you be happy about tha-¡± Cutting him off, Olaf chops the boy in half, money spilling out of him like the attack caused it. He then says. ¡°I need to know the biggest threats so I can take them out first. I''ll get all the treasure to myself if everyone else is dead.¡± He turned towards me, readying an attack! His mace isn''t a mace anymore, it''s a broad sword. Olaf is a grown man and I''m a 7 year old boy. He''s easily twice my height and 3 times my weight. Even if we were around the same level I still wouldn''t have a chance to beat him. He was still injured from the fight though. I start pouring all my magic into a spell and manage to get off summon undead before he could get to me. Surprise showed in his eyes as he smashed through it instantly. I was waiting for that. Dropping his guard I knew I had 1 chance. So I lunged my sword towards his eye with an opportune strike! ¡°Critical hit!¡± I manage to run behind him as he swings violently, I''m completely out of mana. The only thing I could do was slice his achilles tendon with an opportune strike! ¡°Critical hit!¡± Now laying on his back, completely defenseless, I stab through his neck with an opportune strike! ¡°Critical hit!¡± Blood gurgling out of his mouth as he tries to draw breath. His weapon swings in front of him a few more times before it drops from his hands. I wish I could have given him a quick death seeing him in so much pain... Then I remember what he had just done... How close he came to killing me... How he had killed someone else... Olaf stopped moving¡­
Class learned Bandit- passive skilled gained Disguise- Able to camouflage your appearance and skills, passive increase to dexterity and energy regen
Job learned Burglar- able to more easily pick locks and harder to detect when doing crimes
Bandit skill gained- Dual edge- doubles chances to deal and receive critical strikes
Thief skill upgraded- Steal --> Mug- stealing can now deal damage if desired, also chance to steal money
Thief skill upgraded- Hide --> Sneak- able to move while lower the chances of being detected
Title Murderer- able to more easily kill humans, deal ten percent more damage to humans
Achievement gained ¡°The bigger they are¡±- kill a person twice your size, bonus to accuracy
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Thief 4 to 8
Master of learning 4 to 5
Silence filled the room¡­ No one dared speak¡­ Finally the oldest out of us all, Kattie broke the silence. ¡°I-I''m sorry you had to kill him K-Kite...¡± She was clearly shaken up, her voice was trembling. Everyone was, including myself. Olaf''s armor started to change. He looked like a generic bandit now. Red bandana, patched mishmash leather armor he probably stole from people he killed. He also had a giant bag of money on him. No one understood what just happened so I explained it. ¡°He was a bandit... He used disguise to change his appearance to a knight but he couldn''t change his attacks. I beat him so easily because every attack was a critical hit...In a fair fight I would''ve completely lost.¡± Feeling sick from almost dying. I head to a corner of the room and throw up. I''ve killed before in my previous life... I had no problems killing people... It was the fear of death that scared me to the point of sickness. I doubt anyone realizes how close we all just came to dying. If he killed me, Lance would be the only one who could have put a fight up against him. I pour some water on my head and clear my mind. We still have to go through the loot we''ve gained. Going through all the loot we managed to get. A staff for Leaf the Lich dropped. A robe with no enchants on it (useless). Some generic equipment from the dead adventurers. All of Karn''s gear was top notch. Me and Lance ended up splitting the weapons we could use. His armor was to big to fit us. 2 smoke bombs, a crossbow and 6 throwing knives from Karn. I took the crossbow and Lance got the other weapons. His sword was the best piece but was too cumbersome for me to use, even with both hands so we''ll sell it. The gear Olaf had might have been patchwork but it was still worth something. Carrying around 400 hundred pounds of equipment would''ve been too much. We had to determine what we were to taking. Most of the gear the skeletons dropped wasn''t worth carrying. So chances are, Leaf or the other villager will come back to get the equipment after we leave. We made it back to the village fairly easily. The total value of everything we sold. Plus the money we got from the lich and Olaf was around 60 silver coins. There was also a bounty on the lich''s head for 1 gold coin. After splitting the money, we all ended up with 32 silver coins¡­ Most non adventurers make around 5 to 10 silver coins for a years worth of work. Unless they are a merchant or someone who sells items to adventurers. Any job that was based on performance like farmer or blacksmith would also be able to earn more depending on their ability. I didn''t take an extra portion for myself. I didn''t end up selling the sword. The local blacksmith said it was a rare weapon and he didn''t have the money to buy it. Closer inspection of the item revealed that it had 2 enchants on it as well as an effect. Increased damage to skeletons¡­ Well isn''t that convenient. This weapon was probably the reason we managed to kill the lich at all and not get completely wiped out. The total value of the sword was over 1 gold but I didn''t tell the group how much it was actually worth. The blacksmith in this small village couldn''t buy it. We decided to stay another night at the village. The inn of the village didn''t have any rooms, just beds laying side by side. Me and Lance ended up talking that night. ¡°Hey Kite...Do you think what you did was right?" Both of us laying in separate beds looking up at the ceiling. Each time one of us speaks the other would wait a few seconds, really letting what the other said sink in. ¡°Yea, if I didn''t kill him he might have ended up killing everyone there.¡± ¡°Still it didn''t seem right. To just take a life like that.¡± ¡°Yea my hands were shaking for hours after that.¡± Even in my past life I only had to kill a few people, all bandits Olaf but no one at this age. Not someone who could have easily killed me if he waited until he was full health. If he wasn''t so full of himself he could have killed us far easier in only a few more minutes. If he waited for Kattie to heal him, hadn''t said anything and just started killing us... He could have done it... He could have killed us all, perhaps even without a fight. ¡°I guess that''s just what it means to be an adventurer... Do you think if I get famous enough my mom will come back to adventure with me?¡± ... I didn''t have the nerve to tell him. Chapter 9 Leaf returns The next morning we left the village. Leaf came to see us off, waving her hand quickly with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Leaf must have gotten attached to us. Smooth sailing the rest of the way through the forest. The Nooby Squad now knows exactly what each other is going to do. With the new element of the crossbow I can actually deal some damage instead of be full support. I wouldn''t aim at a skeleton. The bolts might not even do anything to them and I could miss, sending the bolts flying and making them impossible to find. The shadows are just laying on the ground and are easy targets. Plus I can collect the bolts I fired too. I say I can help deal damage but Lance ends up dealing with 90% of the enemies. I still feel like I''m far more valuable than I was when we started though. The crossbow deals a set amount of damage since it is a mechanical. I think my archer class helps me aim but it doesn''t change the damage I can deal with it. Making the damage far higher than what I can do with other weapons. I''ll have to remember this for later. Making something similar to the crossbow would really help weaklings like myself survive for longer. I have thoughts about taming either a skeleton or a shadow but decide not to. 1 reason being that both creatures are weakened by sunlight, that would be a huge weakness since most of the time we travel during the daytime. They would be easily killed if I tamed either one. If I had to choose, I would pick the shadow though. We already have a great group composition, 1 thing we''re missing is an offensive caster. The panic status effect isn''t helpful right now but it would be extremely helpful in the future. The pet would be much stronger if I had either the illusionist or warlock classes. I''ll just have to keep that in mind for later, but it is so weak it would be very hard to raise and evolve into something better. Evolving pets is one of the only ways for them to become stronger. Unlike humanoids, they have a different leveling system. Weak creatures evolve into stronger ones to increase their chances of successfully killing humans. This goes for almost every monster, including the extremely giant and deadly kinds like raid bosses. Sometimes the evolution could be as simple as an increase in size and power. Other times it evolves into something crazier. I think I remember a beast tamer who tamed a tiny bat that changed into one big enough for him to ride on... I think the person who owns the pet also changes what they might evolve into. We managed to make it through the forest very quickly. It was a bit of a detour but we got a lot out of it in the end. The first fight we encounter was with a petty wolf. I managed to tame it pretty easily in comparison to the first one. We set up camp for the night with the wolf around I feel a little safer. Taking quick inventory of everything we''ve gained. With some of the money we earned I bought everyone better bags to carry equipment. Some bags can reduce weight or even shrink things put inside it to increase the carrying amount. Those are extremely expensive and I don''t know how either are made. I finished off a few enchants to the gear I couldn''t do early because of time constraints. I now have a crossbow with a bolt quiver on my leg holding 20 spare bolts. I enchanted half with weak fireball magic and the other half with weak ice bolt magic. There is a separator splitting the 2 kinds apart. Lance definitely looked the most different. Buying almost a full set of gear for himself (which I enchanted for free of course.) He also bought a boomerang. He had strapped to his leg where the smoke bombs and knives were close to. Kattie hasn''t changed gear at all. She has her heirloom robe and special incantation book from picking white mage as her rebirth class. Once we get to the safety of the city. I would like to upgrade the bolts that I''ve made to have a more powerful enchant on them. Maybe a stronger material as well, that is the only way I see myself making my attacks more potent. The time it takes to reload the crossbow is far too long right now. Normally I get a single shot before Lance finishes the fight. I''ll have to think up some ways to increase the fire rate of it once we get to Shienta. Everyone''s gained a ton of levels. Lance is already 15¡­ Which feels a little unfair. Kattie was already level 30 but she still got 4 levels from everything¡­ Which is the same as me, even at that high of a level¡­ Some of my classes are getting close to level 7. I get new skills at level 10. Most of the time they''re active skills. Like new magic attacks but sometimes they are passive. I know from talking with Theodore that time mage gets shortened incantations at level 10, which is a passive. Most classes have a passive skill and an active when you get them. Like warrior had survivability and headbutt which is an active skill that has the chance to stun enemies if they''re close enough. Thief is the only class that doesn''t start out with a passive skill. At least to the knowledge I have currently. Some classes meld well together too. Moves change when you get 2 similar skills like with thief and bandit. The hide skill and move silently skill fused into sneak. Which does two similar things so the effect is a new move. Because of that, some classes just go better together. That is why you will see things like warrior and berserker picked together a lot or guardian and knight. Classes that do the same thing are often picked together like physical damage or defense. You don''t see many merged skills until most classes are leveled up. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Other classes might only give 1 or 2 active skills but are very good secondary classes. Like red mage with infuse, blue mage monster copy and knight which gives no active skills but increases stamina which effects your health and damage resistance to attacks. We continue to head towards the city Shienta. As we get closer, we''re less likely to be targeted by bandits. We haven''t gotten nearly close enough to not be attacked. Thankfully I managed to get something from Olaf. I won''t be looking forward to fighting any bandits ever in the future because of this. I''ve never looked down on any human, even slaves but bandits are the worst form of human. Taking advantage of other people for gold is disgusting to me. Even so, I don''t want to be forced to kill anyone for awhile. Lets hope it doesn''t come to that I think as I head to sleep. The wolf starts barking very loudly! Fearfully, I pull my weapon out and I''m ready to fight whatever is going to attack. Thoughts of a bandit attack come into my head from what I was thinking before I went to bed. I will not just die sitting on my hands! I aim my crossbow at the black shadow approaching us, waiting until I have a clear shot to fire at them. A figure emerges from the path we were coming from. Breathing heavily, I can start to make out facial features as our campfire hits her. It''s Leaf! She screams. ¡°Enemies!¡± Leaf takes a second to catch her breath. ¡°Behind me!¡± From behind Leaf I can see a vampire bat as well as a wolf. Both are fairly dangerous, the wolf being an evolved petty wolf and the vampire bat being very hard to target and hit with ranged weapons. Either would make great pets so the entire fight I try to tame both but unfortunately couldn''t¡­ Maybe I can''t tame more than one I think to myself. It would be better to release the petty wolf if that was the case. More testing is necessary though. After the commotion was over. Leaf spoke about what she was doing. ¡°I got permission from my family that I could head with you after you left. I couldn''t catch up so I decided not to sleep and make my way towards you while you slept to catch up. It wasn''t a good idea though. The wolf destroyed my familiar in 2 hits and I got the bat chasing me while I was running from the wolf.¡± It''s a good thing we were close by or Leaf might have dyed... We go to sleep with the petty wolf now keeping a vigilant watch. Leaf summons a familiar and I do as well now to also keep watch.
Blue mage passive skill gained Drink blood- Consume the blood of enemies to regenerate lost health
Blue mage skill gained Night vision- Able to see more easily in the dark
My and Leaf''s conjured familiars are entirely different. Mine was what appeared to be a fox like creature. While Leaf''s looked more like a tiny knight. Apparently, the way you''re thinking while summoning it changes some aspects of the familiar. Thinking that way I end up summoning 2 more. One similar to Leaf''s except a black mage type little guy and a bird. I attached a letter to the bird and sent it towards our village. I could use telepathy to communicate between all 3 of my familiars. It would be handy to also be able to use telepathy on the wolf. After trying it doesn''t seem to work. The wolf still follows commands, which is nice. Each familiar has a different sounding voice in my head. All are higher pitched than mine. The foxes sounds more feminine. The mages sounds more masculine and the birds sounds higher pitched than both. The note tied to the bird stated that it was my familiar and if they wanted to talk to me, they could just talk to the bird. Chapter 10 Entering Shienta Heading towards the city, I realized how low Leaf''s fatigue is. Everything about me is below average except my fatigue is astronomically high. Even in comparison to my passed life. Running as well as training made it so it was very difficult for me to get tired. Even sacrificing some of my fatigue to refill my mana from completely none to full with mana recovery. I could probably do that 2 or 3 times each day. It is better to just let it regenerate naturally. It would suck if a big fight were to happen and couldn''t help because I was so fatigued. My energy regen is also quite high. Almost at where it should be if I picked a dexterity class as my main. That being said, I can shoot about 2 focused shots from the crossbow. Then I need to wait a minute before I can fire more special attacks again. I can fire the bolts normally but they aren''t as powerful or accurate. I can fire around 4 to 5 bolts every minute. Kattie''s also a magician but it seems her previous adventuring increased her fatigue. At least enough to keep up with the group. Our pace is going to slow down with Leaf in our group now. I still feel safer with her around. One night while sleeping, all of our familiars and the wolf started acting up. Not only could I hear the wolf growling and barking outside. I could also here 2 voices talking in my head telling me to wake up. This might be the first attack by bandits¡­ I''m not looking forward to this... It wasn''t bandits thankfully. When we setup camp, we were a little off the road. We got attacked by 3 vampire bats. I tried my best to tame them but I couldn''t again. Still, it might just be a level difference between me and the monsters. So I wont abandon my petty wolf just yet. We are getting close to the Shienta. We can actually see the city now. Big walls blocking off access to most of the city and a huge gated entrance, the only possible way in. The village is easily the biggest I''ve ever seen, the population is about 3000... That is my estimate at least. We look down at the city, from the mountain we still need to climb down. It is a truly beautiful sight to see. It shouldn''t be more than a few hours trip before we reach the front gate. The path down from the rocky mountain was moderately dangerous. With how many times Leaf has almost killed herself falling, it reminds me of my father. I''ve already saved her life multiple times on the journey. Leaf wasn''t nearly this clumsy when we were fighting the lich but maybe combat is a switch for actually focusing. We make it down the mountain pass and the entrance to the city was only a mile away. We did have to travel close to a forest though. Thinking we might get attacked, it ended with me worrying over nothing since it didn''t happen. At the gate to Shienta, we were stopped by a guard. She looked at a few hand drawn wanted posters. Seeing that we were mostly children, she probably let us in easier than if we were all adults. Entering the city felt a little overwhelming. In my previous life I actually lived on the other side of the continent and I never seen cities quite this scale before. The guard said that the capital, Merideth was even bigger than this. The jewel of the country, built on a hill with the castle at the peak. He says the view of the city from afar blows the view of Shienta from the mountain top away. For the first time since I''ve been reborn, I feel excited over a new surrounding. We headed towards the mages academy here. Kattie and Lance both split off. Kattie is going to the adventurers guild to look for another party. Lance is heading towards the local boot camp for physical classes. I don''t feel I am adequate enough to pass the entrance exam to the boot camp. Perhaps after a few years of training I will feel more prepared to enter. Maybe once we''re done we''ll join back up and become an adventuring party again. I head to the local blacksmith and sell Karn''s sword for 1 gold coin and 30 silver coins. Me and Leaf ask for directions a few times before finding the mage academy. The building is smaller than I expected but that''s fine, if it can help me get stronger, it doesn''t matter what size it is. We enter the building and there is a man sleeping at what appears to be a check in desk. After waking him he asks a few quests from both of us. We have to tell them our class as well as touch an orb that would show the level of our current class and the potential we have as well. Leaf went first. ¡°Hi my names Leaf and I''m a summoner!¡± Making a stupid pose and pointed at her familiar. I felt slightly embarrassed by that. She''s such a dork I think to myself. Leaf touched the orb and got a reading for above average summoner, Leaf could skip a grade if she wanted and Leaf ending up doing that. She was sent on her way to her room since we arrived after classes were over. Before she left she looked back over her shoulder and shouted. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°See ya later Kite! I hope you can skip classes too!¡± I went next. ¡°My name is Kite and time mage is my main class.¡± No stupid pose from me. I move to touch the orb and it is nothing like what Leafs looked like. Leafs was 1 solid light, while mine was many lights all split apart. Much smaller than hers but covered a larger area. If you combined them all, mine would technically be bigger. The proctor at the entrance had no idea what was wrong. He told me to wait and ran off. Around 10 minutes later, the head of the school came to see what was happening. He was a very old man wearing a robe I could only tell was extremely expensive and had a permanent scowl on his face. I was made to take the test again and he looked just as confused as the proctor did. He asked me. ¡°Well...maybe the boy knows whats going on?¡± I decided I would tell the headmaster of the school but I didn''t want many other people knowing about it. I ask him. ¡°May we speak in private about it?¡± He looked at me like he was trying to guess what I might want to tell him. He must have realized that my secret was very important to me to keep secret. He adjusted his robe with both hands as he spoke again. ¡°Very well.¡± We walked about 30 feet and went into a room I assumed was an office that was used by the proctor. ¡°What do you have to say?¡± The scowl got a little deeper but it didn''t seem like he was angry at all. His voice sounded fairly calm this entire time. ¡°Well its about my class. I have a unique one called master of learning. It lets me learn multiple classes and jobs but I have to put far more effort into leveling each class than picking a main class.¡± He looks at me closer staring directly in my eyes looking for lies. ¡°You don''t appear to be lying, so what are your ambitions with this school?¡± I already knew so my answer came easily to me. ¡°I came here to learn more classes and jobs I don''t have, buying books to learn classes only gets you so far and this is the easiest way to get stronger... To better myself, that is why I risked coming here at such a young age.¡± He seems to value my honesty and hard work because his scowl as finally turned into a light smile. ¡°Its quite refreshing seeing someone your age have so much aspiration towards learning. My name is Milton. If you have any questions, head to the proctor and he''ll answer them. I''m going to mark you as a special student, you''ll be able to sit in on any class you want but you''ll have to get through all 4 years of school, no skipping grades as a special student.¡± After that I went to the Proctor. He sent me to a room where I''d have new roommates. 1 of the entire wings is just for live in dorms at the academy. The price to live here and learn here would be 10 silver coins per year. I''ve already paid a year in advance. The rooms had 3 bunk beds each in them. So I would end up having 5 other roommates eventually. At the moment when I walk in I only see 2 people. Leaf was in my room. With Leaf being in the same room as me, it appears their are no gender restrictions for the dorm rooms... Which would make changing far more awkward than normal. Most people are fine with being seen naked on this side of the world... There must not be any rules with having sex with classmates then... The other person caught my attention far quicker than Leaf did... After exchanging pleasantries I found out his name was Brick and he was an older gentlemen, guessing around 30 years old. He was a tough looking man. His name couldn''t suit him any better because that''s exactly what he looks like, a human brick. He is a giant of a man as well, the biggest person I''ve ever seen. From the appearance of the room, it looks like he sleeps on the floor so he doesn''t accidentally break the bed. I start to worry for a second that Leaf is in the same room as this giant man than put it out of my mind. He wouldn''t do anything to get himself kicked out of school and he hasn''t done anything to make me think otherwise... I honestly feel safer with him being a sort of guard dog for my room. I continue to talk with him for a bit since classes are already over. He was an adventurer for many years already being a guardian and he decided to spend a few years leveling is secondary class so he had more combat potential then just soaking damage. It appears that he dislikes his current situation and would rather focus completely on his secondary class. When I heard that is secondary class was elementalist, I involuntarily let out an excited yelp. Chapter 11 Falling back into routine I tried as hard as I could to get Brick to show me elementalist. He just wouldn''t for some reason. He wouldn''t explain himself either. Eventually, I''ll see him practicing though, so I don''t think him not showing me is a big deal. I''ve already started taking a few lessons on the basics of each class I don''t have besides shaman. I''ll need to self study to unlock that 1 since they don''t teach it here. My schedule for first period is nature mage ¡°Green mage¡±. Different than druid in the sense that you can control land and tree''s with nature shift. Where as druids are able to give out weak but long heals and you can transform into animals. I''ve tried shape shifting already as a druid but the only thing I can turn into is a mouse and when I do, my cloths fall off. There is a badge you can buy at a general store that will let you store your cloths while shape shifted. I''d like to get one later on so they don''t rip when I can shape shift into bigger animals. First period is pretty easy. I didn''t learn nature mage but I know I will eventually from taking the lesson. Second period is warlock ¡°Purple mage¡±. Most of the spells a warlock will get are status inflicting debuffs like ignite. Which inflicts the status ailment burn on a target which will slowly whittle their health down, there is also the skill plague. Which inflicts them with a disease that might rot their flesh off if they have any open wounds. From books, I know that warlocks can learn skills like blind but you wont learn them naturally and have to train them some how. Finding a true master of the warlock class might be the only way I can possibly learn more skills for it. The lesson is just like the other 1 basic of the basic right now. About mana consumption and casting chants. Most chants take around 4 seconds to do. When I get to level 10 as a time mage. It''ll shorten them down to around 2 seconds each. ¡°Oh great lord of Infection, give me the power to curse your healthy enemies with disease, ignite!¡± Would be changed down to. ¡°Oh great lord of Inflection, curse your enemies with ignite!¡± The benefits for faster casting are obvious, so one of the main class I''m focusing on leveling is time mage. Third period is illusionist ¡°Orange mage¡±. Possibly the most useful of all the magic classes if used in the right circumstances. Most thieves will pick this as there secondary class since once leveled high enough it can chant an invisibility spell that is very helpful for hiding. Also it wouldn''t help that they''d be yelling out a chant so somewhere in the leveling process, they get silent chanting. The benefits of that skill being far more unpredictable casting. It would also help with misdirection during fights and could conceal the true power I have. Being able to stealthily cast buffs or heals on people, playing it off like I''m either using a scroll or that it came from somewhere else. Another low level skill they get is a distract skill called throw sound. The fight with Olaf only secured my feeling that I should hide my true powers until absolutely nothing else can be done. At least from my enemies... I see no point in hiding my skills from people I deem close enough to give them to. I head to a fourth class but none are being done at the moment. No one teaches lessons for classes after third period. I was lucky to get a tutor doing illusionist magic after second period. Only a few students are in this lesson. The last period, I''m taking a mana conservation lesson. Most students are only here for 2 periods but some stay for 2 more optional periods. The amount of people is under half the normal amount. It makes sense if you think about it. The most classes you can have are 2 so that makes up for 2 periods and then there''s several optional lessons you can take on mana conservation and mana recovery as well as some lessons that teach jobs. Out of the 2 lessons, mana conservation to get another skill that reduces mana used for each spell seems like the better option for me. I''d like to take the mana recovery lesson as well but I''ll wait until next year. After the final lessons of the day. All 4 periods only adding up to around 2 hours. I still had plenty of time to study the shaman class in the library. When I walked in, I noticed an automaton doll carrying books from 1 end of the library to the other. I inquire about where I could learn how to make them but apparently there isn''t a lesson for that. Only headmaster Milton of the school knows how to make them and he''s keeping it a trade secret... I''ll have to figure out a way to learn it since it''ll be helpful to me in the future. I end up borrowing 5 books in total from the library. A book teaching the basics of each class. A book on the shaman class. A book on the basics of each job. A book on learning languages of some non human races. And a book on local points of the southern continent, the cover is a map of the region I''m in. In order to get back to the same region where I was from in my past life. It would take around a year to travel by foot or a few months by sea but it would be very expensive. Thus my first day at school ended. It''s been 6 months since I started attending lessons hear at the school. I''ve already learned the 4 classes I came here for nearly the first week of school. Brick still will not teach me how to be an elementalist and he''s going to be leaving after this year since his class is so unique no one can teach him. I''m starting to get very nervous about him leaving before teaching me. After talking with the headmaster of the school about automaton making, he said he couldn''t teach it to me since it''s such a rare job. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. To have the job in the wrong hands, someone might make an army of dolls to fight and try to conquer the land... Which isn''t a bad idea in all honesty. I''ve made plans to break into the library 1 night and deconstruct it to try and learn how it''s made. I''ve already finished and returned 3 of the books. The ones about classes and jobs were a priority to read and I got a few levels for most of my jobs and classes by reading them. The book on languages is a very thick book. About as thick as the 3 I''ve already read put together. I''ll probably finish the book with the landmarks on it first before I focus on that book. I haven''t made any new friends... The thing with my class is I am very weak at everything I do. The weakest of each lesson I''m in. People assume I''m not trying or that I am just weak... Weak enough to bully in some instances. Getting pushed around by a few of the people, I started leaving school more and more frequently to avoid fighting anyone. Leaf and Brick are the only 2 who don''t bother or pick on me. I can tell that Brick knows I''m special somehow... If we were going to be roommates for more than a year. I might have told him about my class. He never trains, only keeping to studies for some reason. I think me asking to see him use his skills has freaked him out a little... I need to find a way to convince him to teach me. I''m not above begging eventually, I would rather avoid it but if it comes to that. Leaf isn''t the same person she was getting here. As if a fire has been lit underneath her, she is far more devoted to study than she ever was before. Often staying out in the library reading or absolutely destroying anyone who challenges her to a duel. She is really striving from this academy. She is improving at a speed I wouldn''t expect her too, the clumsiness she had shown before only appearing if I''m distracting her. She has brought up the bullies... I didn''t want to involve her, I will deal with them eventually. I sometimes catch her staring at me... She must feel sorry for me, sorry I''m so weak I can''t defend myself. My daily routine consists of waking up 2 and a half hours before lessons start and heading for a jog around the outside of the city. I swing passed the stables which is located to the west of the entrance and pick up my petty wolf and 2 familiars and we begin to run with me carrying the familiars on my shoulders. The cost to stable the 3 is less then a silver a year (without food costs) so it''s worth keeping them stabled. Familiars don''t eat, so it doesn''t increase the price for stabling them. Around the outside of the city aren''t many enemies, only slimes. I told all my pets to not risk taking any damage so when we end up fighting ¡°usually slimes¡± it''s always hit and run tactics. The black mage familiar always stays on my shoulder casting. He makes squeaking noises that amount to around the same time it would take me to chant. Then fires off an extremely weak fireball, even weaker than mine. Most of the time I don''t struggle with slimes anymore but they could still easily 1 shot any of my pets which would be sad. Petty wolf is probably close to evolving into a regular wolf. I can''t deal with a single 1 of their deaths this time... I need to get stronger, I need to be able to protect those I care about... Even without any to care for right now, I know I will have people to protect in the future. I''ve decided to name my wolf Sock for the 1 white patch of fur he has on his left leg. The whole route around the outside of the city jogging takes roughly 1 hour without fighting. So including fights and returning my pets to the stables I sometimes barely make it to first period. After lessons, I study the few books I had as well as increase my chi through meditation for an hour. There''s some practicing going on outside with people having skirmishes. I frequently watch them and have noticed that even watching fights increases my level, very very slightly though. The sneak skill has come in more handy than I thought it would. Avoiding confrontations I wouldn''t be able to avoid without it. I might be able to beat an average caster at the school if I used all of my skills... I wont risk giving away my true power until I absolutely have to though. As soon as it gets dark, I start using powerful moves because I can draw in mana from the darkness now with the warlock passive skill darkness absorption. With it I can regenerate mana about 3 times as fast, so every 20 minutes I can throw out a full power spell. I''ve been putting more effort towards time magic than anything else. Even doing so scout, knight and freelancer level faster passively than me focusing on leveling time mage. As a mage, I can''t do anything as well as someone who''s main class is that. Even people''s subclass are stronger than my magic. I do feel myself getting stronger though and I can now kill slimes in only a few hits. I''m fast enough to dodge most attacks. During the night I''ve been practicing my sneak skill which is the merged bandit skill move silently and the thief skill hide. Its very effective, I can get about 3-5 feet from most people before they start to sense me. I haven''t been caught doing this yet. With my sneaking skills I feel I''m getting more prepared for the plan¡­ Chapter 12 Sneaky mission and new class It''s been two more months. Brick will be leaving soon and I still haven''t convinced him to show me elementalist yet¡­ Maybe if I get on my hands and knees and beg him he will. Lessons are all going along smoothly, I managed to finish the book on continental towns and landmarks. I''ve got an idea of what I''m going to do after I graduate now. Lessons end like normal, it turns to night time and after my normal routine and everyone''s asleep I put my plan into action. Making a false body with pillows under my blanket I sneak out of the room. The hallways are completely barren with no one in sight. I sneak towards the library which doesn''t have a door. It has a huge oval shaped entrance so even some of the non human races could have access to the library. There are only a few at the school but the biggest is a golem. He gained sentience after his master died and spent the next hundred years getting attacked by everything until it managed to learn how to speak from the few encounters it had with people. It managed to become a well known tank for adventurers wanting to clear dungeons. It found out it had the ability to learn multiple classes like myself so that''s why its here at the magic academy. His speed of learning is much slower then mine though. He''s been here for over five years and has only managed to pick up white magic. He hasn''t been able to learn any jobs yet so he probably wont ever be able too. I think I remember his name being Rock...The first time I seen him I thought Brick had evolved into his next form!¡­ Joking aside I head into the library. I head to the back of the room where I find the automatons all standing close to each other, lifeless. The way you power the automatons is by charging them with magic and the more you use the longer it lasts. The librarian happens to be a dark mage which is one of the black mages class rank-ups. Pouring all his magic in would make the dolls explode. So he only uses half and that''s enough to power them all day. There''s four so he comes in an hour early and powers up the first two before school starts and two as soon as school starts. I start too closely inspect one of the automatons. It looks like a five year old child''s size. One or two feet shorter then me, even so I bet it would put up a decent fight if it was set to combat mode. I start to disassemble the first automaton. No new job, I do the same with the next and same result. I start to get nervous on the third doll I finally see it.
Job learned Automaton Creator
Yes! There''s still two more hours before the professor comes in to power them up. I''ve brought some wood with me just in case I accidentally broke something deconstructing it and I start to repair the automatons...It takes an hour to put one back together...Shit! I''m not going to have enough time to repair all of these I think. I start putting the next one back together while trying to think of a plan. Once the second dolls fully repaired I move the last one I wouldn''t have time to fix it. So I move it under a book case and push the bookcase over onto the automaton. ¡°I''m sorry books, I''m sorry automaton.¡± I think to myself. It crushes some of its parts, I quickly leave and as I''m exiting the entrance I see the librarian. Thank you scouting! I''m already sneaking so I head the opposite way. I apply disguise to make the school robe turn into pure black to be concealed better by the morning shadows. As I round the corner I hear from a distance. ¡°What the hell!?¡± I made it back to my room to get rid of the pillows I placed to make a fake me. Then I head out of the school to feign innocence that I went on my morning run like always. As I head passed the library before my first lesson I can see the headmaster in the corner of my eye looking at the dolls. First period was normal like always. I half expected the headmaster to come in for me during the lesson though. The rest of the school passed just like normal as well. Not wanting to break my routine I head to the library to study and see the librarian. He''s very calm one of the automatons is still moving books from the front back to there original position. I make an off-handed remark about the automatons to him and he said. ¡°They were old, some of them started to preform very poorly. Some had gotten to the point where if I had put more than 20% of my mana into 1, it would risk it blowing up. Another 1 must has went haywire in the night and ran into a bookcase it was crushed by. We only have 2 to work with the books until the headmaster can find time to make new ones.¡± A little disheartened mine aren''t even half as good as the headmasters. I feel relieved I wasn''t caught then I get a notification. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Title Criminal- able to more easily get away with crimes
With that out of the way, I move onto the last event I want to accomplish this year. Getting Brick to teach me elementalist. I head straight up to him get down on my knees and beg. ¡°Please Brick can you please show me how to do elemental magic!¡± He walks over me towards the cafeteria. I keep begging him all the way there until he starts getting frustrated and asks. ¡°What, why do you want to know it so bad? It can''t help you right now anyways.¡± Last ditch effort I''m going to tell him about my class. ¡°Can we speak in private Brick?¡± I ask. He agrees to meet me after dinner. It takes him longer to eat than me since he''s around four times my weight he needs to eat five times as much as I do. So I wait by the courtyard where most people do skirmishes for Brick. He finally shows up twenty minutes after I finished eating and I tell him. ¡°Brick I have a special class.¡± There are sixteen weird students in the school out of a few hundred. Rock, Brick, Leaf, me and twelve others. Rock and Brick are self explanatory. Me and Leaf are different also because of our hair colors and skills. While my hair is dark red like my mothers. Leaf has green colored hair which would explain her name. Leaf is also far above every other summoner in skill. She could have been put as a third year student. I''m the opposite. The teachers reprimand my skill, that it should be much higher with the work I''ve put in. The other weird students are all non humans. A few elves, dwarves, beast races and even a demon race is at this school. Beast races are human like people with animal like features. A couple of cat and dog hybrid''s, a tiger hybrid and a lion hybrid make up the beast races. The demon race has a horn growing out of his head. His skin is almost the same color as my hair, dark red. He has pitch black eyes with blue pupils. The lion hybrids name is Leo. He often picks fights with the demon race student who reads whenever he is not in classes. Both are third year students and the top of the classes they''re in. The demon''s name is Epieoth. The cat hybrids and dog hybrids are constantly fighting. Not to the extent of anyone dieing but a few times someone needed to go to the emergence ward if there wasn''t a spare healer around. The reason I''m mentioning this now is because Leo and Epieoth are fighting in the courtyard. Brick starts to show me all the different types of attacks while explaining. ¡°Elementalists aren''t that strong by themselves but they can augment the power of other mages in your party. They use nature in a much smaller extent then other classes like black mage or nature mage.¡± Brick says as he pulls a chunk of rock out of the ground with his elementalist ability. ¡°Because of this elementalists can''t learn any other types of magic, the class just wont allow you to.¡± He punches the piece of rock at a target and it hits. ¡°But that''s where it comes in handy as a support magic. If you have a mage channeling lighting magic. You can make the ground wet to increase his damage and also might make the opponent slip.¡± As he says that a puddle forms under my feet and I start to sink into the ground. ¡°Not only can you do that but with enough practice you can also use all the elements together to create unique situations.¡± The water at my feet is now running up my body and the ground that was just wet starts to harden locking my feet to the ground temporarily. He runs at me and pushes me to the ground which is now soaked and as I sink into the ground it becomes hard again, almost locking me in place. ¡°Everything compounds onto everything as an elementalist. A fireball can be given a burst of wind to increase its size. An ice bolt can be shot at a wet opponent for extra effect. Its the best support magic in my opinion.¡± With that said he gets up and walks out of the courtyard....I''m still stuck in the ground...
Class learned Elementalist- passive skill Control elements- have slight control over all four elements earth, fire, wind, water, passive increase to experience gained
Black mage skill upgraded Fireball --> Flare
Black mage skill upgraded Ice bolt --> Freeze
Nature mage skill upgraded Nature shift --> Control Nature
Chapter 13 First year of school down Leo and Epieoth, who were fighting at the beginning of the explanation. Stopped in the middle of the fight and started to watch Brick explain it. Brick might be big but he''s also a genius at teaching. I couldn''t use any of my new magic to get myself out since both of them are watching. Leo comes over and grabs the little bit of my robe that was sticking out of the ground and yanks me out. Leo says with a smile. ¡°Hey redhead! It''s nice to finally meet someone as famous as you.¡± I ask what he''s talking about. ¡°You''re well known for being terrible at magic! Some people call you the number 1 failure of the school, others call you the special ed student. You get picked on by the students who get picked on by other students, that''s how bad you are at magic.¡± He sounds almost happy saying it. ¡°It''s good to know why you train so hard with nothing to show now though! I heard your whole conversation with Brick.¡± ...Oh no! How? Is it because he''s a beast race? I start to panic, Leo then says. ¡°Don''t worry, I''m not going to tell anyone. It''s nice seeing someone try harder than me once in awhile. I''ve been fighting this guy for 3 years straight and haven''t beaten him yet!¡± Leo points behind his back with his thumb at Epieoth. "It''s that determination. That drive to get stronger that I like about you. People can see you however they want but I can only see you for what you are to me. Someone I know will do great things with their life. That sort of class might be useful in the future, I might call upon you for a favor to keep this secret!" He was still standing very close to me. Almost shouting even though we weren''t but arms length apart... It made me slightly uncomfortable, he reaches forwards and puts both his hands on my shoulders. Finally speaking at a normal level. ¡°Well we''re going to go. Good luck with that new magic.¡± ...I''m afraid that my secret is going to be revealed unintentionally by him. Starting the next day, I tried out my new moves. Flare was easily twice the size! Almost a wall of fire compared to fireball. It seemed to deal around the same damage, only had a bigger area of effect. Freeze was the same way. It could completely freeze through an enemy now, instead of just a tiny portion of them. They would quickly break free still. Control nature was different though. I could already move earth but the amount of earth I could control didn''t increase. I could now form shapes with it. Including swords and spikes under enemies to impale them. Not as effective as actual swords though. Using it as a blunt weapon would probably be better. Also I could control how hard it was by adding or removing water from it. All the new skills were tested out but I still could control other elements. I tried out controlling water. I could pull water out of just about everything. Including slimes, which was extremely effective for confusing them and making them dizzy. Air magic was also good. I haven''t found a use for it yet. When I infused flare into my sword, instead of just heating the blade it actually caught on fire. The fire didn''t damage the weapon but it looked like it would deal more damage. I shouldn''t need to carry water anymore since I can pull it out of everything. After testing out my new skills, I decide to head back to my room early and take a break. Its been 3 months since I got elementalist from Brick. It''s quickly approaching the end of the school year. Most of the fourth year students have already stopped going to lessons. At the school, you''re not forced to go to lessons and because of this, a lot of the students skip lessons when they want to. Since they''re paying for school, only an idiot wouldn''t go. At least that is my opinion. Any time I see Leaf she avoids eye contact and her face gets a little red¡­ I wonder why. When me and Leaf joined it was near the beginning of the school year. We joined at the beginning of the school year, only a few weeks behind the actual start. I can''t take any of the second year lessons for the classes I want. You need to be at least level 10 in that class in order to take it. 20 to take third year lessons and 30 to take fourth year lessons... It would be easy to get to each level just from going to classes... With any class besides mine that is. I''ll be taking job lessons next year. I got the mana cost reduction passive skill from my fourth period. I now use 15% less mana all together. The next few months I''m going to try and push some classes to level 10 so I can get the skills tied to them. Over this past year since I''ve come to the school, I''ve killed so many slimes that I have got a new achievement. Slime slayer for killing one thousand. I now do 10% extra damage to slime enemies. Also from continuously killing slimes I gained 2 levels, making me level 7. I didn''t learn any blue magic from them so I assume it''s because they''re so weak. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Some of my class levels have reached 10, only focusing on the few that were close. Scout was the first, with it I got the activated skill thermal vision. I can activate it to see heat signatures instead of regular vision. Through testing, I''ve found that this skill can be used to see weak points on enemies. Since weak points glow brighter. Knight was next, I got a passive skill stamina boost 2. Which increased my stamina by 10%. Adding it to the first amount it totals 20%. Freelancer also hit 10 and I didn''t get any new skills. I did get 10 stat points in each of my stats. Lastly, time mage hit 10. With shortened chants I''m potentially twice as strong but not quite that. I try it out with some of my magic. It''s shortened all of my chants down from 4 seconds to 2, which is amazing. I can do some pretty crazy stuff once I get silent chanting from illusionist. Only a few days until the end of this school year. Being excited I decide to go buy an instrument. I should try to get a badge for storing my cloths when I use the druids shape shifting skill. I''m also going to look for miniature totems for my shaman class. Most shamans use big totems because they''re more effective. Some use totem maces or totem staffs that grant a buff while in range. I''m going to look for mini ones that I could carry on my person easily. Preferably health regen and melee attack quickening ones. First stop is the instrument store in the city. Not a wide selection but I end up picking up a harmonica. For one reason, I can use it 1 handed. Most other instruments I couldn''t. A second reason, I already knew how to use a harmonica in my previous life. So it should be easy to relearn it. I might be able to play it eventually with wind magic so it wouldn''t take up either hand. I Head to the general store to see if they have a druid badge in yet. I had made several attempts to procure 1 before. I eventually ordered 1 from the shop. It''s finally in, so I pick up my badge. I also look for some mini totems. He has plenty of regular totems which are about the size of a 2 foot piece of wood sticking out of the ground. The few mini''s he has aren''t what I wanted. I end up picking up the smallest mana regen totem he has. Which could easily fit in my pouch but it isn''t very effective. Ineffective to the point it might cut a few minutes off restoring all of my mana. While heading back to the magic institute I see someone familiar but I can''t place him. Finally I remember! Its Zeke, the paladin who taught me his fighting style. Paladins aren''t very strong melee attackers. What they lack in damage, they make up for in survivability and charisma. Able to convince humanoids fighting isn''t in their best interest. They make good guard captains and foot soldiers and group leaders. I don''t really know what higher level paladins get. From what I could tell Zeke wasn''t that strong. I greet him and asks if he remembers me and he doesn''t. Which is fine, I was just exchanging pleasantries with him anyways. Its good to see a face from my old village and it makes me start missing home. The last day of school, there was a big graduation ceremony. Out of the fourth years, very few have failed. With the grading curve very low. Some people could graduate with only going to classes a few times the entire year. Even so, some people managed to fail. Even more dropped out. Even with such a lenient policy, I fear I might be the first person failed here who''s trying to pass. That being said, one of the graduates stands out far more than the others. It''s Brick, towering over the other students. A giant of a man, is also the valedictorian of his grade. Its a fairly short ceremony with no speeches or anything. Just people heading up to the podium when their name is called to get their certificate. Nothing else happens that day and it will be two weeks before the next school year officially starts. So everyone is going on break. Chapter 14 Testing ideas I got a call from the bird familiar today. I''ve received a few calls of my mother, talking to the bird before she gave up. She was frustrated it was her talking the whole time and 1 sided¡­ I wonder if I can make familiars that can talk¡­Anyways, the conversation sounded slightly weird. My mother and father both were in the call this time. Both of them said that they loved me and they were proud of me... They hoped I would do great things when I grew up. They must be congratulating me on becoming a second year student. It was also on my birthday too, so that might have also been why they called. I also thought it was weird that my familiar disappeared. I could tell by the mana reserved he was taking up had disappeared. I didn''t give it much thought, my father might have accidentally killed it or my mother might have gotten mad and killed it. With my 2 free weeks of no school I decided to practice some things and buy new equipment. The gear I got here in was already too small. Since I''ve been wearing the schools robes I haven''t really needed another set yet. Now would be a good time to replace my old set and upgrade to a newer one, one I can wear for a least another few months. I went into town to buy a new set and also sell my previous set. The end result was me actually making money but the set of gear sold compared to bought was vastly superior. The supple leather and folded steel pieces of metal of my old set were now rough leather, I''ll have to add in the iron protection parts later to cover my more important areas. That being said I''ll eventually need another set of gear in a year anyways. So it''s not that big of a deal. The new set is slightly big but I''m able to grow into it. I unsummon my other 2 familiars. They don''t level up so it''s fine and enchant the gear with my strongest max mana enchants. I bought 2 practice swords to try a few things out on. 1 metal and 1 wooden. A metal tube and a few dozen pieces of enchanting paper. Its cheaper here than in the other city, so I can agree to buying more for now. I really need to learn how the paper is made so I can make it myself. The enchants on my gear are stronger than my other enchants. Mainly because my mana increased. I technically used more mana since the reduction skill I got ended up reducing the mana I used. Since I used all of it, it added even more. 10% haste on my last pair of boots and 15% on this pair. Quite a big upgrade. I took some of the enchanting paper I previously had bought and enchanted some of my magic onto it. With some full mana control hastes, flares, freezes, control natures and heals, I feel more prepared. They''re in a pouch on my right leg. With the bolts still being on my right side, I figured upgrading the crossbow bolts might be a big help later. So I''ll slowly change the weak enchanted bolts with full mana control enchanted bolts. Any extra kick could be the difference between winning a fight or running, perhaps even dying in a fight. The bolts I was using have been replaced to the new ones. You can''t remove or replace enchants on gear or weapons. After that I re-summoned a single familiar this time thinking protection in my thoughts. I summoned a little knight. Which was about the 30% bigger than my black mage familiar. The next stage of testing begins tomorrow. I go to bed that night, some of the bullies came into my room and trashed it... Leaf was trying to clean it up before I had gotten back... This is too far, I don''t care if they make fun of me, pick on me... My room had many valuable things inside it. My anger has been pushed to the boiling point, why? Why did they decide to pick on me. I might not be strong but to just openly pick on me with no one stopping this... That night I wait until everything has calmed down. Most people are probably sleeping. I know the group of people who did this... I sneak into there room as they sleep. Shaving off their eyebrows is the only thing I decide to do... When I entered... I wasn''t sure how far I would go... As more time passed, the feelings that I wanted to kill them started disappearing. Finally stopping on this punishment. If they do something else... I wont hold back anymore, magic wont stop them from being stabbed to death. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The next day I skipped out on training again to practice some new theories out. While channeling nature control into the wooden sword I could make it move to my will if only briefly. I could make the sword almost come to life! Setting it across the room I practice making it crawl to me. I also practiced hardening it. To the point where it was as strong as the metal training sword. I''m going to try using the metal tube and wind powers to make a weapon. I bought a few dozen enchanted paper yesterday that I still haven''t used. I enchant some wind magic on a few. Blowing the wind through the tube regularly made the wind strong enough to blow a rock out of it. It wasn''t as good as I expected, it probably wasn''t fast enough to deal any real damage. It''s good to know for later though. While healing magic is truly amazing. Being able to reverse mistakes and can potentially save lives. Healing magic cant heal everything. If you lose an arm or leg or something similar healing magic can''t heal it. Also depending on how much a bone is broken it might be untreatable or heal incorrectly. At least low level magic anyways, high level white magic might be different. The last test I want to try today is improving my gear with tinkerer. I start messing with the metal and leather I bought for my gear and pouches. Tinkering with my gear I reinforce all my vital area''s with extra thickness but not to the point where it would hinder movements. I expanded my bags slightly too, you never know when you''ll need extra space. I also try enchanting the wooden sword with control nature which was a huge success. Not only could I feel it was even harder then before. I could more easily control it and the size distortion from the tiny sword in my hands to the much bigger sword using control nature was incredibly different. The next step I infuse the sword with control nature and the effect is increased again. To the point where I can make a sword that''s so big I can''t even hold it up. Also the hardness is to the point it could probably stop any sword or cutting attack enemies did. Next up with infusing it with flare. It didn''t go over so well. The sword ended up catching of fire but that''s why I tested it now. Kind of obvious after the fact but my main sword suffered no damage so I thought I''d try it. I went to sleep that night thinking about one last test. The next morning I woke up and immediately headed outside to the stables. Got my wolf named Sock and started running. I ran laps around that city until it was night and still had enough fatigue to keep going. I think at this point my fatigue wont increase anymore from just running. So I''ll start running with weights on tomorrow. The next day I bought a backpack. Went outside the city and started filling it up with rocks. It was a bit unpleasant on my back. I ran back into town and bought a blanket to line the backpack with. The total weight of the backpack is around 50 pounds. The weight is my limit right now... Carrying this will help me a lot in the future. I''ll need to carry supplies during adventures. The more I can carry, the less I will have to leave behind. I''ll start running with it from now on. I decide to make a run through the woods with my new skills. I feel I can take on enemies stronger then slimes now. I would say that my melee ability is on par with a level 1 class that also had a melee subclass...Which isn''t great¡­ It''s still better than when I started. If I keep practicing, no one will be able to beat me! Chapter 15 New enemies and skills The first enemies me, my familiar and Sock found was a group of 3 spiders. They were about the size of a small dog, so slightly smaller than Sock. I already infused both my swords with magic so I''m ready to go. I increase the size of my wooden sword to around the size of a longsword. It''s still easy enough to wield since it''s wood. My family sword is infused with freeze magic. I don''t want to accidentally burn my wooden sword or catch to forest on fire. The metal training sword is my backup. The spiders seem to have noticed us. I charge in swinging both my swords at once and both hit the same spider. I back away just to avoid 2 of their attacks. My familiar is getting the attention of the other 1 while Sock bites and attacks the spider. A few more hits and the first spider is dead. I just focus on dodging the other spider until my familiar and Sock kill theirs. 1 spider left, I start weakening it. I''ve tried a few times to tame it but it just wont work. Just as I think I have the upper hand the spider shoots out a webbing that entraps me my left arm. It''s completely locked to my body the freezing sword touching me, so it''s starting to freeze my leg. Shit! I''m in a bad spot! I swing with my free hand frantically trying to hit the giant spider. The wooden sword is to clunky to swing if I don''t have proper balance. Sensing my fear, both Sock and my familiar stop going easy and try to kill the spider. The spider uses another attack the other 2 didn''t. He spits out poison that hits my familiar in his eyes. My leg is starting to feel really bad, my health is dropping because of myself. I grab out a scroll from the pouch on my right side and cast a flare at the spider. It bursts into flames, it seems to be it''s weakness. The forest also catches fire which I was afraid of but is the least of my problems right now. The spider dies shortly after being caught on fire. After focusing on just getting the sword to stop touching me, I free it from my body. I cast a small fire with elemental magic. No reason to go overboard with flare to burn the spider silk off of me. I manage to put out the fire with water pulled from the ground with elemental magic again... Brick has already saved my life a few times¡­ After the battle was done a few notifications popped up.
Blue mage skill gained String attack- able to shoot out webs to entrap your enemies
Blue mage skill gained Poison spit- able to spit poison that causes burning to anything it comes in contact with
Sock ¡°Petty wolf¡± has evolved into wolf
Master of learning 7 to 8
Familiar is permanently blind
Knowing the enemies weakness from now on, I''ll only fight them after I''ve chanted ignite magic onto them. It should kill them fairly quickly. To stop my familiar from being in pain I unsummoned him. He wasn''t any help blind. He did manage to take a few of the worst attacks, so I''ll be thankful to him for that. "Thank you." I think to myself. I summon a new familiar that is an archer to back me up. I put my wooden sword away for now and pull out my crossbow. I sacrifice some of my fatigue to restore all my mana. Then I spend it all summoning a skeleton to help fight for me. I''ve tried using them on the road but the sun weakens them to the point where they''re far weaker than a slime. He should be fine in the forest though. If I haven''t said yet, fatigue is reset once you go to sleep. It is the measure of what you can do throughout the day before you get tired. Everything you do removes from your total fatigue for that day. My fatigue is extremely high because I''ve trained every single day and that is a way to increase your total amount. We move forwards more and fight another set of spiders. Proper planning this time and they weren''t a threat at all. A few more sets of spiders and we kill them relatively easy as well. Then we see something different. A new enemy appeared in the forest. Its a goblin, a lone goblin by himself. Its probably around level 7, they''ve never been very strong but they tend to overwhelm groups with numbers. They have a bad habit of abducting women and raping them. Killing any I see as long as I wouldn''t risk dying should be the manner I take with them. I pull out a bolt and infuse it with poison magic. The goblins hit and falls to the ground unable to move or even cry out. I move forward and slice its throat, sneak attacks are amazing! I kill a few more goblins before I hear a bell being rung. Probably the alert of an enemy I retreat for now. I test out both of my new skills I got from the spiders. The string shot and poison spit are both instantaneous. I touch the poison with my hands but it doesn''t hurt me. I take a big risk and taste it as well, not much to the taste but I wasn''t poisoned by consuming it. The silk is extremely sticky to everything but my hands. I can freely pick up the silk with my hands. I test out climbing the city walls with it. I manage to make it 10 feet up the wall before I consider it a success. If I took my shoes off, I could probably scale the 20 foot wall in a few seconds using the silk to hold myself up. The biggest problem I see is now their is sticky silk all over the city walls. I tried infusing the metal sword with the string attack and I wasn''t able to. The poison I could though. A third slot added to my bolt pouch for poison enchanted bolts. I haven''t been thinking about it but it might be smart to infuse the arrows of fire with an extra element. Sort of like a double enchant! But it seems like a waste of mana for 1 attack when I get 3 hours out of melee weapons. So I decide against it. It would consume too much of my time and mana without much of a reward to it. Besides for sneak attacks that is. The poison I had was numbing poison, I think I can learn more than 1 poison based attack. I try a few more things with the poison and silk before I figure out I can make the silk not sticky by covering it with the poison. I go back to the walls and spray the silk with poison spit to clean them. I now had as much silk as I can carry back to the town. I check to see if its worth anything and I guess its valuable enough to sell. But for how much I''d need to get a silver coin it''s not worth making for a living. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I start to play around with the silk. With tailoring I could make a few things with it but for now I''ll just use it as lining for my armor. It''s very comfortable and lining the inside of my armor was very easy to do. Then I think of something. I could enchant the silk before I add it to the gear to give even more effects. My whole set of armor now consists of double layered defense magic. Wardens shielding magic doesn''t last long enough to use for anything besides enchanting. At least I get some use from it. I enchant the plates that are protecting the vital spots as well with magic defense skill called shell from warden magic since it''s reached level 10. The next day I spend it scouting the entrance to the goblin fort. It has around 4 sentries watching from towers so it will be difficult to kill any of them without the others being alerted. The amount outside compared to before is far less. I decide to shoot 1 with a poison enchanted bolt that has poison infused onto it as well as being covered in poison spit. 3 staged numbing poison might be able to stop weak enemies hearts. I make 4 bolts all together taking around an hour to make even using some of my fatigue to restore mana. Drawing mana from nature is slower than darkness. So my mana recovery from none to full is around 30 minutes. I shoot an arrow, it hits the 1 in the far back. He falls from the sentry post and the sound alerts the others. While they''re figuring out what just happened I fire another arrow hitting another unsuspecting 1. He doesn''t fall but he might be dead anyways. The other 2 start ringing the bells in their towers and I retreat again. The next day while heading into the forest to where the goblin fortress is I fight a few more waves of spiders. I make it to the goblin fortress and I''m surprised to see the guards there are wearing armor now. There is also twice as many, 2 at each tower totaling 8 goblins guarding. I think they''re preparing against me. I wont kill any for awhile, only the ones I see on the outside. I head back to the guard at the entrance of the city and ask about the goblins. She explained that while there are goblins close to the town they''re too weak to put an extermination request against. It wouldn''t be worth many peoples time to kill them. Before I call it a day I go to the stables and look at the monsters there. What the beast tamer there said is while forcing monsters to become your pets is possible. Increasing every time you learn a skill. You can also bond with the monsters increasing the number you have without reducing the amount you can forcefully tame. From the few that have been abandoned you can purchase them. The few times I''ve tried to tame them with bonding I couldn''t. I think it might be tied to my beast tamer level so all the beast tamer pets are far too high level for me. 1 in particular went up for sale recently. A ferret like creature about the length of my hand, was abandoned by his owner. The beast tamer who tamed her thought she was useless. So he sold her to the stables for a single silver coin. I haven''t been able to tame any so far but I give it a shot and finally she bonds with me! I tamed the ferret. I pay 5 silver coins for her. She''s worth it just to have a secondary pet. She''s also small enough to take into town so I can keep her around me. I decided to name her Pokodo. I don''t see any fighting potential but I''ll think of something she can do. The new school year starts tomorrow. The last free day I have I spend it relaxing and showing off Pokodo to everyone in the school. I''m not very liked by many people but Pokodo seems to be changing that opinion of me just from her cuteness. I went and bought a little collar for her and Sock and let them play with each other for a bit. They both seem to like each other which is good. It might be because they''ve been near each other for a few weeks before I bought Pokodo. I try to figure out what Pokodo can be useful for but cant figure it out. I go to sleep that night thinking about something she can do. The new school year is starting and the first day is orientation for the new students. Normally you can join the school anytime of the year except during the last 2 months of school. A few dozen students have built up waiting for the new school year to start. I''m taking second year time magic. Some people are confused since I took 3 different classes already and they were in the lessons with me. I make up a lie that I''m going to be a teacher in the country I''m from so knowing about the basics of each class would help me tutor the new students. I''ve been seen casting at least 4 different types of magic so far so it''s only a matter of time before they find out. Even so I want as much of my class to remain a secret as possible. Second period I''m taking a free period where I can jump around the lessons being taught to increase the levels of each of my classes and jobs. Third period I''m taking a mana recovery lesson. Once I learn the skill I should be able to regenerate all of my mana 10 minutes faster. Fourth period I''m taking a synthesizing lesson. It''s 1 of the few jobs I still need. I also need detective but they don''t teach it here so I''ll have to find another way. From what I understand Leaf skipped another year so she will finish school this year. It''s been around a week since school started again. It''s going well and I''ve fallen into a similar routine again. Waking up in the morning and jogging through the forest. Then I go through school like normal. I should be able to get the synthesizing job soon. Jobs level faster than classes so I already have most over 10. My highest being enchanting at 15. I also summoned another bird familiar to scout for me. It flies above the path and guides me towards enemies to fight. The archer familiar I have has a finite number of arrows. I enchanted his and he picks the used arrows up trying not to waste any. All his arrows are enchanted with poison. Even though he''s so weak the poisons extremely effective against most enemies. The spiders seem to have an immunity though. I throw Pokodo onto enemies and she goes for vital spots on them like their eyes. She''s actually useful in fights so she''s leveling up steadily. I also found a lot of stolen items under my bed recently. She''s been stealing from everywhere I guess and has collected enough stuff to make the school think it has a bandit. I give all the stuff back and tell Pokodo not to steal unless I command her to. Not using her abilities would be a waste so I''ll have to remember that. A month and a half has passed since the school year started. I got a letter from the postman. It was from my grandfather Grey. It plainly said ¡°The village was overrun by bandits. There were no survivors.¡± ¡­I missed school that day. For the second time in my life I cried. Chapter 16 Against the odds I felt awful. I wanted to go back to the village but the more I thought about it... The less I realized I can do. Going back now would just be a waste since even if the bandits were still around. I wouldn''t be able to fight against them. From how it sounded, far to many to fight against. The only thing I can do now is bide my time and get stronger. So strong they will rue the day they attacked my village! Killed my family! I will make them pay! My mother was a high leveled warrior, no way she''d have died easily. As clumsy as my father was. Near the end of my time at the manor. He leveled up from thief to assassin. Both could put up a good fight¡­ No, there was no way I could do anything¡­ I can''t do anything right now... I need to get stronger... No, just me being strong wont be enough. I need numbers to fight numbers... I learned synthesis sometime this month¡­ I think it has been a month... I can''t tell how long it has been since I got the letter. Time seems meaningless right now. I feel helpless, there is nothing I can do right now. It will take years for the bandits to see any ramifications... I feel, I feel awful, truly awful at my lack of power. At my inability to do anything about what has happened. I''ve stopped crying every night, the bullies must have heard what happened and have stopped picking on me... I don''t care about them though, I just want my revenge. I harden my heart for now. I need to stay focused on avenging them. I spend every minute I don''t have classes fighting in the forest. I managed to get to level 9 but with how much I''ve been fighting I should be getting close to 10. My animals and familiars both are afraid of me. Or don''t trust me like they would before my village was attacked. They can probably sense I only see them as pawns right now to help me get stronger. Even so they all do their jobs accordingly. I stopped playing around and only aim for kill shots with my arrows. Straight through the eyes of enemies. Dual edge is an extremely risky skill to have activated but the less time I spend on fights the faster I can level. Fights normally end before the enemies even know I''m there. Every day I kill at least 1 or 2 goblin guards now. They stopped guarding the outside and have moved into the inside. I went into the fortress entrance once. As soon as I did, I was overwhelmed by them and had to retreat immediately. I''ll keep whittling their numbers down until they''re gone. I''ve been experimenting with synthesizing. I combined all the enchanted paper that had similar spells on them down into the strongest of each spell. It takes 8 scrolls of 1 type to make a tier 3 rank of that scroll. I also learned how to make magic paper. Its so easily stupid it makes me mad at how much money I''ve wasted on it already. The only thing you need to do is pour mana into a normal piece of paper to make it hold mana. The only thing I can do now is regret my lack of knowledge and grow from it. I tested out the tier 3 magic, flare isn''t much stronger. Same with all the other spells. The biggest difference is with the wind magic. If I use the metal tube to fire a rock out with tier 3 wind magic its strong enough to pierce into trees. It will be another trump card since it takes 10 minutes to enchant something. Around an hour to regenerate my mana or 20 minutes at night or 30 minutes in the forest. It also takes 30 minutes to do each synthesis. Altogether it takes an entire days worth of magic just to make a single tier 3 scroll. My next goal is to take that fortress. It''s been a few months since I started my hit and run tactics. I''ve managed to kill roughly 60% of the goblins. They keep retreating further into their fortress. They now exclusively hide in the cave at the back end of their fortress. My teachers are starting to become afraid of me. I''m still one of the weakest people in the class but I guess it''s the look in my eyes. Keep it up, just keep getting stronger I think to myself. One of the bullies decided it has been long enough he can continue to pick on me. I cut him across the chest, the look of fear in his eyes was enough to bring me back to my senses... I don''t think I''ll be bullied again after this. No ramifications from my attack, I guess the year of me being bullied was enough to consider it self defense. While going on my morning jog before I make it into the forest. I see something burning a little ways off of the forest. It''s a buggy, turned over and set on fire. There is a few guards, all dead but the merchant is still struggling for breath. I run to him and cast healing magic. I also use a tier 3 healing scroll. He starts to look better, then he says. ¡°Please *cough* goblins have taken my daughter. You must save her!¡± I tell him to go back to the gate and ask for backup. I make my way towards the fortress I''ve been to many times before. This has pushed my plans forward a few weeks... Goblins were outside the fortress cave this time. I haven''t seen any outside the cave for a few weeks now. I handle the goblins like normal. There are more than usual but I manage to kill the 7 on the outside easily enough. 1 had a key on him, the rest weren''t carrying anything of value. I burn their corpses with a flare before I head inside. 20 feet into the cave I see a door. The key I just got manages to open it. Once it does I see a few unsuspecting goblins, I get an arrow in both before they can call for help. Pushing further into the cave, it splits into 2 paths. 1 going straight, 1 heading off to the right. I go right first. The path to the right looks like a dungeon. As I push further in a few more goblins fight but they''re easily killed. I''ve become extremely skilled at murdering them. Once I get to the end, I''m disgusted with what I see. The merchants daughter is stripped completely naked in the corner crying, she was possibly raped already but she still looks sane. There are a few other women in the room as well... Most have completely dead eyes, like they''d given up on life. With no threats in here, I free them all and send them to the entrance of the cave. If they try to make it back to Shienta without me some might die to spider attacks. I head back with them to the fork in the paths and head the only direction I haven''t went yet. About half a dozen more goblins killed before I make it to the biggest room the goblins have in the cave. I see around 8 goblins still and a hobgoblin king sitting on a throne. He''s easily the size of a normal human but ugly as shit. With a shoddily constructed crown on his head. They are all looking at the entrance where I am but they haven''t spotted me yet since I''m sneaking. I break sneak with a stealth focus shot at the hobgoblin''s heart. He must have sensed it because he moves and it only hits his arm. I fire another bolt at 1 of the goblins while they still struggle to realize what just happened. Head shot! The 7 remaining start to rush the door, I manage to kill 3 before they get close enough to be a threat. Dropping my crossbow and pulling out my wooden sword I make it as big as I possibly can with control nature and still have it useable. Swinging as hard as I can, it knocks 2 of the 4 goblins to the ground. I dropped the sword in the process. The other 2 both rush in trying to attack me. My familiars and pets come to my defense. I desummoned the bird and I summoned a skeleton once I entered the cave so I have him, Socks, Pokodo and the archer familiar with me right now. ¡°I should have summoned more.¡± I think to myself as the skeleton takes 2 hits and is destroyed. The goblins who were knocked down are getting up now. Before they get up I spit poison in 1 of the standing goblins eyes. He starts screaming uncontrollably. I aim at the only other one standing and cover him in string shot. Both are out of the fight. The goblin knocked down closest to me stabs with his tiny dagger. I take a step back but it still connects. Through 2 layers of protection, it doesn''t pierce my armor but I still feel the blow. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He''s close enough that I couldn''t miss him. I spit poison into his face as well. Only 1 left, while I was spitting poison my wolf had started attacking him. The archer familiar ran out of arrows during the fight so he threw his bow to the side and was on the goblins back choking him. Pokodo was at his eye biting it out of his face. He was screaming uncontrollably like the 2 with spit in their eyes. I take out my family sword, cleanly stabbing through the defenseless goblin''s neck with an opportune strike. I stab the rest of the goblins through the throat as well. The only one left is the hobgoblin. He had waited for me to finish. That would be the only explanation of why he didn''t attack with them. If he attacked as well I might have been in trouble and had to temporarily retreat. I rearmed myself before approaching him. He began to speak in goblin. I only knew parts but from what it sounded like he was mad I had been attacking their fortress. They hadn''t attacked people in over 3 years. Since I started dropping their numbers and feeling threatened they had to get more women to breed with to increase their numbers. Disgusted with what he was saying, I point my crossbow at him and fire. He blocks it with the club in his hand. The fight begins. He rushes towards me, I drop my crossbow and manage to pull out my sword and shield before he makes it to me. Going into defensive stance I blocked the first attack with my shield, with the power from his swing, it feels like my arm is breaking but even so I repel it. Sock is firmly attached to his leg at this point. Pokodo is crawling up him, my archer familiar managed to get 2 arrows out of the goblins from the last fight. He fires an arrow which is easily blocked again by the hobgoblin. I stab at him, he doesn''t even bother blocking. It hits him but doesn''t even cut through his skin. We''re all attacking him but not much damage is being done. He attacks me again. This time my shields smashed to pieces. Enough to slow the blow but not completely stop it. It hits me in the face. I can taste blood, 1 attack that I partially blocked hit me for 20% of my health. I switch to pure defense and drop my sword and pull out my wooden sword. He smirks at the wooden sword as he swings again. This time with both hands I stop him. It being harder to break than he thought must have confused him. I use a new attack I thought up. A control nature uppercut opportune strike! An earth fist appears out of the ground underneath him and smashes into his chin. Knocking him backwards enough for me to cast a few more spells. I chant an ignite onto him, the skin that has been injured starts to smoke and burn off. He attacks again. I stop it another time this time when repelling him I kick him in his balls. ¡°critical hit!¡± He hunches over in pain. I think I found his weak spot. Using any means to win a fight and knowing that to some it would seem unfair or cowardly. I don''t care as long as I''m the 1 left alive I''ll do anything to win. Poison spit is shot at his eyes. He manages to raise his hand to stop it and it isn''t effective unless it pierces through his skin. I pull out my trump card and fire the rock cannon at him. Direct hit on his right arm, easily breaking it. He kick''s Sock off him knocking him down. He grabs Pokodo and flings her across the room. With his other hand now picking up the club he crushes the familiar in 1 strike. I rush forward pulling out my next weapon, the metal training sword. While his back is turned to me crushing the familiar. I drop the sword down as hard as I can. Feeling bones crush in his shoulder blade the rock cannon hit. He falls to the ground face forwards in pain. While he''s getting up, I pull out an arrow and jump on his back, stabbing it in his eye. It was a flare arrow, he easily knocks me off him. We both slowly get up looking at 1 another I have no options left. I have to use my last trump card. If this doesn''t work, I don''t know what will kill him. Channeling chi into a chi wave 10%! 20%! 30%! He starts rushing towards me, 40%! He''s swinging his weapon at me. 50%! I fire it at 50%. His weapon, inches from dealing a killing strike to me. His weapon is repelled out of his hands, the hob goblin''s arm is the first thing to be hit by the wave. The chi wave twists and shatters his closest arm. It''s crumpled to a mess and thrown like a sack of meat behind his body. The chi wave hits him next. The face he makes is 1 of sheer terror. Parts of his skin start to bubble blood underneath them from the pressure, he''s thrown back. He smashes into a wall 20 feet behind him with enough pressure to shatter every remaining in tact bone in his body to pieces. The wall breaks and he goes through it. The force is so strong I''m knocked 10 feet back from my own attack. Slamming into the ground so hard that I''m knocked unconscious.
Blue mage passive skill gained Leadership- Able to lead groups more effectively as you level
Blue mage passive skill upgraded Leadership --> Kings Leadership- Even more effective leadership skills
Goblin language mastered
Goblin Alchemy recipes learned
Thief skill upgraded Stealth strike--> Assassinate- Attack that deals eight times normal damage if the target hasn''t noticed you yet, completely silent
Title Goblin slayer- Killed enough goblins that you can do it naturally, 10% extra damage to goblins
Title Regicide- You managed to kill the king of a group, able to more easily kill kings more likely to be seen as a king
Title Against the odds- Survive a fight you weren''t weren''t meant to, increased chances of surviving deadly encounters
Pokodo ¡°ferret¡± evolved into Shadow ferret
Master of learning 9 to 10
Master of Learning level 10 boost to classes and jobs experience gained
Chapter 17 Making an automaton and potions I wake up with Pokodo sitting on my chest. She managed to pull a healing scroll out of my bags and use it on me. My whole body is in pain, even after the heal. Sock is sitting right beside me licking my face. Pokodo is now almost twice as big as she was and she''s also pitch black colored. She must have gotten smarter, she knew I might have died if she didn''t heal me. I slowly get up to see the rooms filled with treasure. I don''t know where to start. A chest in the room is filled with coins. Mostly copper, some silver and I even see a gold coin. The hob goblins crown had flown off during the fight, I pick it up. The crown is made of coins bent into shape. The center being a gold piece. In the corner of the room is a weird looking shield. I inspect it and its a rare wooden shield called ¡°earth shield¡±. There''s vines tangled around it and it has 2 stat boosts, 1 to defense the other to magic defense and a effect that allows nature magic to be cast on it to control the vines. I probably shouldn''t use the vines in combat, I''m not sure they''d regenerate if they get sliced. I test it out the vines, unwrapping from around the shield are about 10 feet long and there are 3 of them. I can use it to cling to walls and I use it to get into the room where the hobgoblin was launched. It was a secret treasure room from what it looks like. The gear from adventurers was stored here and from what I could see it was all high quality stuff. Not wanting to bad mouth the few pieces of gear the hobgoblin had on, he was wearing a rare set of boots. The hobgoblin''s body was in bad shape. Missing an arm, giant holes in his armor. Blood, bruises and cuts everywhere on his body. I shouldn''t have used so much of my chi. That was a few years worth of chi I just used in a single attack¡­ Inspecting the boots revealed the name ¡°boots of feather fall¡±. 2 more stat boosts, 1 to defense and a 15% movement speed boost. The effect is reduced fall damage from heights. They''re too big for me to wear, so I''ll carry them out with me, not sure if I''m going to sell them or wait until I can wear them. 1 last rare was found, it was a wand. The name was ¡°duality of magic¡±. Closer inspection showed 1 stat boost and 2 new effects. Stat boost was to mana regen, having it on me should reduce the time it takes to regenerate all of my mana by 5 minutes. The 2 effects were increased black magic and white magic spells. All and all was a huge boost to me gear wise. I loaded up as much gear as I can carry. Dumping out my backpack of rocks before I entered, I now have a similar weight in it with the gear I looted. I summon another familiar, thinking about carrying things for me and I spawn a moving treasure chest. I load up as much treasure as I can into him and even make a makeshift spider silk harness so Sock can carry some equipment back. Near the entrance was the group of naked women. I had completely forgot about them and I was surprised they were still here. I have no idea how long I was knocked unconscious for... Which makes them staying here even more of a mystery. I clothed the women in my makeshift spider silk pieces and a few of the pieces of gear I looted. It''s very shoddy clothing but it''s better than nothing. We make our way back to town and there are guards standing around doing nothing. The merchant is frantically running, begging the guards to come help when he see''s our group heading towards the entrance. The women are no longer naked but we''re still getting weird looks from everyone, I realize its me they''re looking at. With my familiars and pets carrying equipment for me. Me with a handful as well a huge amount of spoils from the cave. They''re probably wondering how I managed to kill a goblin fortress by myself. I know I look strange compared to regular adventurers but will the stares ever stop? Stares that dig right through me... Does everyone realize I''m different? Or look down on me because I am weak... It turns out they were staring at me because I was covered in blood from head to toe¡­ So I wash myself off with some water magic before entering the city. The merchants more than happy to give me any reward I want. He was a potion seller so it would be nice to become friends with him. I wouldn''t use potions normally because it reduces the growth of the type of thing it restores. (health potions will eventually reduce health regen if they''re overused) Having a few back-ups just in case shouldn''t be too bad for me. The merchant gives me all the money he had on him. Which was a nice amount, he was paying guards to protect his caravan. He''s probably a more well known and respected merchant from just having protection like that. I take all the gear to the blacksmith in the city and get a little over 2 gold for everything. I keep the rares for myself for later. Rares are of course rare to find. The total rewards for everything was almost 6 gold altogether... Enough to retire on and live fairly comfortably the rest of my life already... 6 gold was sitting this close to the city in that building an no one thought it was worth dealing with. I was asked to file a report about what happened in the forest. I head to the main guard building. I pass by it everyday when I go jogging so I know exactly where it is. I enter and see Zeke sitting at the desk. He looks very bored with the busy work he''s doing. After 5 minutes of shuffling things around he finally takes my report. I lie a bit about what exactly happened. ¡°I can''t tell him I blew apart a hobgoblin with several different types of magics and melee maneuvers.¡± I think to myself. After the report I head back to school. That being said hobgoblins, aren''t really that strong. Any of the adventurers who graduated from the training boot camp could have killed him without much effort, with a healer... He was a king though so he was probably above average. Judging from the equipment he had, the money he had... Yea, he was above average. It''s only been a few hours but I''m completely exhausted so I fall asleep. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The next day I decided to stay in town and try a few things out. I enchanted some paper with wind magic and bard magic and synthesized them together. When I put the paper on my harmonica it started playing the bard song which increases strength of allies who hear it for 5 minutes called strength ballad. Would be very handy for long fights. I also enchant black and white magic onto magic paper to see if my rare makes a difference and it does. They now jump straight to tier 2 magic scrolls. I go to the engineer''s shop after lessons and buy some materials. With the surplus of money I have right now. I''m going to stock up on materials and try a few things out. With steel, a very sturdy type of wood and the engineering parts. I start to work on putting together an automaton doll. I was going to hold off until I graduated but I don''t think the headmaster will find out. Putting it together it feels more suited for combat then his servant dolls did. I enchanted the wood with nature control magic to make it sturdier. I enchant the steel and engineering parts with haste magic to make it faster. When I pour all my magic into it I don''t feel any pressure. I assume it''s not going to explode and it springs to life. If I remember correctly I need to give him a simple command. ¡°You''re name is now Gizmo, follow me for today.¡± Gizmo is following me for today. I take him around the school and get a bunch of amazed looks. Some people have come up and asked about him, poking him as well to see what was going on. He''s going to be a good addition to my group later on. I head into town so people can get accustomed to him as well. I might have him run errands so if I can I want people to know who he belongs to. A few children approached me and asked questions about him but mostly it was just people staring. With him I visit all the shops and tell them he might show up to buy things for me. I ask for lists of items and prices of everything. Some of the shops wanted to buy him but right now I don''t need to inflate the market. I''m the only one able to produce these in town besides headmaster Milton. I''ll give Gizmo the exact amounts for each item I need and the list of items I need when it comes down to that. I also bought plenty of herbs while I was out to work on some different types of potions and poisons I can now make that are goblin recipes. I make a few potions of strength, agility, stamina and intelligence potions I already knew. I also make a fatigue point regeneration, mana point regeneration and health regeneration potions to. I spend awhile synthesizing the strength, agility, stamina and intelligence potions down into 4 stat boosting potions. I synthesize the fatigue, mana and health regeneration potions down into 3 regeneration potions. Both are high quality potions that cost ten silver each. Once again though the time it takes to make each and the materials of each it wouldn''t be worth doing for a living. While I can still adventure at least. It wasn''t even a full day before the headmaster came to see me about my automaton doll. He was looking closely at the doll when I came back from making potions. ¡°Well, I see you''ve figured out how to make these dolls all by yourself.¡± Milton said continuing to look at the doll. ¡°Strangest thing, since several months ago... The dolls I made that have no expiration date started to malfunction.¡± I start to get afraid of the consequences for showing my ability to make them in front of everyone. Milton speaks up. ¡°Someone as skilled as you at making these could be a threat to the safety of the school if used improperly. Although someone willing to risk their life to save the daughter of one of my dear friends can be let off with just a warning.¡± ¡­ What!? Through shear coincidence I got myself out of trouble. ¡°The dolls you destroyed still need to be replaced and I don''t have the time to make them like I used to.¡± Understanding the situation, I set out for the shops again to buy more materials. The new dolls I''ve made for the library are smarter, faster and have the ability to soak in more mana than the dolls they replaced. The librarian can use 60% of his mana into each doll without fear of explosions. They also stay active for 15% longer than the previous ones. The amount of improvements onto each job stacking because of tinkerer. I''m already more skilled than someone with years of practice under his belt. I shouldn''t let it get to my head though. If Milton could use multiple jobs, his automatons would surely be able to run for weeks straight with less mana than what was spent on mine. Chapter 17.5 This chapter is for class/skill/job descriptions, you can skip this chapter if you want as it might contain spoilers to what Kite will has unlocked for his level 10 skills. As the story goes on more of these side chapters will be added when Kite gains a power spike through a long period of training. These chapters cover more of the technical aspect of the book and I understand that some people only want to read a story and not be bogged down by the technical aspects of each fight. When Kite is reincarnated he remembered most of the details to each class. So his decisions are based on trying to get the best classes for himself. Strength based classes are Spoiler :
Warrior- Level 10 skill Heavy slash- Puts weight behind attack to deal more damage (ten second recovery time to use again)
Fighter- Level 10 passive skill Combat Knowledge- Improved reading on the flow of combat, trajectory paths of attacks
Berserker- Level 10 skill Rend- (slash an opponent forcing them to bleed, if used towards fingers might chop them off) (combined with Heavy slash to make Heavy rending slash)
Dragoon- Level 10 skill Jump strike- strike down at the enemy after a jump (more damage depending on the distance fallen)
Dexterity based classes are Spoiler :
Bard- Level 10 skill Intelligence ballad- Plays a song that increases the intelligence of allies that hear it
Archer- Level 10 skill Snipe- More accurate attack that deals devastating sneak damage but consumes all energy
Thief- Level 10 skill Stealth Strike- sneak attack that deals triple damage on unaware opponents (was learned early and replaced with assassinate)
Beast tamer- Level 10 skill Lick wounds- pets now regenerate health twice as fast, second pet tameable (Sock switched to bonded meaning Kite can tame two more pets)
Bandit- Level 10 skill Pilfer- able to steal money upon injuring them (was learned early and replaced with mug)
Intelligence based classes are Spoiler :
Black mage- Level 10 skill Ice bolt- cast a bolt of ice that can freeze enemies (was learned early and replaced with freeze)
White mage- Level 10 skill Dispel- removes negative status effects from self or ally, cant remove curses
Red mage ¡°Spell-sword¡±- none
Blue mage- none (besides skills learned)
Purple mage ¡°Warlock¡±- Level 10 skill Plague- causes any wounds on an opponent to fester and rot
Grey mage ¡°Time mage¡±- Level 10 passive skill Shortened incantations- reduces the time it takes to say chants
Orange mage ¡°Illusionist¡±- Level 10 passive skill Voiceless incantations- able to now use chants silently (happens in your head)
Green mage ¡°Nature mage¡±- Level 10 skill Regrowth- helps grow plants faster, can be used on people to regrow limbs, may cause insanity from sheer pain
Summoner- Level 10 skill Summon food- able to conjure food out of the mana in the air, tastes very bland, might cause mana poisoning if consumed to frequently
Warden- Level 10 skill Shell- casts a defensive shell that reduces magic damage
Elementalist- none
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Stamina based classes are Spoiler :
Druid- Level 10 passive skill Poison resistance- improved resistance to most poisons (can also shape shift into a fox)
Monk- Level 10 skill Iron will- take up a defensive posture reducing magic damage taken (fused with Defensive stance to make new move Complete defense)
Paladin- Level 10 skill Rallying cry- Encourages allies while demoralizing enemies
Shaman- Level 10 skill Hex- magical spell that reduces the strength, intelligence and dexterity of an enemy
Knight- Level 10 passive skill Stamina boost two- Increased total stamina by ten percent
Guardian- Level 10 skill Taunt- gains the attention of an enemy and makes them focus there attacks towards you
Specialty classes Spoiler :
Scout- Level 10 skill Thermal vision- changes vision to see heat signatures, can be used to pinpoint weaknesses
Freelancer- Level 10 plus 10 to stats
Scholar- Level 10 skill Consume knowledge- can absorb books literally! Able to learn books instantly but consumes the book in the process plus mana and fatigue points
¡°Master of Learning¡±- Level 10 skill Increased experience gained for all other classes
Chapter 18 Meeting Gobber All but my shaman class have reached level 10 now. Elementalist levels extremely fast in comparison because of the excessive usage in my other main mage spells. I''ve been primarily focusing on leveling my classes evenly but eventually some will advanced passed the rest. I''ll focus on getting shaman to 10 first. I did get some extremely helpful skills from hitting 10. Just getting that far should help me tremendously later on. I still need to unlock more classes but at the moment, none come to mind. None that I know how to get without spending years looking for them. The forest has exhausted its amount of enemies for me to fight. Since the assault on the goblin fortress, I''ve went back to do another investigation to try and find anything else useful but to no avail. I haven''t seen a single goblin since the attack. Most of the spiders in the forest are dwindling in numbers too. I think I might have hunted them to almost extinction like the goblins. I gained 2 levels from them so I''m now level 12. I make the decision to switch my schedule around so I can fight at night. I get ready to head back to Shienta when I hear a voice call out. ¡°Please don''t kill me.¡± A young goblin approaches me. Stuttering from fear he speaks. ¡°Y-you killed the last k-king, king was my master so you b-become n-next m-m-master.¡± He''s trembling visibly from fear. Knee''s buckling, almost giving way as he approaches me. He might have seen what I did to the other goblins. Now he''s seeking revenge for it under the guise of becoming the next king. I think about killing him but I hear a whimper from Pokodo. It seems like she could understand what I was thinking and was audibly protesting it. ¡°Just for you Pokodo.¡± I think to myself. I take in a deep breath and breath a heavy sigh as I finally ask him. ¡°What do I have to do as your master?¡± ¡°N-nothing, you g-get to lead the remaining goblins...which is just m-me... You killed everyone else...¡± I''m starting to feel bad for what I did but they were actively raping women for years before I saved them... There is no sympathy. I can''t feel bad for killing them, they deserved it. They deserved to die for what they''ve done. This goblin is different. He''s young enough to have not been a part of it. I can fix this one, make him better than other goblins. ¡°Fine, give me your name and kneel to your master.¡± He kneels down and speaks. ¡°I-it''s Gobber.¡± The city doesn''t have any rules about goblins entering the town. I still don''t want to cause a panic. I tell him to go back and live in the old fortress. At least for now... I also don''t trust him nearly enough for him to live with me. I still have a sneaking suspicion that he might try to kill me. ¡°I''ll come get you before sundown.¡± I tell Gobber and leave to go sleep in my bed back in my room at the magic school. Thinking about whether or not having a goblin ally was a good idea. Well if worse comes to worse I''ll just kill him. I wake up around around 6 that night. I started late today, so I will start waking up around 4 tomorrow. I wont be able to make it to Gobber tonight. I should have probably told him that but I don''t think he''ll come looking for me. Before lessons start in the morning, I''ll visit him to clear up the misunderstanding. I get ready for training, grabbing my weighted backpack and gear. I start to get a little nervous, this will be the first time I''ve fought new enemies since I challenged the goblins. Harder enemies I might not be prepared for. I just hope nothing too serious happens that I won''t be able to recover from. I think about taking Gizmo but decide not to, he''s not suited for fighting and would only hold me back or die. The enemies at night are stronger than the daytime enemies. Even with night vision, the blue mage passive. I still don''t think I could make it to the fortress through the forest avoiding all the enemies. I''ll run my old slime path for today. I pick up my pets and start jogging, no enemies yet, I start to get close to the forest. I hear a loud scream coming from the forest. I don''t have to think very hard to figure it out as I rush to save his stupid ass. Gobber has a dire wolf on top of him, almost ripping his neck apart. I catch it with a stealth fired focused shot bolt and the poison is enough to weaken it visibly. I get another bolt into it before it turns and charges me. Sock interrupts it, Pokodo jumps off of Sock and onto the wolf, that also distracts it for me. My pets make a very good team. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Sock might be weaker but it has already been hit with 2 numbing poison bolts slowing its movements. While we are fighting the dire wolf, I see a large vampire bat approaching. This can end badly if we don''t take the dire wolf down quickly. I aim at it with snipe and get a killing shot through the eye. All of our attention switches to the large bat. Far more evasive than the wolf who was preoccupied. We can''t hit it a single time. Then Pokodo takes damage and is thrown back. Fearing for the worst, I rush towards she casting healing magic and get a heal off. I call for a retreat and we all rush towards the entrance of the city. I yell at Gobber, clearly mad. ¡°You almost got my pet killed you fool, what were you doing outside of the fortress?¡± He is on the ground panting heavily. He is not cut out for running away from fights. He talks into between heavy breaths. ¡°Master didn''t show up when master said they would. So I got scared you were hurt and went looking for you...¡± Gobber is almost too stupid to get mad at. I forgive him since Pokodo turned out to be fine. I summoned a black mage familiar. 20 minutes of walking later I summoned a skeleton right before we got into a fight. Orange slimes this time. They have double the speed and strength of normal slimes as well as being immune to fire damage. Normal slimes aren''t immune to any type of damage except water. As the slimes get stronger they gain an immunity to a different elements. Rainbow slimes sound cute but they''re actually deadly dungeon monsters. They have complete spell immunities. They have to be beaten to death with blunt weapons or split into smaller versions until it''s too small to split, than they can be killed. You can easily get overwhelmed by them if you don''t have a plan ready. Knowing ahead of time I''ve prepared some freezing bolts for my weapon. Gobber doesn''t have a weapon¡­ Everything about this goblin pisses me off. He''s beyond weak, no weapon, no armor, no skill... ¡°Here, hold onto my crossbow until I can buy you 1. You should be careful wi-.¡± I hand Gobber the crossbow and he unintentionally shoots the bolt over the city wall before I could finish explaining the safety of it¡­ WHAT THE FUCK MAN! This goblin is worse than useless. I''m half tempted to kill him we continue on. I warn him that if he hits anyone of us by accident, he''s a dead goblin and he gulps as he shakes his head understanding. I explain the basics of archery to him which doesn''t take long and we continue. I went to the mid to start supporting the pets while Gobber took the rear. The next set of slimes went far easier than the last group. Even without me using the crossbow my magic has improved to the point it is usable for damage. Gobber talked up. ¡°What does class unlocked archer mean?¡± Huh!? He learned archer already? So goblins have never used a weapon, besides clubs or primitive daggers. No wonder I actually killed them so easily. I explain what classes are to him and tell him he should just focus on shooting for now. I take another few moments to teach him how to use focus shot and we move on. A few more packs of orange slimes later and I''m ready to call it a night when Gobber asks. ¡°What does snipe do?¡± ¡­ No fucking way! This freaking goblins already passed level 10 as an archer already! What kind of unnatural speed is that!? The next hour I spend teaching him how to snipe and daylights already coming up. I spent the whole night fixing Gobber''s mistakes. I feel more worn out than normal. I give him my crossbow for protection. I''ll buy another 1 later and I send him back to the fortress. I still have school also... Not looking forwards to it, I just want to go to bed. I barely stay awake through class as I''m ready to call it quits for the day. Most of my classmates as well as a few teachers probably think I''m on drugs or something with how drowsy I am. I sway back and fourth from exhaustion... I don''t think I''ve ever been this tired before. Perhaps it is because of the mental stress of my new ally Gobber. I fall into bed that day completely exhausted. Thinking of what I''m going to do tomorrow. I go to bed from barely hitting the pillows of it. Chapter 19 Teaching Gobber When I wake up it is getting close to dusk already. I rush towards the goblin cave fortress as fast as I can. I close the fortress gates and head inside the cave. Gobber is sleeping in the old kings room. Today I''ve decided to spend the whole day teaching Gobber about classes and jobs. The more he knows, the less mistakes he''ll make. I like the speed he learns at, just the fact that he almost died, fired a crossbow bolt over the city walls into the city. Even the lack of basic knowledge could result in him or myself dying... He needs to be taught at least the basics for me to begin to trust him. Otherwise he will always be a bumbling idiot who puts himself and others in danger. Gobber looks to be about the 2 years old, it''s extremely hard to with goblins since they don''t grow much height wise. They age very quickly, every 1 of our years is equivalent to around 5 years for them, so that would make him around 10. If he were to become a hobgoblin, he would grow in age immediately, looking like the average height of a human adult. Goblins are one of the few races like this, it is very rare for them to change though. They don''t get any smarter if they change either. So if Gobber was somehow able to change into a hobgoblin right now, he would still be naive to the world around him. I finally get tired of waiting for him to wake up so I start cleaning up the room we''re in. About an hour later he finally awakens. It''s to dark to train anyways. Soon enough Gobber approaches me, rubbing his eyes and yawning he says. ¡°Whats up master?¡± ¡°We''re staying in tonight and I''m going to teach you about classes and jobs.¡± He sits down looking at me intently waiting for me to start the lesson. I start with the 6 main classes warrior, guardian, thief, archer, black mage and white mage. Everyone of these classes does a different thing and each class does that thing the best compared to other classes which are mainly support classes. Giving him a rough description of each first before going into more detail. He looks at me intently, a big dumb smile shows across his face as he listens. Some of his teeth show through as his mouth hangs open, I can tell he is still listening though and not daydreaming. Proceeding the lesson, I begin to explain each class in further detail. "Warrior is the main damage, they''re hard to kill and can deal incredible melee damage. Most of the time they have a 1 handed sword and shield or a 2 handed sword. They are the main units in armies, comprising up most of the troops with other classes providing backup. Most people will pick this as their rebirth class." He acts like he wants to speak. I think he may want to ask a question so I let him. ¡°What is rebirth?¡± ¡°It''s when you die, you get to pick a shrine that determines your classes... I thought you already knew that since you''re a thief class.¡± He looks at me confused and speaks up about it. ¡°I don''t have the thief class though.¡± Now I''m confused. I unlocked assassinate from the hobgoblin. Was he the only thief out of all the goblins or what? Now that I think about it, Gobber didn''t have a weapon. I start thinking about which class would be a good secondary. He already knows archer, so something to help that would be good. Blue mage would be good for him since it gets more versatile the more enemies you fight. Beast tamer could potentially double my pets though... Scout would be a good choice too, as well as druid or any of the mages¡­ I can''t make up my mind so I keep teaching him about classes for now. ¡°Archer is the class you are and thief is the class the last hobgoblin was. Thieves are very good at being sneaky and stealthy. Guardian makes for the best tanker with their multiple defensive skills that will help keep them alive.¡± Gobber asks another question, he is like a baby when it comes to information. I need to make sure he learns and understands everything or teaching him would be a waste. I''m honestly just glad that he wants to learn, this would be much harder if he kept losing interest. ¡°What is a tanker?¡± ¡°Well it''s someone who blocks attacks so other allies can fight the enemy without worrying about being attacked themselves.¡± I''m trying not to use big words to confuse him as I continue. ¡°Black mages can chant magic to cast elements to hurt enemies and white mages can chant magic to heal your party members.¡± I cut his hand which scares and confuses him and I chant a healing spell to demonstrate it to him. The wound wasn''t that big so it quickly heals, only leaving a tiny amount of blood in his hand. Then I do the same thing with a freeze spell, casting at one of the walls. He looks on in amazement but I don''t think Gobber could handle memorizing chants. ¡°Well those are the basic 6 classes, now we''ll go over the other classes that I know at least.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. After explaining every single class and demonstrating how they''re used, he looks like he''s understood it all. Sort of absorbing information like a sponge, I go over proper procedure with a few more weapons and how to equip armor for when I buy him some armor. It has been a few hours since I started teaching him. Maybe if he manages to stay alive a little longer, I can start teaching him the ¡°common¡± language. ¡°Well lets try teaching you a class now.¡± I decided to teach him blue magic since it''s easier to pick up then the other magic classes and it''s also the easiest to explain. After explaining everything too him and cast string shot at him a few times, he finally learns it. In Gobber''s excitement he covered Sock, Pokodo and I in sticky string. Laughing as spider silk shoots from his finger tips as he flails his arms around. I''m not sure how many spells I can teach him from my own list. I start with the most important ones. After casting poison spit to clean up the string attacks he manage to learn it. I tried teaching him silence but it seems like magic based skills are too hard for him to learn. I still have a good amount of skills I can teach him. All of my pets are already able to run the same distance as me since we''ve been training every day. Their fatigue has slowly increased. I''m sure that Gobber would slow us down. I have him running to the entrance of the cave and back for now. I''m making him a set of silk cloths to replace the few tattered pieces he has on. I''m about 20% done with the shirt I''m sewing for him when he re-enters the room. He''s breathing hard and panting for breath near the entrance to the main room. Gobber catches his breath then says. ¡°I got the scout class, what next?¡± Wait! What did he just say!? After confirming it, he unlocked a third class. I tell him to keep running for now while I think about it¡­ Now that I think about it, I was putting human limitations on him. He could end up with all the classes I have and become an unstoppable monster if I let him. I start to think about killing him but don''t want to act too hastily. I don''t know if that''s the case yet. I''ll try teaching him a few more and if he learns more than 10, I''ll kill him. I''ll have to kill him if he learns that fast, otherwise he would become an unstoppable monster. ¡°Gobber I''m going to teach you how to be a white mage.¡± I start going through the class more than I did previously. I show him how to do heal as well as dispel multiple times but he just doesn''t get it. After trying for an entire hour, I decide he cant learn any magic that has chants in it. That might also be why he couldn''t learn silence, since it has a very short chant to use it. I don''t know how to teach him night vision but drink blood is pretty easy. Once we fight some enemies I can drain some of their blood afterwords and teach him that skill. The next class I should try to teach him is beast tamer but I can''t until we''re fighting an enemy. With how much he''s improved as an archer, we could probably fight through the forest at night. I''d rather not risk it. I try to teach him druid but it doesn''t seem he can learn that class either. There might be race requirements on certain classes¡­ Thinking that, doesn''t that mean he can learn classes humans can''t? It''s now light outside. We head towards the forest and fight a spider, I explained beast tamer to him thoroughly and he unlocked the beast tamer class. If he can''t tame the spider after a dozen attempts, we''ll just kill them. It''s completely fine though since he manages to tame it after a few attempts¡­ With how strong he''s getting, I''m starting to get more and more afraid. I might be making the thing that kills me stronger every time I teach him something. I give a quick shiver at how strong he is becoming so quickly, he might already be a better archer than me, tomorrow he might be a better beast tamer. I''ll keep teaching him, hoping that isn''t the case and I''m just overthinking this. ¡°The next class I want to teach you requires certain armor, so I''ll have a set made for you tomorrow. Stay in the fortress even if I don''t show up though.¡± Gobber looks at me with a big smile on his face then says. ¡°Okay master, see you tomorrow or maybe not. I guess depending on if you are busy or not.¡± I go to school and do lessons like normal, then go to sleep. I''m more tired than usual but that''s probably because of changing my sleep schedule. Chapter 20 New class and challenge I wake up, without much time left before it''s too dark to make it to the fortress. I head to the merchants as soon as I wake up to buy a few heavy armor pieces. Knight seems like the best thing for him to learn since it doesn''t become a very good class until it''s leveled slightly to get the boosts to stamina. Honestly, if he gets any stronger, I''m worried I wont be able to kill him. He might be immune to the poison I can cast on him. He has my crossbow that has enchanted arrows. I''m being pushed slowly into a corner by myself. When I get there this time, he''s awake waiting for me. Gobber is feeding his pet spider now. Once he see''s me a giant smile shows up on his face. He asks. ¡°Hey master welcome back! Have you brought the thing you needed?¡± ¡°Yea, I''m going to teach you how to be a knight today.¡± Giving him the armor, I explain the basics of knight. I give him my sword and shield to borrow, until he unlocks knight. He''s hitting the dummy I made with a stump I pulled from outside. I shaped it with control nature. It takes around a few hours but he finally learns it. ¡°Master, I got a weird notice when I unlocked knight. It said I reached my class limit.¡± Brushing sweat off my head, thanking the fact that he only has 5 classes. I don''t need to worry about him becoming too strong now. ¡°Well I picked the best 5 classes for you. You shouldn''t have any problem getting stronger now.¡± Gobber responds oddly. ¡°But I have 6 classes.¡± I wonder which other class he learned. Well I did teach him a lot yesterday, so he might have learned one when I was gone. Being curious I ask him though. ¡°Which class is your sixth one?¡± ¡°Chemist.¡± What?! A class I don''t have! I''m not even sure what it does. It sounds like alchemist but I ask him to explain the class to me. ¡°Well it''s like this. I can think up all kinds of different mixtures for potions and poisons that might make them better or worse and can use them against my enemies.¡± Hmm I wonder why none of the other goblins didn''t use potions against me. Now that I think about it I unlocked some weird potion recipes when I beat the hobgoblin. ¡°Was the last king a chemist?¡± Gobber nods. Well that explains it, I should be able to learn that class then. The rest of the day I spend watching Gobber do different things involving chemist and explaining it. He''s not Brick but he isn''t a bad teacher. Mimicking some of the things I did when I taught him. Like explaining through example. It''s probably light outside but we stay inside, him attempting to teach me finally pays off.
Class learned Chemist- passive skill Pharmacology- doubles the effects of potions as well as removing the chance to reduce your regeneration from drinking them, passive increase to all regen effects Level 1 skill Injection- able to inject potions, stat boosting potions are more effective but have less duration and regen potions are instant but less effective
I rush to school, missing some of first period. It was completely worth it to me. I told Gobber I''m taking a few days off to make some potions and injection vials for myself and him. While I''m gone he''s going to be practicing his new classes on a regimen I made for him. It involves running until tired in the morning. Target practice with the crossbow, sword and shield practice (I gave him my wooden and metal swords) and made a shield for him. It is very flimsy, I will probably buy him one. I need to buy another pair of swords at any rate. I don''t trust Gizmo enough to make material runs yet. So I activate him and have him follow me again. He needs to learn, the more he knows the safer I will feel sending him out into the world. He seems to be learning quickly from my actions. I''m taking it easy for a few days now. I decide to wait until tomorrow to worry about heading to the shops. Gizmo''s following me but I don''t know what to do right now. It has been awhile since I''ve watched skirmishes. Leo and Epieoth are there sparring of course. A few others as well but for the first time I''m challenged. No one has ever seen me as the challenge so I don''t think they''ve bothered. Epieoth and Leo both stop their match and walk to the onlookers section. I guess they''re going to watch this so I don''t have a choice. Leo yelled out to me, half jokingly saying. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°If you lose the match Kite, I''ll tell everyone your secret!¡± Shit, why did I decide to come here today. Well if there''s nothing to lose. I might as well not hold back or at least use more than 2 classes. The person who challenged me is in my time mage lesson. One of the bullies who has been bothering me since I first joined... I don''t see any reason to hold back. Making the connection means he''s half time mage, shortened chants. I summon a white mage, I haven''t used summons in awhile but I feel it might be necessary if I''m knocked out or injured badly, he''ll jump in. The kid was trying to talk himself up the whole time. Stating that he knows how little of a challenge this is going to be for him. A few of his friends cheering for him while Leo cheers for me and Epieoth just stands and watches intently. Every match I''ve seen here, someone counted down the beginning of the match. This kid already started chanting magic without a count down. I cast silence to stop him. As expected he''s shocked, confused and scared. I don''t even see mages as a challenge anymore. With my arsenal, they''re too slow to retaliate. I have 30 seconds to beat him before he can even cast a spell. I don''t have my swords at the moment, I came here in my school robes too with silk enchanted clothing on underneath. I''m still not completely defenseless. Casting haste on myself, I rush in close and cover him in sticky webbing, immobilizing him. ¡°You can''t talk so raise your hand if you give up if not I''ll have to hurt you.¡± Fear showed in his eyes. Instantly the class clown. The number 1 loser of the school turned into an unbeatable obstacle. I should have just declined because 4 more people challenged me to duels. All with similar results to the first duel. Finally Leo speaks up. ¡°I got next fight.¡± Damn! Someone who could actually kill me is getting serious. He fights every single day and although he''s never won against Epieoth. He has never lost to anyone else. I gave my swords away, don''t have my crossbow or scroll pouch. I feel defenseless compared to when I''m outside. No pets either. Only Gizmo is with me, who has no experience in combat. Even if he did, I don''t think I''d be allowed to use him. I ask Leo. ¡°Before we start can you tell me which classes you are?¡± ¡°Ah yea, I''m black mage and red mage.¡± Really? I don''t know how he''s going to beat me, he doesn''t even have a weapon. Seems pointless to not use the red mages infuse ability. We start the fight normally, someone declaring the fight. I cast silence on him and he just stands still. Everyone else I approached and trapped with webbing but for some reason I don¡¯t think that will work. I start making pitfalls, soaking the ground in water to make it slippery in certain areas and reducing the strength of the ground in other area''s so it''s almost like sand. He seems to notice I''m taking extra precautions against him and not rushing forwards. So he starts to rush at me instead. He bypasses all my hazards easily. Even the hidden weakened ground ones, he seems to be able to tell were they''re at. I quickly pull a chunk of earth out of the ground and shape it into a sword. I infuse it with control nature as quickly as I can to block Leo right before he hits me. Strengthening the rock sword as much as possible, I can now see his weapon clearly. His claws are glowing red like they''re infused with fire. I purge his infused fingers. It looks like I surprised him. While he''s vulnerable I hit him with a control nature opportune strike uppercut! ¡°Critical hit!¡± My new attacked ended up knocking him backwards 5 feet. He would able to catch his balance but he landed in a water slick. He slipped and landed on the ground at the same time I solidified the area. He easily broke free but still raised his hand anyways in defeat. After the remaining few seconds of the silence finally ended I asked him a question. ¡°Why did you give up? You still could have beaten me.¡± He looked at me mad, like I didn''t understand something. ¡°No, if this was war you wouldn''t have put down a water trap that would''ve been sharp earth spikes and I would''ve been skewered before I had the chance to defend myself. You surprised me and I dropped my guard... Thinking I was better than you. This is your victory.¡± This is the first time I''ve ever seen Leo act so calm. I thought he''d be mad or wanting to kill me for getting him wet. I guess it might be a difference in culture because I don''t get it but I''m glad its over. ¡°I''d like next fight.¡± Epieoth spoke up for the first time I''ve ever heard him. Chapter 21 Hard fought fight ¡°Meet me outside the town... Bring your swords and crossbow so you stand a chance.¡± I guess he knows my fighting style, at least enough to know what weapons I use. He might have been secretly watching me... I''m not sure what the case is but it worries me slightly. There is still some light outside. I rush to get my equipment in my room and drop off Gizmo. Then I head towards the fortress. I talked to Gobber briefly about what was happening and he accompanied me to watch the fight and start it as the judge. Before I meet Epieoth, as an added precaution. I grab Socks and Pokodo from the stables. We all head towards the entrance to meet him. The sun is just now setting. We walked about 5 minutes away from the entrance, we might get attacked by monsters during the fight. If we''re both unlucky, we might die to a monster attack if the fight drags on for too long. He speaks now with his back turned away from me. Walking in front of me without turning to talk to me face to face. ¡°You asked Leo what his classes are, mine are red mage and you have to find out the hard way.¡± Well that''s not good, what class could he be? Maybe another black mage combo? There''s no reason to guess it since I''ll find out soon enough. While we were heading here, I taught Gobber how to start a match and what to say to start it. I doubt that Epieoth would be willing to break the rules of dueling, chances are that killing someone would get him kicked out of school since he isn''t a human... Especially if the person he killed was a human. Gobber had his hand raised like normal before saying. ¡°3, 2, 1, match begin.¡± He makes a chopping motion with his hand. I guess it''s now or never. I chant silence on him. He stands there the same as Leo. He''s slowly walking towards me before I see something terrifying. He pulls out a sword and cuts the magic off his face. ¡°You cant stop me with just that right? You have something else right?¡± Fuck, now he''s taunting me. I''m far enough away that I can''t make out his sword. It looks special compared to my a normal one. I pull out my "duality of magic" and start chanting a big flare. If he runs his mouth, he should be able to take a few hits. I cast it and the spell heads towards him. Before it hits he slices it in half with his sword. The magic spews off in both directions with him standing safely in the middle. How can you cut magic in half!? ¡°What!?¡± How is that possible!? What class allows you to just stop magic like that? He also cut through the silence spell... Now isn''t the time to think, it is the time to fight. I need to stay focused. I start channeling water to make water traps and sinkholes like I did with Leo. ¡°If it didn''t work on Leo, do you think it would work on me? Come on now. You should try something different to defeat me. Show me everything you have and I will defend against it.¡± Epieoth said calmly, slowly walking towards me. I pull out my crossbow and fire a poison bolt. He''s not weak enough that it will stop his heart, I think as I fire it. He easily deflects it, still walking slowly towards me. I start channeling another flare and grab a scroll out of my bags for freeze magic. I cast double magic, 1 following directly after the other. I haven''t had to use this method yet to beat any opponents but he''s not normal. He blocks the first spell but before the second can land it disappears. From what it looked like, he absorbed it instantly into his hand. Nothing is working against him, I''m trying to think of something. THINK DAMN IT! You''re too smart to let him embarass you like this! Should I use the rock cannon against a person? He could... I could kill him on accident if I''m not careful... It only broke the hobgoblins arm so he shouldn''t die from it. No! That is my trump card! I need to think of something else before I rely on that. I still have that stat potion I can drink. Even without injecting it, it should still be potent enough to give me an edge. Thinking that I pull out the potion and chug it, I feel myself getting stronger, smarter and faster than I''ve ever been. I also active my harmonicas to play strength and intelligence ballads. I start to rush at him. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. At the same time he rushes at me at a similar or faster speed, which scares me. It is almost like he''s still holding back, only matching my exact fighting ability... I swing my wooden sword at him, he easily cuts through it like it was just a piece of wood without enchants on it to make it more durable¡­ Jumping backwards, I pull out my family sword and the "earth shield". He smirks and rushes towards me again. I start silently chanting a spell. Summon undead right in front of him. He looks confused as he chops it. ¡°I got him.¡± I think to myself. As I go in for an opportu-. Before I can even get through the entire thought I''m launched backwards onto the ground. He questions. ¡°Is that it? How have you lived this long? Someone as weak as you couldn''t have possibly beaten that hobgoblin king.¡± No! I still have my trump cards and I don''t give a damn if I hurt him now! I pull out my rock cannon firing at him. It flies at such a speed that even from a few steps away he couldn''t dodge it completely. It caught him in the stomach and I can instantly see skin bruising where it landed. Ripping the clothing he had worn, blood starts to soak through. It isn''t enough! I''m not done yet! I start channeling chi wave. 10%! 20%! ¡°Counter spell.¡± My magic blows up in my face. It is strong enough to knock me back and and knock the wind out of me. I''m probably covered in cuts and bruises from my own attack. Staggering to my feet, readying for his next attack. I switch into complete defense. When I do that, I hear some chanting. Damn! Whats he going to do!? I try to cast silence but his chant was far to short to interrupt. I feel my defenses weakening and at the same time it looks like he''s shining as if he gained something. I think he just stole my defenses somehow. How is that possible!? Fuck this! I go into berserker''s rage and rush at him. I use frenzied strikes first attack is parried, second attack is parried, third attack is parried. It looks like an opening in his defenses! I go for a big attack and use heavy rending slash. It doesn''t hit, I''m interrupted with an uppercut from him. I pass out.
Class learned Spellthief- passive skill Anti magic runes- able to apply runes to your weapon to cut opponents spells apart
Spellthief skill upgraded Anti magic runes--> Infused anti magic runes- Applies magic and antimagic to the weapon
Level 1 skill Counter spell- able to turn an opponents mana against him causing feedback damage dependent on the spell (1 minute cool down)
Spellthief skill upgraded Counter spell--> Improved counter spell- Counters magic causing feedback as well as silencing the enemies (puts silence on cooldown as well)
Chapter 22 New information I woke up near a fire, with Epieoth sitting close to me. ¡°You have some reliable friends.¡± He says stirring the ashes. I look around and Gobber is laying on the ground, did he kill him? ¡°You''re friend was pretty adamant on not letting me take you back to school. After refusing to let me a few times he attacked me. I couldn''t just leave someone unconscious outside, they''d probably die from a monster attack. So I set up camp.¡± The white mage familiar ran itself dry healing me so I feel fine, honestly Epieoth was in far more pain than me. I send my white mage over to heal the bruise that my rock cannon caused him. To beat both of my trump cards... He could have easily killed me several times over but was testing my abilities instead. ¡°Ah thank you for that, the rock weapon you used. What was that?¡± I started to explain all the moves I used. It is the least I could do for him not killing me or Gobber. So I go over each skill I used from silence at the beginning to each of my magics. How I drank the potion I made to increase stats and used the combination scrolls to play bard music by itself. Down to the rock cannon which I explained how I made it. ¡°What was that magic you used against me? The one that caused that insane backlash?¡± Should I tell him? ¡°It was a chi wave attack that had almost a years worth of meditated chi in it... I wasted it hurting myself.¡± He explained that I probably didn''t use my chi. Counter spell forced it to feedback into me. Chances are, it was just a case of misfire. Epieoth said. ¡°Still though, I''ve counter spelled dark mage skills from high level masters without such a reaction. The sheer force behind that skill is terrifying.¡± ¡°Why did you want to fight me?¡± I asked him. He stared at the fire continuing to poke and stir it. ¡°Well it was to test your skills in combat. To be able to hurt me is no easy feat. Leo didn''t manage that after years of sparring with me¡­ I wasn''t sure whether to kill you when I knocked you out or not since you''re so strong. You could become a threat later on.¡± I feel terror run through me. I just almost died but was spared on a whim from him. ¡°To be able to use magic in so many strange and unique ways... The ability to draw strong allies to yourself. That goblin was no ordinary goblin. As a beast tamer to have two pets bonded with you, at such an early stage is unheard of. Most tamers never even bond with a single monster." ¡°I actually tamed Sock normally.¡± He looks at me with shock. ¡°What!? Do you realize what you''re saying? I''ve never heard of a tamer changing a forced pet into a bonded one before. You truly are special.¡± ¡°I decided against killing you because you''re far to kindhearted to be a threat later on. You didn''t even want to fight any of us to prove that you weren''t weak. Even so, I''m going to tell you something I shouldn''t... In hopes that someday you''ll be an ally.¡± Epieoth stood up now staring at me. ¡°My demon race is on the verge of extinction. This country is applying too heavy of a tax to the lands where we live. Most demons aren''t allowed to leave except under certain circumstances. Like for schooling in very rare occasions. The demons are also used as fodder for the war between the countries and it''s gotten to the point where if something doesn''t change in our lifetimes the demon races will go extinct.¡± I feel awful for him. I haven''t heard anything like this in my entire life. It''s probably being covered up by the countries king. He continued. ¡°I''m a spy for the demon races. We''re trying to find strong allies to help us gain our freedom from this country. I was sent here strategically to try and win over the headmaster of the school. Because of his job to make automaton dolls. But headmaster Milton was to fearful of what would happen after we had gotten our freedom. With the dolls, we could overrun the kingdom. The rolls might be reversed with us subjugating the humans.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. He''s said a lot. I honestly don''t know what to make of everything... In the long run I''d like to help them but I''m still too weak. ¡°Well, maybe in the future I will help you but right now I need to get stronger. If I try to help you right now I''d make too many enemies that could easily kill me... In the future I''d like to help you. No, I''ll definitely help you.¡± He looks a little disappointed but its hard to tell with his expressionless face. I mean what does he expect one person to do and I also agree with Milton. Building an army of fighting dolls seems like it could easily backfire on the creator. Epieoth leaves towards the city. I get up and once he''s out of sight cast healing magic on Gobber. He''s still out cold but whatever Epieoth knocked him out with didn''t deal any external damage to him. I decide to practice my new moves. Making the white mage cast healing magic I improved counter spell him. It''s the same as silence but their is also some feedback, depending on how strong the magic is. I use the infused anti magic runes on my metal sword to see how long it lasts for. A few hours later Gobber wakes up and I explain what happened to him. He understands and we wait until the sun comes up outside. He goes back to the fortress and I head to school. It has been several hours but the runes are still on the weapon. Maybe it''s permanent? The school year is getting close to ending. It has already been almost a year since my village has been attacked. I managed to get another level from killing monsters at night making me level thirteen. My classes and jobs have also steadily increased to around level fifteen for some of my more higher up ones like knight and scout. I feel it slowly getting harder to level classes up. I started taking it easy and focus on teaching Gobber things instead of training. He can speak very broken ¡°common¡± now. Which is the language most humanoids learn. Even if they aren''t human, for the sake of being able to communicate with more humanoids. He''s leveling very fast, all of his classes are above ten now too. Except chemist, which seems hard to level. Since it is tied with a job he doesn''t have. I''ve been getting challenged a lot more since that day. When I use improved counter spell to stop their magic an extremely tiny explosion happens in front of them. They normally give up as soon as they are silenced. In comparison to my chi wave, their magic explosions aren''t even to the scale of one to one hundred. Zero people besides Leo and Epieoth are a threat at this school. I''m so prepared to fight against casters. I figure if I keep this up, I should be able to support a dungeon party before long. It''s only a few days until the graduation ceremony for this year. I''ll officially be halfway through school once that happens. I should visit Lance before the end of the year. From what I understand the boot camp he''s a part of only teaches for two years. It consists mostly of sparring and some practice. With a few lessons throughout the year, explaining different mechanics to fighting and different techniques that can be implemented. Normally when I see Leaf she would get all red in the face and run out of the room. I wonder why. I was approached by Leaf yesterday asking to meet her outside the city. Maybe another challenge? I go prepared with weapons and scrolls. I don''t bother getting my pets because Leaf is already waiting at the entrance. We go for a walk and we''re ten or twenty minutes into silence, neither of us speaking the entire walk. We reach a clearing before Leaf decides to talk. ¡°Kite, I really like you¡­ I''ve liked you ever since we fought the lich together. You''re always so strong, able to do so much but that doesn''t stop you from constantly getting stronger. As I am right now and how young you are we''re not compatible¡­ Once I graduate, I''m going to get stronger. So I can be beside you without feeling like a hindrance. I''ll wait until your fifteenth birthday... If you care for me at all, lets meet back here at this exact spot on your fifteenth birthday.¡± Leaf runs towards the city. I don''t have a chance to respond. Chapter 23 Reinforced beliefs Did someone put Leaf up to this as a joke? I half expect to be laughed at once I get back to the school. But nothing comes of it. Leaf was being completely honest with her feelings¡­ I''m more shocked than anything else¡­ I guess Leaf isn''t unattractive¡­ Now that I think about it¡­ Damn it! What am I thinking about. Leaf wants to meet in six years? There is no way Leaf will still like me in six years. I wont break the promise, even though I didn''t say it. If Leaf still wants to be with me in six years I wont turn her down. School finished, Leaf graduated. The last few days of school were pretty awkward but we managed to get through it. Gobber and me have been training. He waits for me by the entrance learning from the guard while he waits. Once again I''m going to do some testing during the break. I''ll leave him to his devices for awhile. First things first, I need a new set of gear. Repeating previous actions, I sell my set and buy a weaker version. With my high level enchants and modifications to the gear. My old set outsells the set I''m buying. I buy a set that''s more heavily armored this time. It''s a lot closer to being a half leather half metal set of gear than my previous sets. I unsummon all of my familiars, wait for my mana to regenerate and enchant this set of gear. I already bought another wooden sword so I have that already. I infused anti magic runes onto my weapons and it seems to be a permanent addition. It kind of acts like a second enchant to my weapons. Anti magic runes and infusions can only be applied to weapons. While enchants can be applied to anything. I learned how to add stat boosts through enchanting. I give myself some stamina over defense. I line the inside with extra spider silk since I bought a set quite a bit bigger this time. ¡°The last set I bought couldn''t fit me after the year.¡± I thought making changes to this one. The next day I head to visit Lance, he should be graduating this year. I head to the boot camp area where people train their non magic classes. It has target dummies set up almost everywhere. Targets for archery but mostly melee training dummies. Some are in very bad shape but it also looks like brand new ones are out as well. Heading to the building I see most of the school sparring. That''s generally what this school does, not many lessons and all physical fighting or tangible practice. I look for awhile before I find Lance. He''s in the middle of a group of people, as soon as he see''s me he yells. ¡°Kite!¡± Lance runs over and hugs me. We talk a bit about how he''s been mostly. He''s already level 40¡­ Lance is impressive but it just feels unfair sometimes. At this rate Lance will probably unlock his third tier class tree from hitting one hundred twice. Most people don''t do that in their lifetime. He''s also wearing new gear. The spear he got when we left is in pretty bad shape. I enchant his gear for him ¡°For free of course¡± and seeing the spear reminds of something he probably hasn''t heard yet¡­ I tell him about the village. Surprise shows in his face, then fear, then anger¡­ I tell him its already been over a year. ¡°Why didn''t you tell me sooner? We might have been able to do something!¡± Lance doesn''t understand so I explain it to him. ¡°There were enough bandits to wipe out a village Lance. What could two children do against that?¡± It just seems to be making him angrier. ¡°You''re smart you could have thought of something!¡± It finally sinks in to him. ¡°Everyone from the village is dead...No more Beatrice or Trice¡­ You''re parents too Kite¡­ I''m sorry about what I said. I wasn''t thinking clearly.¡± We talk for a bit more before I leave. I probably just ruined Lances graduation by telling him but I thought he should know. I do plan to get revenge as soon as I can against the bandits. Little by little I''m getting stronger and soon enough I''ll be able to fight against one of them. Then two them, then three of them. I will kill everyone who''s ever talked with the bandits who raided my village. Their will be a blood dept paid from them to the extent I feel satisfied. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Talking with Lance reignited some feelings I haven''t had in awhile. I have to remember these feelings, bury them into my heart. There will be revenge. The next day I spend familiarizing myself with the city. For how long I''ve lived here I still haven''t searched through parts of it. I head to the book store. I learned a skill that lets me absorb books from scholar but I haven''t gotten any practice with it yet. I decide to buy a few books and consume them right there. Each book takes about ten minutes to absorb (would probably take longer for bigger books). I didn''t learn any skills or anything but I felt some of my jobs improve since it was job based books. I also buy some vials to make into injection vials for me and Gobber. I''ll make us both a few stat potions and a regen potions for our vials. I head towards the slums next. It''s in bad shape of course. I use some nature magic to fix holes in buildings and healing magic to cure diseases of sick street goers as well. I have a few hundred copper coins on me so everyone who asks for change I give them a few coins. I didn''t realize this section was so bad. I might have been able to start fixing it for awhile now. I set up a stand and give out conjured food to anyone who wants it. I manage to give away food to around fifty people that day. A mugger tried to steal my money but I managed to catch him before he got away. I reprimanded him but also gave some money to him as well. Some people are reborn as a low rebirth. Making it very hard to level their main class and normally hard for them to gain a secondary class. A high level tutor should be able to teach them but they''d cost too much for anyone in the slums to afford. Maybe someday I''ll be able to change the rules of this world so everyone gets a chance at living. This is all I can do for the slums right now. After that I head to the adventurers guild. I''m a bit worn out from making all that food. I sacrificed my fatigue points four times for the mana to make that much food. I walk into the adventurers guild and get a sense of nostalgia. In my passed life I practically lived here. It''s the same in almost every guild, people fighting and drinking. A request board with plenty of boring quests but some too hard for people to do so they stay on the board forever. This place is a good area for any starting adventurer. You also get free room and board if you sign up here. It''s expected that you''ll do work and that the guild will take a five percent commission for all work done. I read through the quests and one catches my eye. ¡°Extermination quest, killing gnolls two hours walk northeast of the city.¡± That''s something I might be interested in doing soon. I look around one last time and notice someone. ¡°Kattie.¡± I call out. She looks someone depressed and for the first time ever, I see her drunk. ¡°Hey Kite hows it going?¡± We talk for a bit, it seems like she was in a dungeon clearing group for most of the time we''ve been in the city. It seems she already heard about what happened to the village. That why she''s drinking. ¡°My sisters not dead though. Bandits don''t kill pretty girls like her, which makes it worse than being dead.¡± She starts crying a bit. Their has to be something I can do. The guards aren''t going to travel to a city two weeks for a chance to kill bandits. Who may or may not even still be there. I could always make automatons but if I do that I may be seen as a threat to the capital. Taking the risk might be worth making an enemy of the capital just to get my revenge. Even if I miss a few weeks of school every person I talk with about this only makes me want revenge more. Chapter 24 Fixing the slums I decide to redesign some of my weapons. I bought five more metal tubes and enchanted them with wind magic. Testing a tier three wind scroll shoots the rock out so fast it explodes! The wall it exploded on had visible damage done to it. Six tubes in total I''m going to make six scrolls and tie them together to create an even bigger attack. ¡°It could probably deal enough damage to kill a bear.¡± I think to myself, happy with the progress I made today. I head to the blacksmith to order a new sword. The sword I''ve been using has gotten a little to small to fit comfortably in my hand. While I''m there I make a few improvements to his forge with tinkerer. I enchant his forge with flare magic and his bellows with wind magic. He got angry, to the point he was going to throw me out. Until he seen his forge roar with new and more powerful fire. With the changes I made it should be easier to get a hotter flame as well as take less coal or coke and it will also be easier to control the heat. Which you need to do to make better equipment. ¡°Alright boy, so why are you hear? I''m guessing its not just to confuse me by upgrading my forge then leaving.¡± The blacksmith was looking at me. ¡°I need two swords made.¡± The blacksmith said they''d be done within a week. I hand him my sword to remove the gem from to place in the new sword. I also bought a five silver gem to put in Gobber''s sword. I decided to have an average sword for him. To be honest, the sword I''m getting made is only a short sword which is the length between a dagger and a regular sword. Even though it is a new sword. The gem is so rare I still consider the new sword I''m having made my families sword. Normal swords are still to big for me and Gobber most likely. If I give him the sword, he should be able to use it with both hands. I''ll take the short sword for myself and grow into the sword to where I can wield it single handed. I''ll just trade with him once I can. The gem I bought for him is half the effect of mine ¡°five percent increased damage¡± not a rare but still pretty valuable. To pay for a ten percent increase I might have to spend twenty or thirty silver. Which isn''t worth a single gem for my underlings gear. I also ordered thirty bolts to be made, with the forge working better than ever. He should be able to make improved bolts that will do more damage. I''ll give Gobber my old bolts and use the new ones. I bought a handful of rings from him, they were thirty copper (twenty seven with merchants haggling) each. I bought ten altogether. Lastly I bought a rare crossbow from him, it cost fifty silver coins (forty five with haggling)¡­ Very expensive for one item. You could build a nice house for around that much. A little two or three room house with fifty coins easily but with nature magic. I could also just make my own house. The crossbow, aptly named ¡°Focusing crossbow¡±. Had two stats and an effect on it. Increase to damage, the speed of bolts fired and the effect increased the damage of bolts fired with focus shot. I''m not sure I can use tinkerer to make it stronger or if that will end up breaking it or removing the rarity from it. I''m going to try to improve it anyways. I''d rather learn now then later on with something more expensive. I haven''t seen many repeater crossbows. A few in my previous life but none yet in this one. I think this side of the world is less advanced then other parts. With woodworking and engineering I start making the crossbow a repeating one. I apply a lever system to it. When I push it forwards it pulls the string back and moves the next bolt so it drops down into place. I use a six bolt clip, anymore and it would be too bulky and might mess with the string. The clips are easy to remove, I just press down on a latch holding it in place and it just slides out. I probably went from being able to fire four or five shots a minute to being able to fire twelve (two clips). I add a sight to help with aiming to the top of it. I inspect it again and it still has the rare quality on it¡­ Going to have to do the same for Gobber''s crossbow. I make five clips all together. They''ll be able to hold all of one type of arrow (poison, ice and fire) in three clips then two mixed clips. Thinking about it. I try to apply infused anti magic runes onto the bolts but it doesn''t seem possible, maybe if the crossbow was bigger as well as the bolts? I can still infuse the arrows but it still wouldn''t be worth it mana wise. I decide to make a crossbow about three times the size of the one I''m using. It will end up being around the length of a long sword and around fifty pounds by the end. But if I can make the bolts big enough I should be able to add an extra permanent stat or element to the bolts it fires. I could also use it for the initial attack or post Gobber far away with it able to fire bolts three or four times the distance. It would probably fire much slower. Maybe around two or three bolts per minute. Even still it seems like a good idea to try and make one. I start working on it but the normal lever just wouldn''t work with the torque you''d need to pull the string back. I decide on a crank to do it and it works out amazingly. If a nine year old is able to pull the string back, anyone should be able to. I start making the bolts, they''re gigantic in comparison to the other crossbows. Three times as long, twice as thick. I could probably carry this crossbow around but there is no way I''d be able to fire it standing up. I''ll need to order some metal bolts from the blacksmith to fit this crossbow too. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I hollow out the butt of the crossbow. Also some other parts where I could without effecting the crossbow''s strength or accuracy. This reduced the weight by ten pounds. Test firing it obliterated the target. I walk back into town with it and get weird looks like normal when I do something different. Even so I consider it a success for now. I still have a few days of vacation so I head to the slums. I''ve decided since I have the tutor job I might be able to teach some people how to use other classes. I make a few seats with control nature magic on the dirt and make a little podium for myself. I''m not sure how to start so I just start talking. ¡°Hello everyone, my names Kite and I''m going to tutor you on how to become a summoner as your second class. If you learn this you might be able to make food for yourself, just don''t eat it to often or you''ll get sick. Now everyone we''re going to start with the basics of the basic.¡± I start going over summoner, it takes awhile but a crowd starts to form. After I explain the basics of summoning someone yells. ¡°Holy shit! I actually learned summoner! This kid must be a genius tutor!¡± I tutor for the rest of the day. Half of the people standing around have learned it. (It normally takes weeks to tutor someone in one thing for them to learn it) Not everyone has though but with that little help I might be able to make a difference eventually. I go to bed truly tired that night. The next day I head back into the slums and do the same thing except this time I teach nature mage. If people can learn regrowth. They can make their own food very quick in comparison to growing it normally. A few people manage to learn that as well but I think their might be a barrier for some people just like Gobber. They''re not able to learn magic classes. I head home and fall asleep quickly being worn out. Before I head to the slums I make five flutes and crossbows. Both are easy enough to make and they''re needed for the classes I''m teaching today. Same thing as yesterday I head to the slums to teach. I''m going to do a scatter shot and teach bard, archer and scout. The classes will not feed them but it will give them a chance to join the adventurers guild as support type classes. Which are typically rarer to find than normal classes. Most people if they have the choice pick assault classes like warrior or fighter or thief and for their second class they pick the best class that suits the class they picked. Like warrior with berserker or thief with beast tamer, blue mage or illusionist. This time the crowd is quadruple the size of yesterdays which was bigger than the day before. I start teaching archer the basics of the basics again same as always. I would''ve made bows instead of crossbows. Bows require a certain talent and strength to use adeptly. Where as anyone can use a crossbow. A few people come forward saying they learned it. I hand over the crossbows to them and they leave. I didn''t have enough crossbows but no one expects me to I guess since I''m teaching for free. Bard is next and the same thing happens. More people step forward claiming have learned bard. Its around seven and I don''t know how to give away the flutes. I just let them sort it out moving onto scout. I don''t have any items setup for scout but it''ll be fine since its more for visual support of the group or as message runners or mail carriers. While starting to talk about scout the bards start fighting over the flutes. Even being given a second chance isn''t enough for some people. They also want more on top of that. I understand though. These people didn''t have any hope for a future until today. Now someone else is trying to take there ability to live a better life away from them, by taking the free item that will help them get jobs as adventurers. At least that''s the way they think. I teach scout, some look disappointed it wasn''t a better class they learned. Any secondary class is better than not having one and scout is underrated in my opinion. Chapter 25 Gobber has changed and Lances story One day left on my school break. I decided to buy some seeds and I head to the fortress to start growing some crops. With nature magic, I clear a good sized field. Plant the crops then cast regrowth on the them. (regrowth can be cast on a person regenerating lost limbs but the pain is enough to make most go crazy.) Regrowth also reduces the time it takes for plants to grow to maturity. When they start sprouting I''ll cast regrowth again on each individual plant. I''ll use staggered intensity to the regrowth spells so I can judge how much of a difference using full mana makes. Also having crops grow to maturity at different times will help keep the food fresh with less need for storage. I hear a yell behind me. ¡°Morning master!¡± I turn around to be greeted by Gobber but he''s a hobgoblin now! He''s far more attractive than the last hobgoblin leader... Not sure why but I think it might be the age he turned or the fact he had more classes might have had something to do with it¡­ ¡°Wow Gobber you''ve grown haven''t you!¡± He looks at me smiling. ¡°It''s all thanks to masters instructions that I did.¡± Well I already planted today might as well fix up the fortress. I patch some holes in the fortress walls with control nature. I head inside to scrub the floors in the main room. I brought Gizmo, he''ll live here for now to help clean. No matter how much I scrub, I can''t get rid of the smell though. It''s coming from an opening in the wa- Oh shit! The old hobgoblins corpse is still in there. I jump up and am hit with a wave of stench. He''s been dead for over months. No bugs can get to him either so it''s just rancid meat of a rotting carcass laying there. Gagging I use flare magic to burn it. Fuck! That made the smell worse! We''ll never get rid of the smell completely. Triggering my gag reflex almost involuntarily puking, I seal off the room and it removes some of the smell for now. I puke extremely hard and clean it up quickly with some water magic. I continue cleaning and start thinking about adding some additions to the fortress and cave. Some job stations like a blacksmiths forge, brewing station, tailoring loom and some other things would be nice. Maybe I could mount some of the bigger crossbows to the outside if we ever get attacked. They''d help deter intruders. With it being just me and Gobber I decide not to, at least for now. Thinking about it the new sword I had made for Gobber should fit his hand perfectly... He''s going to need a full set of new gear though, and a shield. He could probably use the giant crossbow while standing. I didn''t bring it with me so I''ll have him try later. His spider pet has made a nest in the old slave room. I don''t want to bother it but maybe I should bring over Sock and Pokodo to visit and play with it. All plans for the future though, I got the next plan and that''s to attack the gnolls next. I have to confer with Gobber on the strategy. ¡°Alright so the first meeting of the Nooby Army is officially commenced. We''ll discuss the plans of action as well as take comments for improvements to make in the future. First topic I''d like to fight with the gnolls that set up a camp near the city. It would be best to wipe them out before they become a problem.¡± Gobber interrupts me. ¡°We could challenge the leader to a duel, gnolls are forced to duel anyone who challenges them and if we win one of us can become the leader." Did becoming a hobgoblin make Gobber smart or something? I read a whole book about the sub-races and didn''t read about that. I''ll take his word for it right now. ¡°Ok so the plan will be to challenge the leader with our full force and pets so we can secure victory.¡± ¡°The duels have to be one on one and if we bring our pets they might end up getting eaten.¡± I think I did read that gnolls have intense appetites, needing to eat a lot they normally hold up near cities and attack caravans carrying food. ¡°Ok, so the plan will be for you to challenge the leader.¡± Gobber interrupts. ¡°I think you should challenge him master. You leading the gnolls would be better than me.¡± We head towards the city. I decide to take Gobber with me. He could probably pass the security check easier now since he''s not a plain goblin. The guard stops us. "Woah! Kite who''s your friend?" "You''ve met them before this is Gobber." The female guard looked extremely surprised. Gobber doesn''t understand much Common language so I talk for him. The female guard is the only other person I''ve ever seen him talk too. We head towards the blacksmith. The new swords should be in. Gobber is getting stared at like crazy but its not really looks of disgust. More like looks of interest, interest beyond curiosity. I knew he was attractive but the attention he''s drawing is more than a prince would. We get our swords and the bolts I bought. The swords are about the same or even better than my last sword. The bolts are obviously a better quality then the other ones. I end up buying him a set of leather gear. It''s layered with metal like mine but it''s mostly leather. I had him get it made a little loose so I could put silk lining in. He needs a new shield so I get a shield for him as well. The other one was too small for him. Finally I enchant 2 rings for him back to back using fatigue to regenerate mana. I''ll do the same for myself later except with 4 rings. One is a strength ring the other is a dexterity ring. I get his crossbow from him and I''m going to upgrade it tonight and give it back tomorrow. He follows me to the school. The looks we were getting outside the school, we''re also getting inside the school. Jeez this is uncomfortable how many women are drooling over him. I give him the giant crossbow. At the moment there are only six bolts to it but they''re enchanted and have infused anti magic runes. Poison would be a waste since the bolts aren''t going to injure whatever they hit, they''re going to kill. Three are double freeze bolts and three are double flare bolts. I''m not that tired today, so I take a lap around the school before I go to bed. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. School starts today, maybe I should enroll Gobber as a blue mage? Nah, I''m a good enough teacher for him and I''d rather Gobber not get stuck in the city after I graduate in two years. Some people might be racist towards him for being a hobgoblin. For all four of my lessons I''m taking free periods to jump around the learn the most about each class and job. School is going to be very easy this year because of that. Next year I''ll focus classes depending on which classes I want to level. But that''s a whole year away. I''m planning on challenging the gnoll leader sometime soon. I''ve spent a lot of time preparing. I got an idea to improve a weapon but I need throwing knives to upgrade it. After school, before I go training with Gobber. I''ll buy some knives and make it once I get back. I need to flip my schedule around to night time again. So I can start fighting stronger monsters. Lance''s point of view I graduated from school and have been looking for a party to adventure with. From what I learned traveling with Kite, it would be good to bring a white mage as well as one or two support mages with our group. I tried telling some of the other graduates but a few have left on an adventure together... Not going to get very far, the first crisis they''re put in will end up killing them. They refused to listen, so they might end up dead. I head to the adventurers guild, my classes make for a decent tank as well as a damage dealer. I should easily find a group. Completely outfitted now with the spare money I still had from clearing the raid, it will be very hard to kill me. I see someone I know. ¡°Kattie! What are you still doing in the city?¡± We talk for a bit and I end up joining her group that''s going to a dungeon a few days travel away. It''s a low tier dungeon, being a rank two means that it''s the weakest naturally forming dungeon. It should be an easy clear. We head there and get ambushed by bandits. I end up killing a few but one of our party members, Leon is injured badly. He might not be able to continue and Kattie wasn''t able to heal it. His knee was smashed in the fight and if it is that broken. He will probably lose his ability to be an adventurer ever again. Kattie seemed to overact, I guess this has happened before and might have ruined the last group she was in. I urge the group to push on anyways and we''ll leave him at the entrance where he''s not likely to be attacked while we finish it. We also had six members which would have been too many to challenge the dungeon anyways. If we challenged with him the dungeon would start absorbing our mana and make itself more difficult. This dungeon only has two floors and only one boss. We quickly clear the first floor, the second one gives us trouble with slimes splitting up, almost overwhelming us. I manage to clear the smaller ones fast enough for it to not be a problem. The way dungeons work is the monster and bosses are revived by the mana rich area. So naturally forming ones will always have monsters. People can make tier one dungeons by channeling magic into the ground for long enough time. We had a mage visit us with that ability at the training camp for two weeks. A lot of us gained levels during that time. We make it to the boss. It''s an orc leader and around four other orcs. All wearing different attire showing their class. Being constantly resurrected has destroyed all parts of their minds, besides the parts that know how to fight. Orcs are normally friendly towards humans but killing these ones is fine. Sometimes dungeons even have humans as the bosses. Looking at each orcs gear, I charge the one wearing the most white first. Jumping as high as I could and kicking off the ceiling. Coming down to jump strike through him killing the orc instantly. As soon as I do Kattie starts playing the strength ballad. The fight starts at that point. The leader rushes towards Kattie but I get in front of him. The orc black mage is also casting at her. Our archer shoots him through the mouth, not killing him. It will be hard to chant with a crossbow bolt through your mouth though. The archer is very new to adventuring, only gaining archery recently. Some genius tutor taught him in a single day. One of the other orcs wearing leather and wielding daggers also goes for Kattie. The warrior of this group steps in and takes the orc on. I went to school with him, he''s halfway decent. The last orc starts pulling his bow back but is destroyed by a fireball from our mage. The black mages familiar shoots more arrows through the orc mage. The black mages fire elemental is also rushing towards the orc rogue assisting the warrior. This mage is very skilled, I fall back with a jump strike aiming for the rogue. Piercing through him, finishing him off. The only one left is the orc warrior. Five against one, it doesn''t take long to finally finish him off. Compared to the lich that fight was easy. No one was injured or killed this time. The boss dropped ten silver. If we waited around a week we could kill him again but we don''t need to. The gear he dropped wasn''t that good. The only upgrade we got was a rare pair of gloves the archer took. We have to take Leon back to the city anyways. The black mage starts talking to me. ¡°Wow Lance you''ve gotten stronger.¡± The way they said it sounded like they knew me. Looking at her face, I don''t recognize her. ¡°Don''t remember me? It''s Leaf!¡± What? The weakling Leaf from when we fought the lich got this strong? What do they teach at the magic academy? Chapter 26 Permanent injury... I''m going to replace the rocks I''ve been shooting with knives. A few reasons being, the rocks don''t perfectly fit in the tubes so I lose some power. Also I could enchant and infuse anti magic runes on the knives making them more potent. The infuse anti magic runes I put on them are all flare, I enchant them with debuffs like poison spit, ignite, plague, improved counter spell, purge and hex. There''s no way someone can get hit by this attack and still be fine. I practice it and...all the knives explode into shrapnel when they''re shot at a tree. One managed to cut through the right side of the tree. Another embedded itself into the center not making it all the way through. One more shot might be able to finish cutting the tree down. The test was successful but, I need to buy more knives for it now. And I should keep some rocks on me just in case I need to fire it more than once. I should also have a few back up wind scrolls and have a single shot knife cannon for emergencies.. It will take around a week to build up my supply of wind scrolls back to having enough for all seven tubes. My sleep schedule has been reversed so we''re going to fight in the forest tonight and see how it goes. I meet up with Gobber at the entrance of the city. He''s starting to get accustomed to talking to people, him and the front guard are starting to become friends while he waits for me. I think she may have a crush on him. He already got my pets from the stables and has his pet spider. I summon an archer familiar and a skeleton. I give the archer the enchanted arrows for his quiver and we head towards the forest. The first enemies are three dire wolves. Poison bolts aren''t that effective against them but its effective enough for Gobber to get some clean hits in with his new sword. He doesn''t use his crossbow very often anymore. He''s been practicing at being a tank recently and does a good job at it. We kill two and Gobber tames the other dire wolf. We''re a party of eight now Me, Gobber, Sock, Pokodo, Gobber''s two pets unnamed and my familiar and skeleton. I should buy a set of gear for my skeleton, since he shows up without armor or a weapon I give him my metal training sword. A few more monster kills, I could try to tame the dire wolves, big spiders or vampire bats we''re fighting but I don''t think they''d make good pets. As I already have a wolf and Gobber has one and a spider. Having a bat would be helpful but I haven''t managed to tame one yet and it might be a monster that can''t be tamed. Before long I see something in the distance with scout, we approach it. It''s a freaking owlbear! I don''t have my knives cannon ready yet either, I only have a spare one...Without that I don''t think we can kill it. Owlbears are a regional rare creature, they''re very difficult to kill. We''re ready to leave than it notices us. The skeletons creaking bones gives us a way. Shit! The owlbear looks at us confused then stands up on its hind legs and roars. Crap its definitely going to attack us. I fire an arrow into its head, that only pisses it off. I pull out my one knife cannon but it''s still to far away. I activate my harmonicas and use my stat injection potion. The archer familiar keeps firing off arrows, they''re either bouncing off missing or doing no damage to it as it rushes at us. When it gets ten feet from us I shoot the knife cannon. It slows it down a lot, The knife had ignite and flare on it so when the knife hit I seen some fire shoot through it''s body. The owlbear keeps charging though. Should we run? Pokodo jumps off socks back lunging at the owlbear clawing one of its eyes. This stops the owlbear momentarily, I hope Gobber can take a few hits from it. I take this time to use nature magic to try and make spikes to impale it but it doesn''t work and the earth just breaks after pushing into its skin a little. The owlbear regained its senses, I start firing as many bolts into it as I can in a short time between attacks. Gobber is managing to fend it off right now. But I fear it wont be long until he gets overwhelmed. I''ve fired a whole clip into it already I eject the clip and grab another letting the discharged clip fall. Sock bites one of its hind legs the archer is still firing arrows at it. Gobber''s spider familiar is spitting poison towards its eyes but hasn''t hit yet, Gobber''s dire wolf is on the other back leg of the owbear that Sock isn''t on. The skeleton armed with my metal sword is beating it from the side. Gobber gets knocked down. Fuck! Gobber might die! I rush towards him charging a chi wave if I use it to far away and with too much power it might hurt the pets. 10%! I put my hand on the owlbear and fire it. It launches it back a five feet but it didn''t knock it down or kill it. Where I had my hand at there''s no fur now only a big gash blood gushing out of it. The owlbear charges at me, I taunt it and start running away from it firing bolts one handed backwards at it. I''m going to run in a giant circle until Gobber can get up. Its getting closer and closer to me, owlbear''s are freaking fast! I start making pitfalls with nature magic, chanting magic while running is very hard to do but I manage to make the ground behind me slippery enough the owlbear trips. I turn around when that happens and hit it''s good eye with a poisoned bolt. It has no vision now its only a matter of time until we can kill him I think as I load in another clip to my crossbow. Everyone has caught up but a vampire bat is following them. I start chanting a flare spell since it seems to be wide enough for the bats to not be able to avoid it and catch it on fire. I turn my attention back to the bear and its right next to me. It heard my chanting and its close enough to hurt me. ¡°Shit I should have voiceless chanted.¡± I think quickly. I don''t have enough time to do anything before it bites my hand, its beak sinking in. It starts to shake its head back and forth tearing the tendons in my arm, I might lose the ability to use this arm. I charge another chi wave ten percent and place my free hand on the owlbears head. It broke the owlbears skull. I start fumbling for a tier three healing scroll. Casting it on myself.
Blue mage skill learned Feral roar- roar slowing opponents and increasing your speed
Secret Berserker passive skill learned Bear''s ferocity- empowers your berserking to deal heavier blows and generate rage faster
Sock (wolf) is evolving into rare variant alpha dire wolf
Pokodo (shadow ferret) is evolving into unique variant pure white ferret
Title gained Rare slayer- rares take 10% more damage from you
Master of learning 13 to 14
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The bat was easily dispatched but my hand isn''t working right. My fingers wont move at all. I cast a few more healing spells on it and I get slight control back but it might be permanent damage. At least no one died plus my pets gained enough levels to evolve. Still though it will be much harder to do anything including fight without both hands. I just wish I had the knives cannon ready we could have killed it without a problem¡­ I did waste twenty percent more of my chi¡­ It had to be done though or I might have lost my entire arm or worse. If I used twenty percent to start on the owlbear I might have injured my allies. Should i use regrowth? It''s only a small injury so I shouldn''t go crazy from it but the pain will still be tremendous. Then I hear someone talk ¡°That was a close one master.¡± That wasn''t Gobber, it was a girl voice. It wasn''t my familiar the sound came from that direction though. ¡°What''s wrong master?¡± Pokodo asked. Wait what!? Pokodo can talk now, she also evolved into a unique variant of what I''m guessing was the white ferret. She''s smaller than she was previously but also her fur changed from pitch black to pure white. Is that why? ¡°So do you remember everything since you bonded with me? What is my name.¡± I ask a question to judge Pokodos intellect. ¡°Masters name is Kite, my name is Pokodo, Sock''s name is Sock. Gobber''s name is Gobber, Spidy''s name is Spidy and Direclaw''s name is Direclaw.¡± Where the last 2 Gobber''s pets names? I guess I never asked him. ¡°Are those your pets names Gobber?¡± He looks at me. ¡°Yep.¡± Well I guess that answers how smart she is. ¡°Master can I heal your injury?¡± Pokodo asks. ¡°What do you mean?¡± She doesn''t answer and just starts chanting healing magic. Its a very strong healing magic I''ve never heard before. The tendon damage that happened healed. We decide to call it an early night, I need to go to the library and find a book on animals to see what these rare and unique variants are. I could ask Pokodo about herself but she might forget or not know something important about herself that I would regret not knowing later. I can already imagine it. ¡°Master never asked if I could use teleport magic.¡± I would kick myself if Pokodo could teach me something that big and I didn''t ask. I find one in the library, I could absorb it but I might not learn the things I want to from doing that so I wont. I find alpha dire wolf first. It seems to be a bigger, stronger variant of dire wolves with a leadership passive making it a good pack leader. Pokodos species was extremely hard to find. I found white ferrets but it doesn''t appear that they have the ability to talk or cast magic. Just how special is Pokodo? I ask Pokodo only half joking. ¡°You can''t cast teleport magic can you?¡± ¡°No the only magic I can cast is healing magic.¡± That''s alright I still got a healer out of this and it might not even be white mage. ¡°What type of class do you have Pokodo?¡± ¡°I''m a white mage.¡± Well that''s disappointing but Pokodo still managed to heal my crippled hand. ¡°What was the name of the spell you cast Pokodo?¡± ¡°It was called regeneration, it can heal crippled limbs but not restore whole limbs. It doesn''t heal any health though.¡± That''s still really helpful. I cant believe I have a talking pet now. Maybe I could have her teach the spell to me? We go to sleep and the next day I bring her to classes. Everyone who hears her talking is amazed. We finish school and I decided not to fight until I can get the knives cannon ready. We''ll deal with the gnolls before I go back to training. I head to the slums, I know there are destitute adventurers here with shattered bones and destroyed body parts that Pokodos magic can heal. We go to the slums and there are less people in the streets than normal. There''s also a big new entrance leading outside the city I head that way first and see that a big portion of outside has been turned into a farm fenced off from the outside but still enough to grow crops. This city was importing all it''s food, so having a self sufficient branch to help cut costs and feed the poor will help the city tremendously. The streets still have vagrants though, maybe I should teach a few more classes? I see someone with a pair of crutches moving down the street. ¡°Hello sir would you like my pet to heal your broken leg?¡± He just stares at me like I''m a crazy person. Then Pokodo speaks. ¡°It should only take a moment.¡± Surprised to see a talking animal he starts to sit down. Pokodo regenerates his leg which the bone was piercing through the skin. It magically popped back in and re-fused itself the man stood up on both feet probably for the first time since the injury happened to him screaming incoherently from happiness he ran off tripping onto his face. Still getting used to his leg I guess. I yell out. ¡°Does anyone need a body part healed? My pet will do it for free.¡± I have to form a line because so many people showed up, I brought a mana potion for Pokodo to drink but even so this might be too much for her. I''ll have to split it up into separate days. She gets through about 6 people out of twenty or thirty before she runs out of mana. She uses mana recovery which is a white mage passive skill and regenerates the limbs of six more but I don''t think she can do more right now. I give her the mana potion and she does two more but that''s as many as we can do right now. I close up shop. ¡°Sorry Pokodo is tired, if you still have an injury I''ll be back tomorrow. Also spread the word so more people can get fixed. She can''t heal missing limbs¡± We''re leaving and I thought tomorrow I could teach a class while people waited in line. At that moment someone picked Pokodo up off the ground and started to run with her. ¡°What is this man doing?¡± Pokodo asked not realizing someone was trying to kidnap her. He''s very fast I can''t keep up with him, I cast haste and feral roar with that I barely catch up pulling my sword out and cutting his leg to stop him. He starts to fall forwards but that would crush Pokodo so I grab him by his coat and slam him onto his back. Its the man from before, the one who tried to steal my money. He also learned how to be a scout from me. This is what he''s using it for? THIS PIECE OF SHIT! "I''ll fucking kill you!" Enraged, I pull out my knife cannon and fire it at him. It shatters on him killing him instantly, some of the shrapnel hits my face but I don''t care. The attack was loud enough to draw the attention of the guards and they come running to get me. I make no attempt to flee.
Secret Scout skill learned Sprinting- Able to boost movement speed at the cost of fatigue
Chapter 27 Fixing the slums... More I was taken to the guard post. I already knew I was going to have to talk to Zeke. I might be forced to do drudge work for years or even be killed for what I did. This side of the world doesn''t have jails. I couldn''t forgive him for trying to steal Pokodo from me. What I did was justice in my eyes. Taking so much from me and still trying to take more. That is going beyond biting the hand that feeds. Zeke''s riffling through papers, completely bored with his job. After a few minutes he gets to me. ¡°So you killed someone did you? Care to explain.¡± I go through the whole situation. How he previously tried to steal from me and I let him off, even giving him money. How I ended up teaching him and more people different classes. How even after that he tried to steal my pet who was healing injured people. This story sounds extremely made up, except for the talking animal beside me. He''s about to talk when a man comes bursting through the door panting heavily. The man is very overweight. To the point it looks like the only thing he does is eat food nonstop. Zeke''s posture changes when he sees the man. ¡°Mayor what are you doing here?¡± Taking a moment to catch his breath. The mysterious man finally speaks. ¡°You know why I''m here. This poor innocent young man has been accused of killing a person in cold blood. I think it was justified!¡± Why is he defending me, he''s the mayor. Shouldn''t he be busier than this? ¡°My nephew here shouldn''t be punished at all. In fact they should be rewarded for catching the criminal who''s been stealing all over the city.¡± I see the family resemblance with Geoffrey now. With that my freedom was claimed. We leave together towards his office while walking I ask. ¡°So uncle, why did you come to save me now?¡± ¡°Well its not just because you''re family but also because you''re making me look good.¡± I asked him to explain. ¡°Well, when the mayors nephew runs around doing good. Saving the daughter of a high profile merchant. Fixing the slums and teaching its people how to provide for this city. Do you know how much money you''ll save us in transport costs to bring food to the city? Even enchanting the blacksmiths forge made people happier. It all makes me look better because you are related to me. I was actually going to call you into the office soon but then I heard rumors that you killed someone.¡± We make it to the office and the mayor has dozen''s of workers in his office. All extremely attractive females are working there as assistants. One of them is a woman I saved from the goblin fortress. She appears to be in much better spirits now thankfully. ¡°Welcome back mayor.¡± One of his assistance addresses him. Probably the head assistant. ¡°It seems you''ve brought the wonder boy with you.¡± She gives me a big hug, continuing to speak. ¡°Thank you for all your hard work. The mayor will never be removed from office with you around to improve his approval rating. A few years ago, the only thing the mayor got letters for were death threats. Now he can walk down the streets and people will cheer for him.¡± Well at least someone is taking advantage of all my kindness¡­ ¡°We should give him a reward. Five gold coins should be enough.¡± The mayor said. Five gold coins! That''s enough to build a mansion the size of the one I lived in back in the village. ¡°You don''t have to, I''m happy just helping people.¡± ¡°Nonsense this much is fine. With how much you''ve done for the city... I should be happy with this small amount.¡± He''s acting like it''s not a lot of money but five gold is enough to retire on. I don''t even know what I''d spend it on. Well I guess since he''s giving it to me. I''ll take it and find a use for it later. I take it and leave the office with how long it''s been. Pokodo''s mana should be high enough to heal more people. I''ll hold off today since I''m carrying so much money. I head back to the slums the next day. This time when guards see me they escort me. I guess I need protection now when I''m hear for fear of my pet being stolen. Pokodo does her regenerating. The line is now around fifty people. I can''t even see the end. ¡°Ok so Pokodo can''t heal more then ten of you at a time. So while we''re waiting for her mana to recover. Does anyone want to learn a class?¡± I hear from the back of the line. ¡°Beast tamer!¡±¡­ I''ve thought about teaching beast tamer. It might end up with too many people dying, fighting monsters trying to tame them. ¡°If I teach you beast tamer, you have to promise to group with me if you learn it. So we can go get pets for everyone without people dying fighting monsters.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Going over the basics of beast tamer, ten people in the line learn it. They''re also injured. Pokodo gets enough mana to use her regenerate again and keeps it up. The line slowly gets smaller and smaller. ¡°Anyone else want to try and learn a different class besides that one?¡± This is the most shoddy classroom in the world. I start teaching blue mage next. It''s once again a very good secondary class. Filling many holes in a groups makeup, some blue mages become versatile enough to run dungeons by themselves. That very rarely happens though. A few more learn blue mage so I teach some blue mage skills like string attack and feral roar. I don''t think teaching a lot of people how to use poison spit would be a good idea so I don''t. Pokodo casts another regenerate and a message pops up.
Secret White mage skill learned Regenerate- Able to fix injuries previously impossible to fix with other healing magic, can''t regenerate lost limbs
With that I can start powering through the line. I start using it too, healing almost the whole line with replacing my mana with fatigue... Wait why are my fatigue points so low? Barely enough to sacrifice to restore my mana once. Quickly enough everyone besides the beast tamers are left. I wanted to do some other things today like make more wind scrolls. That''s out of the question. At least I wont have to worry about the slums now. I think that and we start heading for the entrance in the slums. A familiar voice calls out behind me. Side story: Kattie''s point of view We''ve made it back to Shienta. It hasn''t been long since we put the group together but it might fall apart already because I want to stay behind with Leon. His knee was hit with a mace during the bandit attack and he can''t use his leg at all. I know their''s some magic that can heal injuries that even white magic can''t. Leon is willing to take the risk and have regrowth cast on him to become an adventurer again. I refuse to let him though. Leon going insane would kill me inside. He''s a young man, around sixteen. We adventured together before Lances group was formed and he was the only one to stay once I started drinking. In the short time I''ve known Leon I started to fall in love with him. I''ll do anything I can to make him happy. It''s been a week. The other party members have went to do some quests on the bulletin board again. If we don''t find someone who can heal Leon soon the group will fall apart, like the last two groups I was in. Leon is starting to give up hope. That he''ll be forced to use regrowth magic to walk again. Someone please save me from having to rely on such a dangerous method! Please someone answer my prayers! What luck! Rumors have begun to circulate that someone in the slums is healing injuries incurable by white mages heal. It was someones pet that was doing the healing. I''ve never heard of something so ridiculous, it sounds untrue. I don''t care because I want to believe it. We''re too late getting there that day. The pet was almost kidnapped by someone and the owner killed them in a single attack. We saw the corpse, it was a very intense wound. Like an explosion went off inside the perpetrators body. Whoever the pet owner is... He is an extremely dangerous person. The next day I head back to the slums in the morning by myself. No one showed up but even so I go to the adventurers guild and grab Leon to take him just in case he shows up today. Lance and Leaf decide to come with us. I guess the rumors go beyond just healing people. Fixing the slums with magic and teaching classes to people in under a day. This person is completely unbelievable and can''t be real. Even so the curiosity of everyone gets the best of them. Heading towards the slums takes a long time since Leon can''t walk properly. Lance is willing to carry him but Leon is too proud to be carried by someone else. It takes a few hours to get there but we eventually do. A few people are running around like crazy. Jumping and skipping all the while talking about how they''re so happy they can walk or use both hands again. We''re in luck it sounds like! We make it inside but the person is already gone. My hopes are dashed, it feels like this might have been my last chance to fix Leon. Lance yells out towards someone. Chapter 28 New recruits ¡°Hey Kite, why are you here?¡± Lance yells from across the slums. ¡°Ah, I was just finishing up some stuff here. What''s up with you?¡± Lance is with a group of people. Wait I recognize everyone except for one person. ¡°Hey Leaf how''s it going? I guess we met a little earlier then my fifteenth birthday.¡± I joke. Leafs face turns red. ¡°Kattie how''s it going, haven''t seen you in awhile.¡± She looks frustrated. I ask her a question. ¡°Whats wrong?¡± She looks up defeated, almost crying and says. ¡°We missed the healer that was fixing peoples injuries. Leon might never be an adventurer again.¡± ¡­I don''t even say anything. I just walk over and cast regenerate his knee. I can see the bone shards rearrange themselves back into the right place under his skin. It''s gross looking but he''s not in pain. ¡°What was that you were talking about?¡± I say to her. She has her hands covering her mouth and she started crying. She could only muster the words. ¡°How!?¡± I point to Pokodo. ¡°Hello everyone, my name is Pokodo.¡± They all look shocked that I have a talking pet. I''m definitely getting used to the surprised looks on peoples faces. ¡°Wow I can already use my leg again.¡± Leon says stepping down on it and jumping in the air a little. From his clothing I''d guess he''s a thief class. Heirloom dagger and cloak so yea, thief class main. Kattie is still shocked from it, she just wont stop crying. I talk about my adventures from just about two weeks ago. How I ended up getting injured in a fight with a owlbear but it ended with Pokodo and Socks evolving. ¡°I still have these brand new beast tamers I have to help them catch pets.¡± I point to the motley group behind me waiting patiently. ¡°We''ll come help you.¡± Lance and Leon both said together. We easily tame spiders for all of the beast tamers. It doesn''t take more then an hour and we still have the whole day left. ¡°Hey does anyone want to go to my fortress?¡± Leon and Lance both look at me in amazement. ¡°You have a secret base already? How many minions do you have?¡± Leon half joking with that. ¡°Only one but he''s very loyal to me. I taught him a lot of things and he eventually changed from a goblin to a hobgoblin.¡± ¡­He looked surprised by my answer. We get to the fortress and I see that the plants have started budding. When we leave I''ll have to cast regrowth on them. We head inside and I see Gobber. He looks behind me and draws his sword. ¡°Master who are those people?¡± He says in the goblin language, I reply. ¡°My friends Gobber, please calm down.¡± He bows his head than speaks in common. ¡°My apologies, any friend of my master is my friend.¡± Everyone looks around amazed at the size of my fortress. ¡°I also plan on expanding it in the future to fit more people in.¡± Lance asks. ¡°What are you trying to build an army or something?¡± I think about his question for a second. Am I? ¡°No, just enough to get revenge on the bandits that attacked our village.¡± Lance understands. ¡°When you go to fight, count me in.¡± I summon a bird familiar and hand it to Lance. ¡°When the bird disappears, meet me at this fortress then. You can''t let that bird die Lance so you have to protect it. I''ll give you permission to give it commands. It will follow your instructions. If you have anything to say to me you can communicate it through the bird.¡± It''s been a week since Lance has left with his group. I managed to make enough scrolls for two shots from the knives cannon. I moved Gizmo to the fortress. For now and he''s working on cleaning it. Since Gobber is taking care of his pets, I decided to move my pets to the fortress. I bought more seeds and expanded the farm again. Maybe the idea of owning an army is starting to sound more appealing. You have to be able to feed an army though. I priced the cost of all the equipment I want to add to the fortress and it totaled two gold. The forge being the most expensive. I haven''t bought them yet because I have no way to transport them. The forge I was planning on buying would weigh hundreds of pounds. Making it impossible to move in one piece so it detaches into smaller parts. Even so it will still take several people to move it once it is in pieces. The loom costs quite a bit. I could make my own. It would take a few days so I buy the parts and plan on making it later. I could also make auto forges and looms but that will only produce less the average equipment since you can''t teach automatons jobs. It would also make it so my own jobs wouldn''t level. Since I wouldn''t be making the equipment. Gobber has started reaching level 25 with some of his classes. He''s unlocked the level twenty scout skill tracking. Knights level twenty five skill to increase stamina. Archers passive twenty five skill dual fire. In order to use that, he''ll need a bow so I make him one and it replaces his crossbow. Gobber is strong enough and skilled enough to fire the bow correctly. Being able to fire two arrows at once, he can fire around twenty arrows in one minute. After training he could probably improve that to even faster. Maybe even thirty arrows in one minute. He has an arrow quiver now on his belt. Quivers on the back are impractical. It slightly decreases fire rate and movement might be impaired while running. Also arrows might bounce out of the quiver if he''s forced to run. The bow I made was a short bow but once he get''s better or stronger. I''ll make a recurve or compound bow. I''ll have to buy one in order to learn how to make it. We head towards the gnolls today. Gobber and me know enough of the gnoll language to request a duel. I''m just worried it ends with us being surrounded by dozens of gnolls. Forcing us to either fight our way out or die. We''re walking for around an hour when we see the first gnoll. He moves towards us with his weapon readied but when we start talking he lowers it. ¡°I would like to have a duel with your leader.¡± We walk for another thirty minutes. More and more gnolls are following us but none have attacked yet or even acted like they''d attack. I guess dueling is an important part of their culture because all of them are taking it seriously. We reach an encampment. Not as well made as the goblin fortress. Their are no walls, only shoddy towers. One facing each direction with a gnoll in each. We approach the middle of the area. Their is a single tent. (probably stolen from humans) When we get close a huge gnoll comes walking out of it. The gnoll is easily as large as a normal height adult human. Probably larger with more muscle mass. If Rock was covered in fur and was a little smaller, that would be the gnoll leader. Even scarier than the owlbear. The gnoll leader could probably single-handedly win a fight against one. He speaks. ¡°So a hobgoblin has come to challenge me to a duel? Fine I accept the terms.¡± I speak up. ¡°It is me who requested the duel.¡± He looks down at me and laughs. He laughs for a few moments then speaks again. ¡°You!? You''re not even tall enough to carry that hobgoblins gear! Let alone fight in his place.¡± Gobber interrupts. ¡°My master is a very strong person, underestimating him. You''ll soon regret it if you do.¡± The gnoll leader looks like he doesn''t understand. ¡°I wouldn''t feel right fighting at full strength against such a weak opponent. I''ll give you an advantage of three hits before I fight you seriously.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°When do we start?¡± I asked. Proper procedure with dueling, there is normally a date set for the match. Both parties have to accept. Most of the time, if one doesn''t see it as a challenge. He''ll award the opponent a free hit. To give someone three hits is a complete disrespect. To the point where you don''t see them as a threat. All the gnolls have determined me as a non-threat as well. If I lose this duel, chances are me and Gobber will be killed where we stand. I won''t take those chances. I pull out my knives cannon. Walk within ten feet of him. Still a safe distance to avoid shrapnel if the knives explode and fire it in his direction. He''s completely annihilated by the knives. One goes straight into his skull. Probably instantly killing him. One slices his arm and goes flying through the tent behind him. Three explode on impact and the last one lodges in his chest. He falls to the ground instantly, dead.
Gnoll language mastered
Achievement Shock and awe- Terrify a group of people with you''re power
¡°Does anyone else want to challenge me?¡± I ask the remaining gnolls. Some are visibly shaking in fear. Others have wet themselves. Some even passed out. ¡°Does no one wish to challenge me for leadership?¡± I ask again. No one responds, everyone is still to terrified of what just happened. ¡°Well if no one is going to challenge me. I claim leadership of this group. Everyone get in a line. You''ll tell me you''re name, cut off a portion of your ear and tell me what classes you are." We go through this routine for around an hour. I have them cut a piece of their ear off for two reasons. You need a determining marker to prove that you''ve killed a monster for the adventurers guild. The second reason being gnolls will always be disobedient and can revolt unless humiliated. In gnoll culture losing a piece of your ear to another race signals to every other gnoll that you serve under someone. I don''t bother learning their names. Their are far to many to remember. I''m more concerned about their classes than anything. Few have one class. Some have zero classes. None have any specialty classes that only gnolls can learn. I''m a bit disappointed but the results are to be expected. The few that have classes I split apart and go over each of their skills. None have any secret or hidden skills. Also disappointing. It''s starting to get late in the day. There wont be enough time to make it to the fortress with everyone. So I decide to stay at the encampment for that day. I plan to teach them classes and jobs. For now I spend my time learning more about the gnoll culture. Gnolls have a very similar culture to goblins. In the way that they like to live near human civilizations to leech off them. The main difference is that goblins do it for females while gnolls do it for food. They have very little means to take care of themselves so often target caravans to get food. Gnolls rarely kill humans. Which is different from goblins, who kill any human males on sight. While any females they try to capture. Gnolls also take longer to grow up. Goblins taking shorter then a single year to be ready to fight. Gnolls take three to four years before they can fight equivalently to goblins. Sometimes goblins and gnolls form alliances together. Because of that goblins and gnolls are taught about the others culture. Both have the same rule where the strongest lead. So if they do combine, there is a fight between leaders to see who will lead the combined group. Gnolls have females and goblins can pick berries and forage to sustain better than gnolls. So the relationship between the two is symbiotic. The gnolls go to sleep for the night. They sleep in a giant dog pile together. A few are on the watch towers and a few are on guard waiting to attack anything that comes. They live in a forest, so the chances of them getting attacked is fairly high. With no defenses the only way to survive is the defend constantly. It will be far more peaceful for them once we make it back to the fortress. A few of the gnoll pups have stayed up asking me questions. They''re looking at me with admiration now instead of fear. I''m happy for the attention but I still might end up killing all the gnolls. If they don''t change their ways and stop attacking the cities caravans. The next day me and Gobber have split up. Him taking the bulk of the gnolls to the fortress and me taking a handful of the stronger ones to pick up the blacksmiths equipment. I warn the gnolls going with Gobber that if they injure or attempt to eat my pets, Gobber will kill them on the spot. We separate and head towards the city entrance. The guard there sees us coming and starts to panic before I tell her they''re my followers. It takes some more convincing but I also tell her that I''m the mayors nephew. If he''s going to use my name for profit I''ll start using his. We''re let through and the eyes of the city goers are all on us. I buy a cart to haul the equipment and we head to pick-up the blacksmith parts. The anvil and the frame for the forge are the heaviest by far. Totaling several hundred pounds all together. It takes all the gnolls plus me and a few other bystanders I tip for helping to load those two pieces. I also buy two blacksmithing hammers, a ring and sword mold and any other tools I need. I also buy some ores to show the gnolls that will start mining soon what they look like and some mining tools. I''ll build the rest of the frame with bricks I make with nature magic, so that dropped the price a bit. Still paying a gold for one thing is a bit expensive. I manage to talk him down eleven silver coins with haggling. We''re leaving and I also buy twenty silver worth of food to feed the gnolls for now. I also buy alchemy equipment, engineering pieces and some iron to teach one of the gnolls how to be a blacksmith. Leaving I head to the stables and buy six cows and twelve chickens. In order to feed this army, we''re going to need at least that much. Probably even more animals than that. For now though it should be enough to feed them. Until the crops start growing in at least. We head towards the fortress and I see gnolls standing watch at the towers. They greet me and open the fortress doors. We move the anvil and frame into place. Today I definitely need to skip school. I start going through the basics with half a dozen gnolls. Teaching them about gathering. I show them the basics as well as the ores they''ll be looking for (minus some of the more expensive ones like gold and silver). The reason gold and silver is used as currency is because they make great enchanting conduits. Silver rings would take less time to enchant two stat boosts easily. While gold is even faster to enchant. So they double as an enchanting material. I also instruct them on how to make the tunnels. Strengthening the walls and using supports as they go so a cave in doesn''t happen. Everyday I go to the fortress I''ll strengthen the walls with control earth as they go. Lastly I teach a handful of gnolls some of the jobs. I teach cooking to three of them. One needs to learn blacksmithing but the forge is not ready yet. Same with tailoring, I need to make a loom first. Alchemy was easy enough to teach. Gobber has been watching me teach this whole time but hasn''t picked up a single job yet. Maybe goblins can''t? No goblins should definitely be able to make potions with alchemy. Maybe it''s because he learned too many classes? Not sure I don''t know why. I''ll teach the gnolls more about classes later when I decide which path I want them to take. I start to teach common to all the gnolls but start to feel extremely tired. I push on and keep teaching but pass out because of that.
Job upgraded Tutor --> Teacher
Secret Teacher skill Heavy lesson- able to consume fatigue to increase learning speed of students
Chapter 29 Teaching the new troops I wake up. Did I pass out? I''m not sure, it must have had something to do with the new skill I got. Gobber took over leading the gnolls. He managed to feed them. So no problems with them trying to eat my pets¡­ If Pokodo or Sock get eaten by the gnolls... I''m not sure I would be able to spare any of them. I''ll have to make one hundred percent sure they understand that. I go get Pokodo and Sock, they''re sleeping outside the cave near the entrance. Maybe I should make a stable for the outside seeing as we have animals now. I decide to let them sleep and start making a stable on the outside of the fortress. I''ll have to section it off and build up the walls around it making sure there is an exit to outside of the fortress to let the cows out to graze. For now just the building is enough. It''s not a very complicated building. It wasn''t very hard to make the stalls for animals. Using control nature on wood I could carry back to the stables and expanding the pieces shaping them into place. I''ll have to get a roof made later for it. I start working on finishing the loom. I started a few days ago. It shouldn''t take that long to finish. When I do finish it''s almost daybreak. I produce some silk and make it not sticky. Thinking about it I could use the silk like glue for some other things besides cloths. I load the loom up and start making cloth with the silk. It''s a very soft cloth. Most of the gnolls are finally waking up. I should line the floor in the main room with plain silk. Since they sleep in a pile it wouldn''t be that difficult. I show two of the gnolls how the loom works and teach them tailoring. I produce enough silk so they''ll be busy for awhile. Making cloths and weapons for all the gnolls should be priority. Using clubs and crappy stone weapons isn''t the best equipment an army could have. I start making bricks from the rocks outside that I''m going to build the rest of the frame for the forge. I add two sections. One to turn coal into coke and a storage container for the coal. It will take either all day or a few days over time to complete the forge. I have to much to do to focus on just completing the forge. I taught some gnolls woodworking. The gnolls are cutting some of the trees down in the area to start making boards and paper with. It''s going to be awhile but I''d like to get some carts made to transport the dirt and rock out of the cave from the mining process. With them set up their''s still around twenty gnolls with no jobs or classes yet. I should try and teach the mage classes first since less gnolls will be able to learn them. I teach white mage first. Out of all the gnolls only one managed to learn it. Since he''s so special I''ll remember his name, Gargarz. That''s a difficult name to remember but since he''s special I''ll memorize it. I try and teach elemental magic. Zero of the gnolls could manage to learn it. I try teaching black mage, time mage and warden. Once again no one learns any of them. Thankfully I''m not wasting fatigue points with none of them learning anything. Finally I try teaching nature magic. Gargarz manages to learn. He seems to have an aptitude for learning magic. I teach him the job doctor. He''s the only white mage so he''s going to be the physician of the army. Gargarz is already at his limit for classes and jobs. I guess they''re tied together for subspecies. Meaning that they can only learn a certain number of classes and jobs put together. Does that mean all goblins can learn up to six classes? Probably not, Gobber seems special for a goblin. I''m almost out of fatigue points so I''ll stop teaching for today. The gnolls look disappointed they couldn''t learn anything. It will be fine since I have plans for them. We build up the walls with some of the trees in the area around the stables. Making a side door to the fortress for grazing purposes of the cows. All these cows are dairy cows except for one male. I''ll need to make sure one of the gnolls milks them everyday for meals. Speaking of meals it might also be a good idea to make some watch over the crops. Tomorrow I''ll teach some of the woodworkers how to farm. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I wake up a two hours before everyone else and start putting the carts together, it doesn''t take long since all the boards are cut to length. Using my spider silk to hold the boards together is quite effective. I continue working on the forge, two hours today and two hours tomorrow should finish it. The gnolls have started waking up and get back to what they were doing yesterday. Their''s still twenty or so that haven''t learned any classes or jobs yet. I decided to teach ten of the remaining gnolls archery. I''ll make them crossbows to use over the next few days. I turn Gizmo on today and assign him to cleaning duty for now. It seems like a waste but automatons can''t do heavily intricate things. Him getting accustomed to all the gnolls isn''t a bad idea though. I start teaching everyone archery and all of them manage to learn it after a few hours. I teach the ten that learned archery the thief and bandit classes. A few hours later they''ve learned those classes. With that I''ve developed a stealth team. The sneak skill doesn''t make them invisible but it goes a long way for helping land stealth attacks. The rest I teach beast tamer. I start to get extremely tired though, so after teaching that I quit. I check my stats and my fatigue points are almost completely drained. I take it easy the rest of the day, I tell them tonight we''ll go and capture so dire wolves for the tamers to ride so I go to sleep a little early. When I wake up the only gnolls still awake are the ones that are beast tamers and Gobber. We head outside and I see their are some guards active on the walls. If I miss something Gobber will normally assign it. Since I didn''t think of that yet, he ended up assigning watch duty to a few gnolls. We head outside and start to tame dire wolves. It doesn''t take very long for everyone to get their pets and everyone is happy with that so we head back and they go to sleep. I finish building the forge. Today onwards it would be nice if we can start making weapons for the gnolls. We have some iron I bought to smelt but I need to teach a gnoll. So I wont have to waste hours upon hours making weapons for everyone. I head to the mines and reinforce the ceiling and some of the walls where we''re not going to dig at. By that time everyone is waking up. I teach some of the woodworker gnolls how to farm. I''ll leave their third job or class open for now. It would be good to have some spares I can teach classes to later. Thinking that I pull one of them away from that and teach him blacksmithing. He makes a very shoddy iron sword for his first piece. In all honesty swinging lumps of iron would be better than some of their weapons. I still need to start getting ingredients for alchemy. I''ll have to send some of the gatherer gnolls into the forest to get herbs for him. I''ll also assign a handful of gnolls to work as a guard for the gatherer gnolls. Going through the woods is going to end with them getting attacked by monsters. I teach the gnolls who were beast tamers the knight class. I start feeling very tired again. So that is it for now. Tomorrow I''ll go back and start school again. Chapter 30 Learning from students I wake up early and head to school, lessons are boring compared to teaching. Finishing school I trade the gnoll ear pieces into the adventurers guild. Each is twenty copper totaling around ten silver. I head back to the fortress. I grab one of the farmers and teach him scout. He''ll work every night shift from now. Making sure to focus on levelingthat class so he can spot incoming dangers. The blacksmith gnoll managed to make around four swords. I give them all to the knight gnolls. Shields are easy enough to make so I also make around ten shields for all the knight gnolls. I can''t have the gnolls wiping out all the monsters in the area so they started a training camp following the same routine Gobber does. Including the thief gnolls. Running will increase theirfatigue points so it''s always good to do. None of the gnolls could learn more then three classes so far. I make some extra practice dummies and targets for practice for once I make the crossbows. I start making the crossbows, I only manage to make around five before one of the gnolls runs in. ¡°We found something!¡± From the mining pick he''s holding I guess he''s a gatherer gnoll. We head to the mines and there it is. A giant vein of a material. I''m not exactly sure what it is. The picks can''t break any pieces off. Judging by the part that''s visible its probably a square foot of ore. They excavate it and toss it into the cart with all the ore. Once again I''ve never seen this type of ore before so there''s no way I''d know what to make with it. Some ores are better for armor or weapons. Others are better for accessories like rings and necklaces. I''ll take it to the blacksmith after school tomorrow. With that I head back and make the rest of the crossbows for the thief gnolls. The next day I wake up grab the ore and head to school putting the ore in my old room that I don''t sleep at anymore. School ends and I head towards the blacksmith to see what type of ore it is. The blacksmith drops his hammer when he sees it. ¡°BOY! Do you know what that is!?¡± His hands are visibly shaking. I ask what it is. ¡°It''s mithril,it has intense magic resistance properties. Combining with adamantine which is extremely strong against physical damage and gold which is very good for enchanting. You can make dragon slayer armor with that.¡± The square foot chunk I have would sell for fifty gold coins. The blacksmith has never seen the material before only heard of it. I ask him how much it would be for him to make metal plates to replace the iron metal plates on my armor. ¡°Nothing, I''ll do it for free. I think this might be the only time I''ll ever get to work with this in my lifetime. Since I''m doing this for free though... If you ever get adamantite I''d like to make the dragon slayer armor for you¡± I guess even though its strong against magic damage it is also stronger than steel in terms of physical resistance. It can''t be enchanted easily though. I buy a compound and recurve bow with the money I have on me. The blacksmith has no idea how long it will take so I''ll just leave him to it for now. Once it''s done I''ll make a set of scale mail with the mithril plates. I have heard of mithril before. I just had never seen it so I didn''t realize what it was. It''s been a few weeks, all the gnolls have gotten used to their new lives. I have gotten used to being the leader of an army. The crops have started coming in. I expanded the farm again to feed the army if it expands. At the moment we make enough food to feed everyone but if we want to expand we have to think ahead. Everyone has a sword and shield if they''re a knight. I bought ten cheap helmets to make them more distinctive from the rest of the gnolls. Maybe I should put badges on their cloths to distinguish which branch they''re a part of. Yea that will be fine. Some of the knights have started going out on night patrols and have started collecting wolf pelts to make leather gear for everyone. I pick another farmer to make the leather worker and he gets to work. The alchemist has managed to make more potions than we could ever use so he''s went back to farming and woodworking in his downtime. I''m about to leave for school when a few of the knight gnolls stop me. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Master, something weird popped up earlier for us.We learned a new class.¡± What!? I didn''t even know that was possible. ¡°It is the monster rider class.¡± I pull the one talking right now aside to explain it to me, it takes all day but I unlock it.
Class learned Monster rider- passive skill Mounted combat- Able to retain all combat abilities while mounted Level 1 skill Double strike- attack with your pet, very difficult to avoid both attacks
So some things happened that I don''t understand. They managed to learn a class I''ve never heard of. I didn''t think that was possible. It''s similar to Gobber, maybe if I think hard enough. I can teach them two classes that will make a third class. Is there a way to increase the class limit? I''m more confused by this new class than anything. Being able to ride their dire wolves will increase there combat potential incredibly. It would be nice if they could manage to tame some griffons. I don''t know where any are in the part of the world. I guess it just goes to show that you might think you know a lot. The world will still find things that can confuse you. A few days later when I checked in with the blacksmith he was finally done. It ended up taking a much longer time than I thought it would be. He was probably experimenting with it. It might be the only time he gets to use a metal that expensive. He ended up making around two hundred and fifty tiny metal plates. I''m going to make a scale chest piece by layering them overtop of each other. I hope that someday we find some adamantine to upgrade this. I take all the pieces and leave immediately heading towards the fortress. We''ve expanded again to make a bathing area for everyone. Gnolls have no sense of indecency so there is no split between male and female bath area''s. Its almost like a giant hot spring. Why didn''t I think of this before! If I enchant some rocks with flare magic I can increase the heat of the water making it an actual hot spring. There fortress walls have also been fortified with bricks. Safety is important and if a single person managed to get a fire attack off it could have ended up burning down our defenses. Some other improvements that have been made are the living quarters for me. I removed the spider moving him to the stables and reworked the room into my personal room. It has a usable bathroom tied to it. As well as a closet and an additional room to store my equipment and treasures. The main room where everyone sleeps has also been improved. Gobber made an addition as well for a room to himself for sleeping. It''s not nearly as nice as my room but still better than sleeping in the pile of gnolls every night. Gobber has started heading in town with me. He has access to go into the town by himself. While I''m in school he often wanders around the city doing random things. He''s always waiting for me once I finish classes. Something surprising happened when I met Gobber today though. Side story: Gobbers point of view Today I follow master into town again. I often check the adventurers guild for missions I can send some of the gnolls on to make extra money. I get talked to by adventurers but I don''t speak common well. Even so I can normally make out a few words like. ¡°dating anyone, available, attractive, cute are the ones I hear the most often.¡± I don''t really understand what they''re asking me though. Maybe I should ask master? I leave the adventurers guild and while I''m walking to the school where master attends I hear someone call out. ¡°Hey cutie, if you come into this alleyway. I''ll show you a good time.¡± It seems that a female wants to show me a good time. Maybe we''ll play a game? I often wait for master to finish so spending a few minutes playing a game shouldn''t make me late. ¡°What game are we going to play?¡± I ask. ¡°I have a few games we can play big boy.¡± The lady was very nice to me. I walk into the alleyway and she pushes me against the wall. Am I being mugged? Master told me not to hurt anyone in the city or I could be killed by the guards. What should I do? The lady starts trying to take off my cloths, she must be mugging me! Should I yell for help? No master said people might treat me poorly because I''m a hobgoblin. If I call for help more people might show up to help the woman. I started to cry because I don''t know what to do. ¡°Hey what are you doing to in that back alley.¡± I look at who was talking. It was the nice guard lady. She would teach me common while I waited for master back when we trained everyday. The female who was trying to rob me gets up and sighs she talks. ¡°I just wanted to show him a good time. Is that against the law?¡± The guard lady talked. ¡°No its not against the law but it doesn''t look like he even understands whats going on.¡± The robber lady walked away. I was happy I wasn''t getting robbed. ¡°Thank you for scaring away the robber lady.¡± The guard lady laughed for some reason. I put my cloths back on then the guard lady talked. ¡°You know she was only after one thing from you right? She wanted to have sex with you.¡± I wonder what that is. ¡°I don''t remember ever making sex so I don''t think I have any on me.¡± She audibly laughs for a few moments. Then speaks ¡°Where are you headed. I''ll give you the birds and the bees talk while we head there.¡± Chapter 31 Meeting Hilda ¡°Master, the nice guard lady taught me about sex!¡± Gobber looks at me with a smile on his face. What? Did she end up having sex with Gobber? ¡°What do you mean Gobber?¡± The guard speaks up clarifying. ¡°He was pulled into a back alley and almost raped by someone. I caught her and explained exactly what she was trying to do to him.¡± Well I guess that makes sense. People are willing to try and rape Gobber? It''s almost funny since that''s the opposite of how it is normally. Well nothing came from it and Gobber understands now so I guess that''s okay. ¡°By the way, where do you two live anyways. You always leave town but don''t come back. I''d like to know where you live... In case I need to get in touch with you.¡± The guard was being straightforward but I could still sense an underlying motive. ¡°I''m sorry if you''ve already told me but whats your name?¡± She answered. ¡°Hilda.¡± We all head towards the fortress, I''m trying to think of a reason why she would want to know our location. Is it because my uncle asked her to spy on me? No that''s too roundabout for him, he''d just come to my school and ask. Well I mean all the other girls in the city like him so maybe she''s fallen for Gobber. I try to sneakily ask trying to be quite enough that Gobber wont hear. ¡°Hey do you like Gobber.¡± She stammered speaking very loudly. ¡°W-what do you m-mean!?¡± Bingo, she definitely likes him. ¡°You just gave it away.¡± I tell her, she starts blushing and staring at the ground. ¡°Gobber can you go ahead for us and make sure the gnolls know we''re coming.¡± He quickly runs ahead so me and Hilda can talk in private now. ¡°I''m fine with that but I want to know the reason.¡± If she only wants Gobber for his looks it might become a problem later if he changes into the ugly version like the old hobgoblin king. ¡°Well, he always talks with me when he''s waiting for you at the entrance. I started getting attached to him when I seen how quickly he was picking up the common language. He is cute too but it''s different for me. I like his personality more than his looks. He''s constantly learning and far different from other goblins.¡± The reason is a well thought out one. I am still not sure so I ask a very uncomfortable question. ¡°What if he suddenly becomes ugly?¡± She''s quite for awhile. I don''t think she''s going to answer it but she eventually does. ¡°If Gobber becomes ugly... I''m not sure if I could stay with him. I would try as long as his attitude doesn''t change I could probably look passed it.¡± Wow what an honest answer. I half expected the whole "Looks don''t matter." speech literally everyone gives when you ask them a question like that. Hilda might be too honest for her own good. We make it to the entrance of the fort. Hilda is surprised at the size of it and also the people inside of it. We''re greeted by the gnolls. Gobber must have told them to try speaking in common because they''re greeting me in that instead of the gnoll language. ¡°Hello master.¡± Being greeted by everyone in common feels weird coming from the gnolls. I decide to give Hilda a tour of the place. We show her the stables and hot springs. She''s very impressed with it but also averts her eyes when a bunch of naked gnolls come walking out of it. I definitely have to make a side section with towels and a partition for women that visit. She has seen the crops outside when we entered the fortress. I show her the forge. ¡°I''m surprised gnolls know how to do jobs. From what I understand they normally just stick with raiding caravans to steal food and equipment. I''ve had to kill a few who had gotten too close to the walls before.¡± Another honest response from Hilda. We head inside the cave. I skip showing her my room and we head into the mines. Currently they''re digging going both down and up, searching for the top of the mountain to add a light source as well as oxygenating the cave mines. Digging straight up is extremely dangerous so Gargarz has to supervise. Since he''s both the white mage and nature mage. It''s safer with him being there to heal injuries and make sure the whole roof doesn''t collapse on them. A lot of the better ores are further down so digging in all directions would be the most beneficial. We haven''t found any coal yet. That''s the only resource I still need to buy. We head towards the main room. It is where the loom and alchemy table are. As well as where everyone sleeps. We walk towards Gobber''s room and I say. ¡°Gobber, Hilda wants to show you that sex thing. But human''s only have sex with one person so if you do it with anyone else besides her. You''ll hurt Hilda''s feelings.¡± Hilda is staring me down now. Maybe I pushed a little too hard? She still ends up going inside his room with him. The next day I can tell that Gobber has become a man. He''s awake before everyone else and greets me. ¡°Morning master, how are you doing?¡± I can''t help but smile at him now, pushing a baby bird off a cliff to teach it to fly. I couldn''t even dream of killing Gobber anymore. He''s become like a brother to me. ¡°It''s going to be a good day today.¡± I tell him. I don''t think Gobber will cheat on Hilda... but someone might try to rape him again. I''m not sure how to handle that. He should be able to walk around the city without having to worry. Hilda can only watch him while she''s off duty¡­ I''m not sure what to do next. Maybe it would be better if Gobber stayed out of the city for now. The stealth troops I''ve been training are getting to the point where I think we could take the bandit''s down. As long as they don''t number in the hundreds. I''ll make adjustments to there crossbows making them all repeater crossbows. Everyone has a bolt pouch but not many have a lot of bolts. The number of troops exceeds the number of bolts that can be made. I''ll go buy a few dozen from the blacksmith later to increase the average amount each one has. I should also enchant the bolts of everyone one day. I''ll have to do it before we fight the bandits. Hilda is walking around. It seems like a lot of the gnoll pups have taken a liking to her. I haven''t taught them any classes yet. Having blank slates might come in handy later when I unlock more classes. Hilda has a giant smile on her face. I guess she''s happy how everything turned out. She''s not wearing her full suit of armor like normal. She''s wearing one of the sets of cloths I made for Gobber. I can see her face more clearly now, Golden color hair had been kept secret by her helmet. Extremely toned body from being on guard constantly. I''m starting to get jealous of how lucky Gobber is. To have women like her throwing themselves at him. She approached me. ¡°Hey Kite I''d like to talk to you about something private, can we go anywhere to talk?¡± I wonder what this is about. Maybe she''s going to say she wants to quit the guard and live here. Yea right. We head to Gobbers room to talk ¡°Kite I''d like to live here with Gobber.¡± Really? I guess I was on point this time. ¡°Of course.¡± Today I made a women section for the hot springs. We''re going to need it for our new resident. I think she can get used to the gnolls lack of privacy in every area but that one. I make sure everyone knows she''s a new member here. If anyone attacks her in any way they''ll have to answer to me and Gobber. I''m not the strongest person here. Honestly Gobber could beat me in a fight easily. Hilda could too. As well as some of the gnolls. Leadership isn''t about being the strongest though. I think the gnolls are starting to realize that. I doubt anyone would attack Hilda but it is just a precaution. I figure Hilda doesn''t want to just sit around all day so I ask her if there''s anything she''d like to do. ¡°Well I was a guard for a few years. So I could be a guard but there''s a gate so I''m not sure what to guard.¡± I think about it for a second. ¡°You can work as an escort for any of the gnolls or Gobber while they''re in the city so they don''t get harassed.¡± Hilda looks at me thinking it through. ¡°Hmm, I guess I can do that. I''ll be bored while I''m here so I''ll figure out something else to do while here.¡± She walks away before she leaves I ask her what classes and jobs she is. ¡°I''m a fighter and knight, my jobs are tutor and detective.¡± "What luck." I think to myself, I spend the next few hours learning it from her. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Job unlocked Detective- Able to more easily apprehend criminals, solve crimes and prevent crimes from happening
Skill upgraded Inspect --> Detect- Adds extra information to everything you inspect
I try it out. I use detect on my wand "duality of magic". I can tell the type of material it is made out of. The chances of learning the rare enchanting recipe by deconstructing it. Even its value if I were to sell it to a store. Thinking about it I haven''t thought of deconstructing many things to learn from them. I head to my room and find the pair of boots that have been collecting dust in my room. ¡°boots of feather fall¡± I planned on using them once I was older. Now that I think about it I should have gave them to Gobber until then. Too late now, I use detect on them. The chance to learn the rare enchant is fairly high at 80%. Higher than I thought it would be. I decide to risk deconstructing it. As soon as I completely disassemble the boots a notice pops up.
Time mage tree learned Enchant boots feather fall learned Enchant boots speed learned Enchant weapon swiftness learned Enchant ring time magic boost learned Enchant gear lightweight learned Enchant bags lightweight learned
WOW! I can''t believe I learned so many from just one rare. I''m kicking myself over that. I''m not even sure how I can make rares. I should head to the cities enchanter and see if I can''t figure it out as well as maybe pick up another few rares to deconstruct. Maybe I should deconstruct my other rares? We''ll see depending on what the enchanter says. Schools normal as always. I head to the enchanter in the city. I can''t believe I''ve never been here. It could be because I didn''t even realize it was an enchanting store until I asked for directions specifically looking for it. He''d get more business if he hung a sign or made any indications on the type of building this is. I''ve passed it a few hundred times without giving it a second notice. Opening the door I see a thin layer of dust covering the floor, the door brushing a clean spot. No ones here...I could possibly steal all the rares before anyone even noticed... I decide against it though. Since I''m here to learn about enchanting. ¡°Excuse me is anyone there?¡± I hear a loud crash like someone falling from high place. A man comes out of the back room holding his ass he most likely just fell on. I chant healing magic on him, he thanks me. ¡°So little one, what might I help you with?¡± The old man is wearing a fancy robe. When I use detect on it I see that it''s a legendary! The quality of gear goes unenchanted, enchanted, rare, legendary then artifact. I know for a fact that his robe would be worth more than 10 times everything I own. Maybe even a few hundred gold coins, if it was good enough. Artifacts are beyond that. Priceless value, if you ever see one in your lifetime. Chances are you''re royalty. You would have to give up your kingdom to even borrow it. The legendary he''s wearing happens to have five stat boosts and two effects. Going into detail it increased strength, intelligence, dexterity, stamina and armor. It had two effects which increased mana regen and a slight boost to all magics radius. Wow judging from the stats that robe could go for three or four hundred gold coins easily. He''s wearing it like it''s nothing special. I even think I see food stains on it¡­ ¡°So are you going to buy something or just stare at my robe all day?¡± He asks again. ¡°I would like to know how to make rares and legendaries please.¡± ¡°To learn that you''re going to need to buy something.¡± I check the store, everything in it is beyond my price range for some information. Many of the enchanted gear was just plain stat boosts but still cost silver or even gold. The rares were even more expensive costing more gold then I had entirely. Let alone the single gold piece I brought with me. ¡°Do you have any rares worth one gold coin?¡± I ask, I can feel him get angry. ¡°You should just leave if you''re not serious about buying anything.¡± This old man is starting to make me mad. He sees my rare crossbow though. I pull out my shield, and wand as well for him to see. ¡°Well I guess you do know something about rarity. With how many you''re carrying, it could be beneficial to befriend you. Someone with an eye for quality.¡± He walks behind the counter and pulls out an old box, blowing the dust off. He opens it and inside is a handful of rings. Each ring has a different effect on it. None of them are enchanted with stats. Maybe these were practice rings for him. ¡°If you pick out the one that''s the most valuable I''ll give it to you.¡± That was easy to do with my detective job. I could see the prices of everything. Looking at each ring closely. One could make the time magic stronger. That being the cheapest one. A mana regen ring, reduced mana cost ring, ring of void storage that could hold one square foot of stuff inside of it. And an extremely expensive ring. It had the effect of increasing the power of strength based attacks. That ring was obviously the most expensive to the point it seemed like a trick. ¡°I''m going to say the most valuable to everyone besides myself would be that gem encrusted ring. To me the more valuable one is that void storage ring.¡± The store owner smiled. ¡°That was the perfect answer my boy. Anyone can see that one of the rings is more valuable than the other ones. To be able to see the true value of each piece is what makes a true rare collector.¡± I would have a twelve percent chance to learn the enchant if I deconstructed it. ¡°Ok, so you wanted to learn how to make rares. It''s pretty easy follow me into the back." Following him back he approached a table. On the table was a bunch of enchanting paper. From detect I could see that the paper all had the enchant lesser void storage on it. If I deconstructed one of those I would have a one hundred percent chance to learn it. "Ok, so in order for enchanters to learn rare enchants they must first sacrifice a rare piece. Upon destroying it they''ll have a chance to learn a single enchant from that tree of enchants. To learn more then one rare enchant from each tree it becomes harder and harder." I pick up the piece of enchanting paper that has the lesser void storage on it. ¡°Ah I see you understand already. So in order to enchant a single effect onto a piece of gear you need to stack one hundred of these onto each other. If you want to add a single stat you need to add one hundred of the enchant stat to it. If you want to add another effect you''d need one thousand stacked rare enchanted paper. In order to add another three stats you''d need another one thousand five hundred pages. In order to add more I''m not even sure myself.¡± Chapter 32 Learning more about enchanting Now I have even more questions about enchanting. Can I pour all my magic into a single piece of enchanting paper to increase the effect? Can I synthesize the enchanting paper together to reduce the amount of papers I''d need to make? To make one hundred papers it takes ten minutes to enchant the mana into it then 20 minutes to enchant the stat or effect onto it. Making each take thirty minutes, meaning it would take fifty hours of straight enchanting to get one effect. Then another fifty hours straight to add one bonus stat. I can see why people actually sell enchanted paper. Seeing as anyone trying to make a rare, that would shorten it by a 10 hours minimum. ¡°You also have to add an equal amount of mana into the gear.¡± So doing that would double the time it takes meaning one hundred hours for the first effect. One hundred more for the first stat. ¡°How long would it take to add mana to these mithril plates.¡± ¡°I''d say around five hours for each single scale. Mithril is a very bad mana conductor.¡± ¡°Could I synthesize the enchanting paper down to increase the effect?¡± ¡°I don''t think it will work.¡± ¡°Could I pour extra mana into each scroll with mana control from black mage?¡± He pulls on his long white beard thinking. ¡°I''m not sure if that would reduce the amount needed or increase the amount of the stat or effect. You''d have to add the exact same amount or something might go wrong.¡± Enchanting sure is hard to understand. ¡°A few more questions. Is there a book or books I could learn more about enchanting from. Can I have one of those void storage scrolls. Is there a way to reduce the time it takes to make rares?¡± ¡°Have you checked the library? I also have a book you can buy for five silver. It would be less expensive but I made the book myself. It''s all my findings for enchanting over the years. I''ll give you one of those scrolls for twenty copper or for you to enchant five pieces of paper with mana." He moves over towards his table and grabs a void storage scroll for me. He then reaches under the table, fumbling for a short while before he fishes out the home made book with no title. The pages being held together by a nail stabbed through the top corner. "I''ve found a few ways to reduce the time it takes. Every person extra enchanting is obviously going to drop the time. A group of six people can make a rare six times faster than a single person. Also the more mana rich the environment the reduced time to enchant paper and add the enchants onto the gear. You could also use special trees that are mana rich to make the paper. Removing the time it would take to add the mana itself.¡± He gets up and walks outside the room putting his ring case away. He points at the ring he handed me. "I''m not giving you that ring. I''m expecting payment for it. I''ll allow you to decide how to repay me though. It could be another rare or something of similiar value." I bought his book and the scroll, I''ll head to the library now. I use detect on the ring again to read the exact effect of it. ¡°Void ring¡± Effect can store items into the ring by thinking of the ring sucking in the item you want to store. The exact size is close to a one square foot box. If you''d load the ring up with a square foot of bricks it would still weigh the amount of the bricks. As I head to the library I deconstruct the void storage scroll.
Void storage tree learned Enchant ring lesser void storage Enchant bag void storage Enchant tent greater void storage Enchant weapon increase radius to magic attacks Enchant armor increase radius to magic attacks
It might be better to not enchant some pieces of my gear. Putting rare or higher enchants on gear makes them similar to mana bombs. If they''re in contact with other rares for too long it could cause an explosion. Also you can enchant a piece of gear normally with a single stat or magic skill, like shell from warden. That''s what I''ve been doing. Doing that makes it impossible to improve the gear to rare quality or higher. I could layer my gear with a rare lining. Then do a single enchanted stat on the outside leather pieces. Then enchant the metal plates overtop of the gear with a rare effect. The leather gear wouldn''t have enough mana to mess with the rares mana. So the chances of causing an explosion are extremely tiny. I''m not sure if I could use the red mages infuse ability on a rare or the anti magic runes. You can only put those onto weapons though. It might be better to keep my weapons without rare enchants on them. Enchanting can be done to everything though. You could enchant a brick with shell magic to make it able to withstand magic attacks. It would take an extremely long time to make a house like that though. Maybe if I teach some gnolls enchanting. I''ll have them start replacing the bricks of the fortress walls with special bricks. I guess weapon is a blanket statement for every weapon, including wands and staffs. I''ll have to remember that. Judging from the enchants I just learned the enchanter made that set of legendary robes. Wow it would take months of non stop enchanting to make a single legendary. No wonder they''re so rare. It would take over a week straight to make an average rare and another three months of straight enchanting to make a legendary. So in order to make a relic it would take over two years then? One thousand days to make a relic and that''s just a guess. It might even be more. I can enchant twenty hours a day, which should be impossible to do for most people. Also it seems like depending on what you enchant. It could take even longer since that''s with the very best enchanting material, gold. The void storage''s change in size depending on what you enchant. A ring is a square foot. A bag is five square feet. A tent is ten square feet. It might be nice to make a tent to use as a portable base of operations. I should teach a few of the gnolls how to do enchanting. I might be able to teach them how to make rares. I still have to go to the library to do more research. I make it to the library. In a city this big it''s surprisingly run down. The mayor must not spend a lot of funds keeping it well stocked. The librarian there doesn''t bother looking up when I enter. I search the library for books but don''t find any useful ones. I pick-up some of the duplicate books I see and head to the front desk. ¡°I would like to buy these books.¡± The head librarian looks away from the book he''s reading. ¡°This is a library we don''t sell books.¡± ¡°I''m only buying duplicate books, with the money you make please expand the inventory of the library.¡± ¡°I still don''t think that''s allowed.¡± I had over a silver coin for each book. His eyes widen at how much money he''s seeing. It''s eighteen silver for the eighteen book''s I''ve picked out. I just over payed by five times the amount of each book. I load as many as I can into my new void storage ring. I head outside to empty the rocks from my backpack to carry the rest. The weight of the books in the ring is like carrying four books on one finger so having items stored in a ring might not be a good idea. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I also head to the schools library. It''s far more stocked then the public one. I look for an enchanting book and see two. I''ll borrow them for now. I head out of the schools library and head towards the book shop. I buy every book he has on enchanting, totaling three books. I also buy another ten books that I might learn something from. As well as some books I''ll donate to the public library to help improve their selection. I head back to the library and give him the books I bought to donate then head towards the fortress. I get home and am greeted by everyone. I have a busy day planned. I''m going to use the scholar skill absorb knowledge on all the books I bought from the library and shops. Then I''ll start reading the enchanting books. I don''t want to consume them because you lose some of the knowledge from the books when you do that. Consuming twenty books all at once should give me something. I''ll also consume the basic enchanting book I bought from the shop. Making it so I only have five enchanting books I need to read through. Well I get started and spend the rest of the day consuming books.
Mental map expanded
Increased plant knowledge
Increased monster knowledge
Fairy language partially learned
Orc language mastered
Satyr language partially learned
Orc Blacksmith recipes unlocked
Thief level 14 to 15
Bandit level 14 to 15
Scholar level 14 to 18
Cook level 21 to 22
Farming level 18 to 19
Merchant level 20 to 21
Detective level 2 to 6
Enchanting level 24 to 25
Secret Merchant passive skill gained Improved haggling- shortens the time it takes to haggle and increases the amount you can haggle by five percent (totaling fifteen percent)
Secret Cook passive skill gained Caterer- Able to obtain more food from all sources, store food for longer and serve food faster to more people
Wow what a haul of knowledge. I did end up consuming around twenty books so it took the rest of the day. With the new information I learned it was worth every second. I think about consuming another enchanting book. Maybe if intermediate is too easy to understand. After reading the several pages I decide I will. With my mental map expanded I see a few dungeons close to here. Several only a days walk away. Only one at entry level though. I''ll grab Gobber and some of the other gnolls. We''ll head to one of the easier ones in the next few weeks. I''d like to have a void storage tent ready by then. If the void tent is punctured in any way and someones inside they''ll be thrown outside and an explosion might happen. If a void bag gets ripped all the items stored might come flying out or explode and get damaged. I decided to risk deconstructing my rare shield and crossbow. The shield is a success but I fail at the crossbow and the enchant disappears from it.
Nature mage tree learned Enchant boots natures grasp learned Enchant weapon natures grasp learned Enchant ring nature magic boost learned Enchant armor self repairing learned
I learned a few things I needed from that shield. The ring enchant would boost my moves from tier one to tier two without synthesizing. Meaning I could make my wooden sword even bigger. The weapon enchant seems fairly weak. Since that was what was on my shield. The boots enchant would allow you to walk straight up a wall and maybe on a ceiling. I already can move up walls quickly with string. It might help my generals enough to actually sink time into making the boots. I teach a few of the farmers enchanting and have them start making enchanting paper to level their enchanting up. It still takes a very long time to make paper. So maybe this is why there aren''t many books and rare quality items in the world. Not from lack of skilled enchanters but the difficulty to make paper. I guess it makes sense from that standpoint seeing as one hundred pieces of enchanting paper would be the amount that a normal worker makes in a year. Still rares seem inflated in price because of that, I wonder why they''re so expensive. Maybe I unlocked more enchants because of my class. Meaning certain rare effects are harder to find. Not sure but most rares should only sell for around fifty silver like the crossbow I bought. Others sell for several gold. Maybe I''ll go back and ask the city enchanter how to price rare equipment. I talk with Gobber before heading to bed. Through everything I haven''t even asked what he thinks about Hilda. I have to be very blunt with him because he doesn''t know what subtlety is. ¡°Gobber what are your feelings towards Hilda?¡± Feeling like I forced her onto him because I didn''t ask. ¡°I think I love her. I had started to get feelings for her when I was waiting for you to come out to train. I didn''t realize what the feelings were until recently though. She was the only person nice to me besides master before I became a hobgoblin. I''m sorry to say this master but if she asked me to leave here with her, I would.¡± Well that''s fine. I''d miss Gobber but if that''s the way things play out I wouldn''t mind. Chapter 33 Enchanting breakthrough It''s been a few more weeks. I''ve been steadily making the enchanting paper. Reading about enchanting. Going through my normal training and increasing my chi steadily. All the gnolls have a set of silk clothing. A set of leather armor and the beast riders are outfitted in some iron pieces. Even their mounts are armored. The dire wolves they ride have face protection and a metal claw on one of their front legs. I think dire wolf is the end of the growth path for most wolves, Sock might be different since he''s a rare variant. Almost twenty percent bigger than normal dire wolves. He has been leading some of the beast rider squads on missions. Most of the gnolls know Pokodo now. She roams around the fortress. Healing any injuries that occur through everyday activities. None of the gnolls have evolved. I doubt they will anytime soon. I went to school like normal, then headed to the enchanter''s house. Someone should tell him to hang a sign or something. I head inside and yell. ¡°Hello? I''m back!¡± I hear a loud crash as if someone just fell down...What is he doing every time I come in? I heal his broken ass again and ask a few questions. ¡°Well, normally how long does it take to learn an enchant.¡± ¡°It normally takes many attempts to learn it. Also you only learn one enchant from each tree and it''s picked at random. To learn more you''d have to make an enchant from that enchanting line and destroy the piece. In order to learn the ring enchant and the armor enchant in the void storage tree. It took me several attempts. Everything after the first one the chances is cut in half.¡± So that would explain the price of some of these pieces of gear. It goes without saying that the more enchants you know the more money you''d be able to make. I ask. ¡°Can I try something?¡± I try teaching him enchant tent greater void storage. It''s been an hour. He''s been doing other things while I talk to him trying to explain how to make it. He''s ready to give up when he stops focusing mana into paper. Startled and confused he shouts. ¡°What!?¡± When he said that I already knew what it meant. The next few hours I teach him the rest of the void enchants. He''s so filled with joy he''s almost crying. We talk while I try and teach him. ¡°Do you know how long it would take me to learn these enchants without help?¡± I honestly have no idea because I learned all of mine instantly. ¡°Just to learn the second enchant in this enchanting tree it took three years of making enchants and destroying the gear myself. How did you even learn this? You didn''t even know how to learn them before we spoke weeks ago!¡± ¡°I deconstructed that scroll I bought from you.¡± His eyes keep getting bigger and bigger with more surprise. ¡°Wait a second. You know deconstructing, enchanting and tutoring. You also asked about synthesizing the enchanting scrolls.¡± ¡°Yea I have more than 3 jobs. I think altogether I have over twenty jobs.¡± ¡°You''re joking right? That''s not funny youngster. You''ll scare this old mans heart making things up.¡± Well the main question is how can I get him to teach me all his enchanting trees. ¡°Can I get a scroll for each of the enchanting trees you know?¡± He looks at me. Eyes focusing harder than normal. Trying to pick up even the slightest detail signaling that I was lying. ¡°Are you serious about knowing more than twenty jobs?¡± I nod, he looks scared and surprised. ¡°Well, I wont ask for all the details but I need payment from you. You need to teach me all the things you learn from these scrolls. If... If anyone finds out about your skill you might get kidnapped. Skilled enchanters are sought after for their war potential...Make sure you don''t tell many people about your abilities.¡± His hands were visibly shaking when he was making the scrolls. I think he was afraid of me leaving after I learned everything. Losing this opportunity to learn so much all at once. Also how dangerous just being around me would be. I wait patiently for him to make them. It takes him around three hours. I look around his store in the meantime waiting. I view all of his rares. They are all good effects on each piece of gear. A lot of the gear doesn''t have stats on it so it''s only a rare in name, not a full rare. Still most gear can be enchanted this way. You wouldn''t really have the gold it takes to fully enchant your gear to the full rare quality. The effects far outweigh the stats you can add. Having multiple rares split between single enchanted pieces of gear you could have three or four layers of enchants. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I haven''t seen a single person do that yet though. Besides the people I''ve made gear for. Maybe it''s just no one has ever thought to do that. Doing it that way you might be able to wear like ten or fifteen layers of enchanted armor... You''d look like a ball though and probably wouldn''t be able to move.
Holy tree learned Enchant weapon holy learned Enchant ring white magic boost learned Enchant ring warden boost learned Enchant armor curse protection learned Enchant gem increased damage learned
Darkness tree learned Enchant weapon festering strikes learned Enchant ring warlock boost learned Enchant ring black magic boost learned Enchant armor cursed armor learned Enchant gem damage reduction learned
Mage tree learned Enchant weapon mana reduction learned Enchant weapon mana regen learned Enchant ring mana reduction learned Enchant ring mana regen learned Enchant armor mana regen learned Enchant boots mana regen from movement learned
Melee tree learned Enchant weapon improved physical damage learned Enchant ring power boost learned Enchant ring rage boost learned Enchant armor rage boost learned Enchant boots rage regen from movement learned
Rogue tree learned Enchant weapon improved skill learned Enchant ring dodge boost learned Enchant ring energy regen learned Enchant armor energy regen learned Enchant boots trap avoidance learned Enchant boots energy regen from movement learned
These were the enchants I learned. This is only scratching the surface of all the enchants I can learn. Not only are there some single effects not tied to a tree. I haven''t learned all the enchanting trees yet. I thank this enchanter. With his help I can make far more enchants. As well as better enchants. I understand enchanting more because of him so I feel indebted. I''ll definately help him learn the enchants for himself. Chapter 34 First steps through the dungeon I learned a lot of enchanting effects. The boot enchants seem very useful. All of the rings boosting magic from tier one to tier two are also valuable. I wonder how to learn effects that give two effects like "duality of magic". Maybe someone synthesized the scrolls together? Or synthesized two wands with effects. Not sure how, so I can only speculate for now. I do plan on paying back this old enchanter for helping me. I taught him a few of the enchants but it takes too long to do all in one day. I go to leave and ask him. He seems trustworthy and to push forwards with telling him the truth about my class seems like the best idea right now. If I want him to be an ally in the future befriending him now would be the best choice... Having him indebted to me also isn''t a bad idea. ¡°I don''t even know your name yet.¡± ¡°It''s Merlin.¡± ¡°Well Merlin, you should put a sign outside to signify this is an enchanters place of business. I had to ask for directions to find it. You should take on some apprentices to help make the magic paper for enchanting. If you want, I can ask the students at the magic school for you. You could enchant peoples gear with one stat for far cheaper than it is to make a rare. That would help make money until someone buys a rare piece.¡± He takes all my advice to heart. He''s the most skilled enchanter I''ve met so far but he has no business sense. I head to the fortress and fall asleep tired from teaching. The next few weeks I continue to teach Merlin enchanting. I''ve brought the 2 gnolls who I thought enchanting with me. While I''m teaching Merlin, it would be a waste to not teach them as well. They''ll live with him until he''s been fully taught then they''ll come back. As they live there they can help him with the enchanting too. Their enchanting job is slowly going up in levels. They''ll soon pass me. All the gnolls who''ve learned jobs are going to pass me soon. Just like the gnolls who learned classes have passed me already. Soon enough I''ll have a few of the rares I''ve been trying to make ready. The main ones I wanted were the tent and bag void storage. Seems like they''d help on adventures so they''re both close to being finished. I had the gnolls working on them separately while I worked on enchanting a ring with time magic. After that, I''ll do the rest of the rings that improve magic tiers. I''m not sure if black mage and white mage will stack with my wand. If I make a white mage ring and it doesn''t. I could give it to Gargarz or Pokodo to wear as a necklace. From what I understand ring enchants can be used on any jewelry but that''s normally the best thing to make with it. You can also only have three rings on each hand, split by a finger because if they touch the magic could backfire and explode. That''s also why you can''t store rare gear in a void storage container. So I''ll have to leave my wand outside of the tent when I camp in it at night. The void tent and bag have been made. I head inside the tent and its around five times bigger on the inside. It would also be easier to transport some harder to carry things. I put a few bedrolls in it. That wont increase the weight of it by much. I don''t need many because if the gnolls use it they''ll just sleep in a giant pile. So they wouldn''t take up that much space. All the gnolls at the fortress could probably fit in the tent to sleep if it came down to it. The bag I enchanted is also big enough to sleep in. Maybe I''ll use the bag as my own private tent. It''s a lot smaller than the tent. If I get too much to carry I''ll keep the items in the bag and have to sleep in the tent. Schools going normally, I''ve started to learn less and less from it. I think the only way to increase the speed I learn at would be to level my main class. So maybe I''ll try this tent out and head to a dungeon within the next few days. Me, Gobber, Pokodo, Sock, Gargarz. The leader of the gnoll beast riders. And the leader of the gnoll thieves have headed towards one of the closer dungeons. It''s only a few days away. I won''t have to miss school for very long. There''s also another dungeon close to it. If this one goes smoothly enough we''ll head to the other one. I mount up onto Sock. He''s big enough to let me ride him for now. In a few years that wont be the case. Pokodo is also riding on him. Gobber has his dire wolf and spider but he''s too big to ride on either one. Gobber let Gargarz ride on his dire wolf once he''s too tired to continue. One major problem with bringing Gargarz is his fatigue are going to be low. We''ll either have to travel slower or let him ride on one of our pets. Increasing his fatigue now will be helpful later on. So until he''s out of fatigue he needs to walk. Thinking along the same line once the gnoll thief was too tired to continue. I switched with him, letting him ride Sock. Sock is already well accustomed for long runs. Training everyday with me increased his fatigue to beyond normal levels. We''re making quick pace and might reach the dungeon earlier then expected, maybe even today. We do manage to make it there but it''s too late in the day. Everyone is tired besides myself so they can sleep in the tent while I keep watch and switch with someone in a few hours. I wall us off with control earth magic. Even so I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to attack a group like ours. Unless they had the number advantage. Bandits could also be waiting for us to complete the dungeon to attack. No reason to risk injury if you can just rob the rares and money people get from the dungeons afterwards. I haven''t seen any around here, same with Gobber. With mine and Gobber''s scout being so high level. Chances are we would spot them before they spotted us. Its a few hours later the fire I started is running low. There are no trees in this area so it will die down soon. I see movement of someone running out of the dungeon. He notices my earth walls and the light from the fire. It''s barely visible but it''s just enough to be noticed. ¡°Help, my group got trapped on the second floor.¡± I wake everyone up. I couldn''t really tell for sure it wasn''t a lie. He''s covered in injuries though but it could still be a trap. Even if he was with bandits. With the group we have right now we could take over double the amount of bandits our party numbers. Gobber alone could probably kill five by himself. We head inside. A few of the monsters that had chased him to the entrance were still visible. We head inside semi rushing towards the second floor. While we clear some orange slimes with one light blue slime as the leader. The light blue slime is immune to both fire and ice magic. Meaning it''s harder to kill. It also splits more often so blunt weapons are the way to kill these things. The ground is also covered in a foot of water which makes it much harder to kill the slimes since they regenerate in water. I cast control nature into spikes impaling them. Both immobilizing them and lifting them out of the water. With all the melee strength we have, we easily clear the group with no real problems. The water is signaling that this is a water dungeon. Thankfully this is only a tier two dungeon. Since higher level water dungeons are extremely dangerous. While we''re heading towards the second floor, the thief leading the way since he just came from it. I ask. ¡°How did your group get stuck inside?¡± ¡°We set off a trap. They''re all hiding in a room close by the trap. We were overwhelmed by enemies outside the room. They managed to distract the horde of enemies long enough for me to escape and run for help. I''m a thief/scout, so I was fast enough to make it passed them. I was still injured escaping... I think... The white mage died in the escape attempt.¡± We clear a few more slime packs. Then we fight the first new enemy I''ve seen in awhile. Four lizard men attack. Two of the lizard men are carrying a net. Another has a crossbow with a flaming arrow sticking out. Another is wearing armor, probably a warrior. The lizard men with the net seem to be the weakest in sense of killing potential. I fire an arrow at the warrior. It''s enchanted with poison. So when it hits his arm he loses control of it dropping his shield. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The lizard archer got annihilated by a bolt from the giant crossbow I made for Gobber. The bolt not only went through his head but dug into the rock wall behind him enough to stick to it nailing the lizard to the wall. Damn that''s strong! The giant crossbows could increase the range of any army that gets a hold of it. Just something else I have to be worried about people learning I can make. We brought all our pets inside the dungeon. I''d have liked to leave a few outside to protect our equipment. We were in a hurry. I didn''t think about it until we were already inside. The pets overwhelm the net carrying lizard men, just like expected after they threw the net they were pretty easy to pick off. It might be nice to make a weapon out of that net...Maybe a net launcher? The warrior put up the biggest fight. Several bolts later, even dodging Gobbers giant bolt. The gnoll thief manage to sneak up to him, attacking with a stealth strike. I enchanted both the thief''s swords with poison magic but his attacks were enough to kill the lizard. I still need to teach the gnoll thieves how to use the skill assassinate.
Blue mage passive skill gained Reptilian regeneration- Able to regenerate wounds more quickly and lost limbs over many years of time
We head down to the second level. A few more lizard men groups later. We finally make it to where the group was stranded. I can see a dozen lizard men standing in a narrow hallway. One knives cannon could probably take all of them out. It''s my trump card I have to hold onto it for the dungeons boss. I''d like to not use it though. It seems to weaken the amount of experience I get when I use my trump cards. Also the amount of things I learn. Gobbers giant crossbow is up again. Stealth attack snipe arrow into the group. Out of ten he killed two and injured another. Everyone else with crossbows fire. I kill one and the beast tamer injures another (he doesn''t have archery but he''s still been taught how to use a crossbow). The gnoll thief finished off the injured lizard. The thief that asked for help is fairly useless. He''s not very skilled and has no ranged weapons. If he brings up the fact I''m using multiple classes I''ll kill him on the spot for questioning. Before they were even aware over thirty percent of their group had taken damage or died. This group''s different though. I see caster lizards near the other side of the group. I fire an arrow through the group at one of them but it''s blocked. This is going to be a hard fight from here because of that caster. Gobber was still loading another bolt into the giant crossbow. The pets have started blocking the entrance to the hallway. I activate both of my harmonicas. I start casting haste magic onto Sock. The lizard black mage in the back also started casting. Shock magic through the water on the ground! All friends and enemies have been injured by it. I''m at half health and judging by the thief''s look. He''s badly injured from it. All the people close to the black mage have fallen down from the shock. He killed 2 of his allies in the attack. Should I attack or focus on healing? I hear both Pokodo and Gargarz chanting, so I switch and fire a bolt at the now downed black mage easily killing him. I fire another bolt at the furthest away down lizard killing him too. Gobber fires a giant bolt through two enemies on the ground. Almost all the enemies are dead except one more mage on the other side of the hallway. I take the initiative and start running to finish him off. I''m halfway through the hallway when I see an opening to the left coming up. Even if there was an enemy where I couldn''t see he would''ve been hit by the magic stunning him. I go to run passed it and see a lizard warrior swinging a hatchet down at me. Fuck! The ground must be dry that way. I jump back and block with my crossbow. He destroys my crossbow but I didn''t get hit. I can hear the black mage on the other side has started chanting the shock magic again. If I''m already at half health, there''s no way for me to survive one this close range. I have to make it to him or get to the safety of dry ground where the hatchet wielding lizard warrior is. Some of my group might die if I take the cowardly way and try to save myself. So I jump as high as I can, kicking off the walls I clear the range of the hatchet wielder. I cast every movement speed increase I know that''s instant. Sprint, feral roar to increase my speed. I sink in as much fatigue as it will allow me. We''re all about half a second away from getting fried to death. I get an improved counter spell off on the last mage with no time to spare. Interrupting him less than a fraction of a second before everyone would have been sizzled again. The hatchet wielder started to chase after me but was stabbed in the back by Gobber and I pull out my sword and finish off the defenseless black mage.
Blue mage passive skill gained Water affinity- Movement is no longer hindered by water
Master of learning 14 to 15
Thinking about it after the fight. I could have used control nature to raise the ground up cutting the water off before we got electrocuted the second time. It all happened too fast for me to think of that in time for it to be useful. Having so many skills, sometimes you don''t think of the best way to handle a situation until after it''s already happened. The thief say''s his group is the way the hatchet wielder was. The area that way is raised up enough so the ground isn''t covered in water. We head forwards after recovering our health and I see even more lizard men pounding on a door. I''m guessing that''s where they are hold up at. Three left they''re easily killed before they even notice us. Fifteen enemies altogether. What kind of trap did these adventurers set off to make that happen? It must have been an obvious trap with a rare on a pedestal. Once it''s removed it sets off a much harder than normal trap. The thief knocks on the door ¡°It''s me, I brought help.¡± The door slowly opens. I see a few adventurers on the other side. Some wounded badly. We heal the injured, it seems like their white mage might have died in the attack. I guess I didn''t notice his corpse because there were twelve lizard men standing right on top of it. But even still besides the white mage. I don''t see a single support mage class in the group. They all look like warriors, archers and thieves. No wonder they struggled. They''re going to quit for now and head back to the city. Without a healer they wouldn''t be able to finish the boss in the dungeon. We head out with them. Thankfully the tent is still there. It would''ve been awful if the brand new rare we just made was stolen. The void bag I have is already full of weapons and equipment. The weight is over one hundred pounds so Gobber has to carry it with both hands. He looks silly carrying a small pouch with such difficulty. I keep watch for the rest of the night. I''ll sleep in the morning once everyone wakes up. Then we''ll finish the dungeon. Chapter 35 Finishing dungeons Everyone wakes up and we pack the tent up. Gobber is going to leave his dire wolf and big spider to protect our equipment. Thinking about it. Maybe next time I''ll bring a few gnolls with me to work as guards when we enter the dungeons. We''ll take today a lot slower than last night. There is no reason to rush. We slowly make our way back to where we were. Far less enemies since they haven''t been reformed by the mana in the area yet. I head back into the section of the room the trap was sprung. Definitely a sign of a rare item alter. Maybe it would''ve been better to kill the adventurers... I would like to know how this trap works completely though. I spend an hour deconstructing it while everyone stands guard. I realize I''m being greedy and wasting time but it might help later. Finally finished we move on.
Secret Beast tamer passive skill Trap proficiency- able to make and set-up traps
What!? Knowledge is pouring into my head that might be useful later on. I know how to make pressure sensors and motion sensors with mana now. I can make traps that will cast magic if someone touches the pressure sensor or if the pass through the motion sensor. This will be good for booby trapping my treasure room. It might also help when setting up a perimeter to guard us during the night. A big problem I see with the rare tent is it''s soundproof. Meaning if we were attacked I would have had to run into the tent to get help. So the further away I or whoever is keeping watch can see enemies, the better. Even a trip line attached to a flare scroll aimed into the sky would help warn of intruders. We head further in. This is a tier two dungeon, so there shouldn''t be many floors. After searching a bit more we find the boss room. Dungeon tiers scale up to tier six. Then you can do raid dungeons which scale to tier six as well. I should learn how to make dungeons to increase everyone''s levels while at the fortress. You can only do that with tier one dungeons so the monsters are going to be weak. We prepare for the boss room. I don''t have my crossbow anymore so I''ll be taking a more supportive role this time. I explain a few of the bosses we might be fighting. Seeing as it is a tier two we have an extremely high boss pool that might happen. So I only go over the more common ones. If it''s a rare boss I''ll warn everyone and explain him before he gets a chance to surprise kill anyone. Casting haste on all the front liners before we enter. I see a huge lizard man, at least twice as big as a normal one. It also has four arms and it''s wielding to great axes, one on each side of him. I wait to see what is going to happen. Thankfully this is a common boss and a particularly easy one at that. Gobber has taken the main role of tank for now. Blocking both axes while everyone else whittles the boss down. Activating my harmonicas. I pull out my knife cannon, if possible I wouldn''t like to rely on my knives cannon for this. I fire it at one of his arms cutting through it. That will make one of his attacks less powerful and easier to dodge. Gobber is doing well. He hasn''t been hit yet and has put in plenty of damage. I cast haste on him again as soon as it wears off. Slowly but surely whittling him down. I wish I had my crossbow. I don''t want to waste mana before I know exactly what the boss is capable of. Gobber took a hit to his shoulder. I go to cast but it looks like Pokodo is on it. The boss is starting to get woozy, rocking back and forth and trembling a bit because of blood loss. Still not wanting to drop my guard I fire off some magic, ignite and plague. The injuries he has are burning and rotting at the same time. I cast hex on him weakening his defense and that''s the final straw for the boss to fall. WHAT!? That''s it? No enrage mode when he was near death... Very easy... Easier than I remember and compared to some of the other fights... This seemed too easy! I guess it''s because everyone else has been getting stronger too. I shouldn''t doubt their skills. Gobber is getting stronger and stronger. At this point I don''t even think I needed to be here but it was still experience. A rare dropped but it was a dagger that increased stealth strike one tier. Which I''ve already replaced with assassinate. Judging by the enchant it''s also one I have from the rogue tree. So I''ll give it to the gnoll thief in the group. No new skills or anything from this boss¡­ I''m slightly disappointed. We head towards a tier 3 dungeon. I''ll have to borrow a crossbow for it since I''ll feel useless if I can''t help... Seriously disappointed at the boss. What a freaking pushover. We head towards the next dungeon. The difference between tier two and three isn''t that much. Still we might end up struggling on this dungeon because of some unforeseen reason. It has only been a single day since we left the fortress, I did manage to get a level so it wasn''t a wasted trip and every rare we get will help us later. I learned the beast rider and thieves names. Since they''re the captains of each group and have managed to not die in the dungeon. I''ll learn them because of that... Zergnar(beast tamer) and Nargzar(thief). Maybe I won''t end up remembering there names even trying to though. Gnolls have confusing names. I remember when I asked for every ones names when I first met. Someones name was just him growling! Even besides that, all their names are very similar. It''s similar to how goblins all have "gob" in their names. The dungeon was less then a days travel from the last one. We make it just before dark. We set-up camp and this time I''ll get a good four hours of sleep first then take over second watch. Zergnar (beast rider) is keeping watch first. He wakes me up and I keep watch next, no problems. Everyone wakes up and we head inside. This time we pack up the tent and load it onto Gobber''s dire wolf. We''ll need every single person and animal to insure best chances. The tent shouldn''t weigh more than twenty pounds so it should be fine. Even so, I told the dire wolf to stay in the back for now. I try to make sure the tent doesn''t get punctured. This dungeon isn''t the same as the last one. The last one was water themed and this is definitely time magic themed. Quite frankly the hardest dungeon theme, I start having regrets we came here. The first pack we fight is haste horned rabbits. They are extremely fast and propel there bodies at you with their horns pointed. They''re extremely hard to stop and kill with weapons. So I cast string shot in front of us in every hallway. Then lure the horned rabbits into it. They''re too stupid to avoid it, we easily clean them up after that. We fight a few more packs then we see something different. It''s a blink monster. It''s essentially a monster that can teleport. We have to watch our back line. So I pull out my shield and we push all our backs together. The blink monster decided to target my direction. Besides their teleport ability, they are very weak. I instantly impaled it with some control nature magic I had been chanting since before he teleported. That would be a good blue mage skill to gain. I hope I unlock it. We head further in and manage to make it to the second floor. More haste horned rabbits, more blink monsters. We also ended up fighting a few time mages on this floor. Hasting the haste horned rabbits make them fast enough to almost break through the spider silk. Barely not enough though they still get tangled. Time mages only being a support class, often try to run away. A few crossbow bolts full of poison stops that though. We make it to the third floor which is a safe floor by the looks of it. Sometimes there''s an empty room for downtime. To make sure you''re ready for the next room or to regroup after a failed attempt at the boss. Since we started fresh today, we should be fine to continue without a break. We push forwards again more and more enemies. I reach level sixteen fighting six haste horned rabbits. The floors almost seem like they''re getting easier. I see an obvious trap ahead. The lower tier dungeons, traps are pretty obvious. Two different paths to go. One leads left but has tiny holes in the walls. The other leads right but is covered in blood. Chances are if we go left we''ll be shot full of arrows. Thinking that I end up crawling along the walls of the left path to see if there was any loot or hidden path but it''s a dead end. We head right and down to the fifth floor. The boss should be on this floor. More of the same enemies just in bigger groups. These enemies would''ve made mince meat out of any unprepared group so I''m not knocking the monsters. I had a perfect counter in the form of spider silk. Anyone else would have had to devise another strategy or risk being impaled by the rabbits. With no way to stop the rabbits you would need a white mage who''s on point with healing or a very good tank that would be able to stop multiple enemies at choke points. We push to the boss room. We enter the room and there is nothing visible in the room. Well that is peculiar. Thinking back on my previous life I know what it is! ¡°Retreat! Retreat!¡± Its already too late! The doors closed behind us. This boss is one you can''t retreat from. Shit! ¡°It''s a lesser displacer beast! It can be invisible, intangible or teleport but only one of those things at one time.¡± I make a nature wall, then I make a roof to it. ¡°Healers into the back here everyone else protect them!¡± We pile into the freshly made structure. I hope its claws aren''t strong enough to cut through the hardened earth. I keep strengthening it and building up the walls slowly. We wait almost five minutes before it shows up. Still invisible someones weapon touches something. He attacks just in time for it to turn visible and go intangible. The blade goes straight through it doing nothing. As soon as the blade swings through the lesser displacer beast. It vanishes again probably teleporting to safety. Shit why such a hard boss. I''m just glad it''s a lesser displacer beast. It should only have one poisonous tail and one head. Regular displacer beasts have two poisonous tails and are twice as big and harder to kill. Finally greater displacer beasts have two heads four tails and are giants in comparison to regular displacer beasts. Greater displacer beasts are raid dungeon bosses though. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. This boss is a smart one, normally bosses can only attack. Some still retain intelligence though. The boss that killed me in the previous life was a human with all of his senses. He was the halfway point boss in a tier six dungeon. Most people wouldn''t assume he wasn''t strong but he managed to wipe out quite a few groups. He was using all of the rare and legendary gear the previous groups dropped. His boss room was like a maze that he knew like the back of his hand. Hitting then hiding. Waiting for the party numbers to dwindle. I was the only one left and I barely managed to hold him off. He eventually wiped out our whole party. I doubt anyone has killed him yet... I can''t remember much from my past life. It feels like most of my memories are still locked away behind some hidden wall. I''ve just recently remembered how I died in my previous life. This displacer beast has the same intelligence as that human did. It''s already been an hour since that last attack. It''s waiting for us to get impatient. I built up the defenses to make it a mini house now. The entrance is only big enough for one person to need to guard so we can take shifts. Gobber took first watch. The beast must know how strong he is because he didn''t bother with trying anything while Gobber was on watch. The next was the Zergnar(beast rider) not riding his pet. A few times the displacer beast attacked but didn''t do any huge damage or take any damage. Next was Nargzar, or would be if he had weapons long enough to guard properly. The next was me. I knew something was going to happen on my turn to guard. The pets couldn''t guard because the displacer beast could easily injure them with its claws or tail then retreat before any retaliation could be done. I''ve dropped into complete defense. I have my knife cannon ready. I didn''t bother pulling my sword. I had the cannon aimed at the entrance, the only way the lesser displacer beast can attack from. It''s big enough to hit if he appears. While guarding I think of something that could reveal the lesser displacer beasts location. I start making the ground wet. I put all my attention onto the ground that now is filled with puddles of water. I see movement, its still too early to fire the cannon. It could be him trying to get me to waste the attack. The next puddle forward starts to show vibrations. He''s probably moving towards me. The next puddle starts moving. He''s definitely coming in for an attack but I have to wait until he''s a little closer. He''s in the puddle closest too me. I start chanting freeze magic silently. Using it too soon would be a mistake. It has to be targeting my eyes right now. Right on top of me. ¡°Freeze!¡± I see the magic make contact he''s right in front of me. The ice magic has showed his silhouette. It goes for an attack, his tail aimed directly for my eye! I fire my cannon! It hits him! The displacer beast teleports away. ¡°He''s probably bleeding. He shouldn''t be able to be invisible properly now, we''ll see blood falling out of the air.¡± Over two hours of waiting. Coming down to a single hit to decide the fight. I open up peep holes for everyone to look through. ¡°Yea I can see blood." Gargarz says standing in the back of the house. We could try to shoot at him with bolts so he has to teleport away or become intangible. He can''t do those indefinitely though so he''s definitely in trouble now. He''s bleeding a lot, before I even realized it Pokodo was healing me. ¡°Master a knife just exploded right in front of you, do you think you didn''t take any damage.¡± Huh, yea I definitely did. I''ll have to pull the shrapnel out of myself once we kill it. His tail also scratched the side of my head. It was knocked off course by the explosion. I''m still poisoned by it. So I start to cast dispel on myself. I open the peep hole a little bigger and fire a bolt. It becomes visible but intangible. Now''s our chance! It will only be able to teleport once after that wears off then both will be on cool down. It''s starting to get backed into a corner. With it losing invisibility it can''t draw this fight out. It runs around to the entrance. Gobber is waiting for it. Everyone moves to the entrance besides myself. I stay back casting shielding magic onto everyone waiting. I pull out my sword as a precaution, the crossbow wouldn''t be strong enough to finish it if it can somehow get passed everyone. Being completely intangible it runs straight into the room through everyone, The space is still to small for it to fit through. What the hell is it''s plan!? It solidifies with some of its body parts still touching things instantly destroying the body parts. It''s aiming for me! Last ditch effort to finish off the leader. I block it''s tail, one of its claws is gone but it swings both anyways. I block the intact one, his bloody stump hits me across the face. Finally it bites at me. I fall down barely avoiding being killed by it''s chomp. I stab it through its neck weakening it. Everyone else who was at the door has turned around. With four different attacks being used against it at once the lesser displacer beast falls over, dead.
Blue mage skill gained Blink strike- Teleport ten feet in any direction, 5 minute cool down
Master of learning 16 to 17
The boss seemed anticlimactic. It was still much harder then the tier two boss. That''s because we prepared so well against it. If we didn''t it would have killed us one by one with perfectly placed attacks. To back such a smart creature into a corner is impressive. Speaking of which, a group of dead adventurers is laying in a corner. ¡°Its a good thing displacer beasts can wear rares.¡± I think to myself. We end up getting a rare defensive shield for Gobber. Tons of defensive with a physical and magic resist stat boost as well as another defensive stat boost to both from the effect. I think it would be nice to deconstruct it but the chances of me learning it are too low to risk it. The dead adventurers also have some good looking gear. Three rares on them in total. A "wand of summoning", yes! A "crossbow of rapid fire". Probably not as fast as a repeater. I think the enchant might be tied with the time mage tree. I''ll take that for now. If I make it into a repeater it should work even faster. A pair of energy regenerate while moving boots. Too big for my feet but not worth deconstructing since I have the rogue tree already. Gobber get''s another piece since he''s the only one they''d fit. I guess they wanted to gear up Gobber this dungeon. He doesn''t use much energy (only with his bow and giant crossbow) but the stat boosts are better than the ones I made for him. The equipment the adventurers had that wasn''t rare or enchanted was also good. Helmets made from fine steel and robes made from a very tough silk. Their boots were the only things not worth taking. These adventurers were very heavily funded by the looks of it. Once we leave I''ll deconstruct the wand. It has an eighty three percent chance so it''s high enough to risk. We head out of the dungeon working our way back easily killing remaining enemies. We''re on the first floor about to head out when a group approaches us. "Quickly this way!" A man leading a group of soldiers enters the dungeon. The group is twelve elite soldiers from the capital. If they''re here to capture or kill us we stand no chance. The leader of the group spots us and shouts. "You there! Did by chance you see a group of adventurers pass by? They should have been back by now, it was the princes adventuring group." Shit! We might have to give the rare gear back. "I''m sorry to say this but we did see a group of dead adventurers in the bosses room. They were extremely geared so it is most likely the group you were talking about." His eyes widen in fright. He must have been tasked with protecting the prince. I can see fear forming in his eyes from what the kings punishment will be for him. He looks at me staring almost through me. "Did you take the princes equipment? He had a legendary ring that if not on him. Will force the entire region to come after you." "I only took the rares from the other adventurers. I wouldn''t dare take the ring off of royalty, my group would have carried the corpses out to bury them. If we weren''t too weighed down by the spoils we received." He looks at me again. He must have been able to tell I wasn''t lying because he runs passed us without another word... WHAT THE FUCK! How''d I miss a LEGENDARY!!! That prince must have swallowed it! I might have been able to get away with it since I have capable liar... No use crying about it now that it''s already over I guess. It''s about halfway through the day when we walk out of the dungeon. We''ll start heading back towards the fortress today. We walk the rest of the day set up camp and stay for the night. I take first watch. Nothing happens that night, I deconstructed the wand and got a bunch of new enchanting recipes. We''re about ready to pack up for the day when I get a weird message from the familiar I gave to Lance.
Summoner tree learned Enchant weapon improved summoning learned Enchant ring summoning magic boost learned Enchant boots blink forwards learned Enchant boots blink backwards learned Extinct Enchant magic circle teleport learned
Chapter 36 Rushing to save everyone! Elite guard''s point of view We head down passed the group at the entrance. If they stole the princes ring we''ll all be executed by the king. That ring is a hand-me-down from the kingdom. We need to get it back. The dungeon is eerily empty. The group who came before us must have killed everything. We easily make it down to the bosses room. Heading inside we see something wrong. A lesser displacer beast is the boss here... I''ve cleared this dungeon before and it wasn''t a lesser displacer beast. Peculiarly, the lesser displacer beast had a giant hole in him. I don''t think I''ve even see a wound that big before. Also the place the displacer beast was dead was peculiar. He had died inside a room in the middle of the dungeon boss room. Was that gnoll a nature mage or something? I''ve never see such a well made building from nature magic. Looking around the room we see the corpses of the princes group. Most of been stripped down to their under cloths. How did that group carry out the armor? I would''ve noticed if they had 6 sets of gear in their bags. Did they have a rare bag? Bags like that are very expensive, most adventurers wouldn''t be able to afford them. Shit! As expected the ring is gone. Those thieves! "Sir! I found something in the lesser displacer beast!" One of my guards at noticed something inside the displacer beasts stomach. The giant wound from it''s battle you could see into his stomach. Fishing it out it was the princes hand. The lesser displacer beast had eaten the legendary ring... That boy wasn''t lying then. If the king spares my life I''ll have to mention the boy to him. Maybe how peculiar this whole situation was. Lance''s point of view We just arrived near the old village I used to live at. The old man farmer was still there. Did the bandits not attack him because they could always come back and steal his food? I''m not sure so I ask about the whereabouts of the bandits. the group I''m traveling with decided to do recon on the bandits for now to gauge their strength. I''ve started to get used to traveling with everyone in the group. Leaf is a very strong magician. Able to cast multiple familiars and elementals. She provides backup exactly where and when it''s needed. Kattie is fast with her heals. Sometimes predicting incoming damage she''ll already have a heal halfway channeled to get someones health up. Leon isn''t a bad thief either. With his stealth attacks we normally have to fight one less enemy from the beginning of the fight. Maybe even 2 if they''re far enough separated. The archer Axel is mildly useful. He surprises me sometimes when he takes an enemy I wasn''t expecting him to hit out. The warrior Gunter is a great knight. If anyone makes it passed me that is. We''re told the direction the bandits came from and left towards after burning and looting the village. Heading that way we get into some fights but nothing serious. Blue slimes aren''t even a threat. Our mages using their staffs and wands could pummel them to death. We travel around two hours. Cutting into the woods we see smoke pillowing out. As we get closer and closer we notice a giant bandit fort. Bigger than Kites fortress by over twice the size. Judging by the outside I''d guess that over one hundred bandits live there. Just like Kite thought there would have been nothing we could have done at the time when they attacked. I notice something though. A bandit has noticed us! He starts ringing a bell, oh shit! ¡°Run!¡± We take off in the direction we came from. Running until we can''t anymore. The mages aren''t the ones slowing us down. Gunter is dead weight when it comes to running. He must have never practiced exercising in his life. I hear horses approaching us. We''re in trouble. Before we''re captured I have to send a distress message. I yell at Kites familiar. ¡°Kite we''re about to be captured by the bandits that raided are village. The number is in the hundreds and I don''t think we can get away. I''ll try to keep everyone alive until you can come save us please hurry.¡± With that said I tell everyone to stop and tell Kites familiar to disappear. If we run they might kill us because we made them chase us. Twenty bandits come to get us. Around ten on horseback. I could try bluffing my way into their camp. We all have our weapons on the ground, hands raised in the air. The fastest bandit looks disappointed though. ¡°Just a bunch of kids... I thought I''d get to kill a few of you.¡± The next one catches up. Judging by his gear and stature in comparison to the last one he is the leader. At least the leader of the group that came to get us. ¡°What is your business with us?¡± He asks. ¡°We''ve come to join up. We heard about how a powerful bandit group had been attacking villages and thought we''d like to make some extra money.¡± It was a pitiful lie, anyone could see through it. ¡°Ha ha ha, boy you are a go getter aren''t you. I like that in youngsters.¡± He starts looking at our group. He stops on Kattie and asks. ¡°Ashley, what are you doing out here with them?¡± ¡­ Shit! I didn''t think of her sister, we''re going to die! ¡°Ashley is my sister, we''re twins.¡± He gets a disgusting smile on his face. ¡°Twins aye? I always wanted to try it with twins.¡± If I try anything now we''ll be killed... ¡°Alright get everyone we''re heading back... Cut the boys tendons in his hands so he can''t fight us. Lying to me will cost you your life as an adventurer... If he fights back kill him.¡± ¡­ There''s nothing I can do. I just have to stay alive... Kite will figure something out and come rescue us. One of them cuts my arms I lost the feeling in my fingers. Shit! Why didn''t I wait! Shit there''s nothing I can do! Why am I so weak¡­ I start crying. Kites point of view Why didn''t Lance wait! Why? Why! Dammit why. A hundred people, what can I do against a hundred people... I need an army twice the size I have to compete with them! Lance you fool! Why did you force my hand! I have to go save them as soon as I can. I doubt my uncle will give me any troops. So I have to make do being outnumbered over two to one. I get scared, scared to the point I feel like I''ll die if I go save them. I have to try. Maybe I can hire some adventurers from the guild? No... No one would join a suicide mission like this one. We rush back to the fortress and I start to prepare. We have around thirty troops altogether. Forty including the wolves. We have around ten gnolls with no classes for combat we''ll leave behind. As well as the gnolls to young to fight. I can''t spare a single guard so they''ll have to make do with locking up the fortress at night and closing off the cave. I start getting everyone together then think of something. There has to be some people from the slums that would want to join me. I have to at least try. I tell everyone to get ready for me we''ll leave as soon as I get back. I head to the school first. I tell the headmaster I''ll be taking a few weeks leave and that I might die. He understands and this was only a formality. During the next few months I had wanted to start making Rock an ally to be a secret weapon but I can''t do that now. I head to the slums I plea for help beg with all my heart for a whole hour¡­ Not a single person came forward to help¡­ Fine! I DON''T NEED THEIR FUCKING HELP! Why is this happening to me!? I head to the blacksmith to buy some more materials. I''m going to make a few more giant crossbows while we travel there. It will still take over two weeks to get there. Even traveling full speed it will take more then ten days. Please no one die until I get there! You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. We head out, everyone with any sense of combat is forced to come. While we''re traveling I''ll be in the tent on a cart making weapons. I need at least ten giant crossbows made for a plan I''ve been formulating to work. We''re getting close to the choice to cut through the forest. Going around would take too long. The skeletons and shadows put up no fight to the army fighting against them. We''re marching double time today to try and push to the other side of the forest. If we can make it in one day, that will have saved us two days going around. Everyone''s tired. I tell them to take shifts in the tent. We have two dire wolves pulling it but it still weighs the amount of people so only five can rest at a time. We manage to make it through the forest and set-up camp as it pushes nightfall. I finish the giant crossbows. I still feel like I''m rushing. If I had the time I would have liked to make all the thieves a knife cannon but I don''t have the materials or time. We''re not going to have enough food for a return trip. I hope they didn''t burn the farm to the ground. We''re pushing double time again today. When we make it to the old village we''ll take one day to rest. If you push an army to hard they''ll be useless in battle. We make it to the old village. The farm is still there thankfully, and so is my grandpa Grey. ¡°You''re still alive? How?¡± He sees the army behind me. ¡°I sent you the letter, don''t you remember?¡± Yea, I guess he would have to be alive to do that. ¡°I mean how did you live through the bandit attack?¡± ¡°I killed the bandits that attacked me.¡± Grey says plainly. He must have killed at least a dozen by himself to deter them¡­ ¡°Can you help me?... Please can you help me!? My friends have been captured by the bandits.¡± ¡°Yea, I''ll help... Only if I''m needed though. I don''t like fighting.¡± Even in that situation Grey didn''t stop working on his farm. Really? Only help if he''s needed... When the hell would I need his help more than now? After the day of rest and replenishing our food stores we head towards the bandit camp. We set up a trap and wait until nightfall. I rush towards the fortress by myself waving my hands. If I see anyone I recognize I''ll cast a flare spell at them signaling to everyone not to attack them. I get the attention of the bandit guard. He see''s me and starts ringing a bell. I take off running. There''s a reason I did this by myself. With all my speed boosts I can run as fast as a horse. They give chase I''m not running full speed. Acting like they''re catching up I lead them into an ambush. The beast riders are hidden, ready to ambush survivors. The thieves are positioned further away, set-up on the giant crossbows. They fire the crossbows killing all the bandits on horses equaling around 8 people. The beast riders tame the horses quickly and one of the tamers leads them away. All the bandits running on foot were separated far enough from their allies that they couldn''t see the attack. We wait for them to get closer and ambush them as well. The gnoll thieves all switched to regular crossbows and fire into the few bandits the ran after us. Any survivors the beast riders run down. We kill around 20 people altogether but we also killed their means of cavalry. Meaning we have an advantage now.
Master of learning 17 to 18
We head to each side of the fort with beast riders. Catching the wooden walls on fire with torches and arrows. Not many can use bows well so we could only fire a handful of arrows on each side. It''s enough to put the bandits in a panic. Some have started running buckets of water towards the fire. Some are actually trying to come and attack us. Anyone heading outside right now one by one are getting killed by the giant crossbows. We kill another ten and also weaken the forts outside walls. Their main force comes outside and we fall back. A few more attacks and we''ll be ready. We repeat this two more times that night. Managing to kill another twenty people stupid enough to stand in the gaping holes of the fort walls now. The fire opened up the walls to the point they''re not even viable for defense. I tell a few to stay watch and fire at anyone who comes outside. If they push with their main force shoot then run. Doing this we kill another ten. Their number lead over us is dwindling quickly. We keep this up for two nights. They''ve been stuck in the main building of their fort. Anyone who would come outside would be killed on the spot. It''s getting close to the final attack.
Master of learning 18 to 19
Trice''s point of view A few days ago a new group of people were captured. When they were I noticed some familiar faces. It was Lance and Kattie! I recognized them both as soon as I seen them. It has been years but one face I see everyday and the other was a very distinct, beautiful face. That beautiful face shown despair on it. Lance''s arms were cut! Blood was running down his hands dripping onto the floor. He would never be an adventurer again and he knew it... If I can I would like to talk to him. A few days later I got the chance to talk with Lance. I was a maid in the main building of the fort. Actually a lot of the maids of the manor were maids here now. Some started getting used to living here. My mother Beatrice and Kora being the ones getting used to it. Ashley wouldn''t ever get used to it though. She became a target for the head bandit. He was married and his wife constantly kept an eye on him. She kept the chances of him raping her to a very few times. After living with him for so many years he finally got the chance to rape her. He only raped her once though to my knowledge. It now looks like he was eyeing up Kattie next. I hope she doesn''t end up the same way as Ashley. Constantly afraid of getting attacked. If that was me, I might end up killing myself. Lance was very disappointed, he looked defeated. I knew why, he lived to adventure and now he''ll never be able to do that. ¡°I''m sorry Lance... I would have tried to stop him if he waited to do it in here. I know how much you want to be an adventurer. Losing your ability to hold weapons...¡± He looked up. ¡°It''s not that... I disappointed Kite. He had a plan and I ruined it.¡± Really? I was surprised by his response. I didn''t think of Kite as ever being strong. Kite trained all day and wasn''t as strong as Lance. Even as a child I could tell Lance was stronger than Kite with no effort. What exactly happened after they left?¡­ We were attacked! Twenty bandits died in the first attack. Over the rest of the night even more died. We had no idea how many it was but to be able to kill that many people it had to be a lot. I wonder who''s attacking us. Maybe a detachment of troops from the capital to get rid of the bandits here. Not exactly sure but the hope has returned to Lances eyes. We''ll be free soon. My mother and Kora acted very weird that day. It''s like they didn''t know what to feel because the people who captured them wouldn''t be their leaders anymore. Beatrice broke down sobbing in front of everyone. Kora was scared shaking, jumping at every noise. We could only wait for the enemy to attack now. The bandits were completely forced to hide in the main building. Chapter 37 Betrayal and consequences We''re going to sneak into the bandits base and try a rescue attempt for Lance and his party. If we don''t they could use them as hostages. I take the gnolls that were thief/bandits with sneak inside. The beast riders would wait at the front door in case anything went wrong. Gobber will be leading them since he can''t sneak, he''ll be dead weight if he comes. We head to the entrance, there is only one for the entire building. This building is still gigantic. Bigger than the entire fort outside. I pick the doors lock. The burglar job makes it far easier an I thought it would be. We slowly open the door and I can see a guard sleeping. After four gnolls are inside we take aim and fire five bolts through him. One would have been enough but we can''t be caught yet so overkill is necessary. We keep pushing forwards. We haven''t been detected by anyone yet and managed to kill another six bandits who were sleeping. Checking the next room I see more bandits sleeping. We kill another six. Pushing forwards we get to the main room. This room is fairly close to the entrance of the building. The door is unassuming but I can tell the bulk of the enemies are behind this door. We have to look elsewhere for now. We head back to the way we came from and turn down a different hallway. This hallway is probably the right direction. It''s in better condition than the other paths. If they captured the maids they would spend all their time cleaning. We head towards the back of the hallway where a singular door is. I open the door and see plenty of familiar faces. Slowly waking everyone up I whisper. ¡°Come on we''re getting you guys out of here.¡± When I say that Beatrice starts screaming! ¡°Help! They''re in here! They''re in here!¡± What! Why? I can''t afford to get caught! I cast silence on her. Kora is holding a knife! What the hell happened to these girls? I walk forwards and deck her, knocking her out in one blow. I do the same to Beatrice. It was cruel but it was the only way something bad wouldn''t happen. Two of the gnolls are carrying both girls I knocked out. I send the main squad out of the room. We''ll take the hostages outside then clear the rest of the fort up to the main room. The cuts on Lances arms were almost infected. They definitely would have been if Kattie hadn''t healed them. He might have lost his hands if they''d gotten infected. I whisper to Lance while casting regenerate on his cut arms. "What was up with Beatrice and Kora?" Lance whispers back. "I have no idea but they''ve been acting weird ever since I got here." We''ll clear the rest of the building before we go to fight the main group. We round the corner towards the exit and there is a bandit standing still looking at us. Coming towards the screaming. Shit! We all fire are crossbows but he was holding a bell. He must have been the night watch drawn to the sound of Beatrice screaming. It lets out two rings before it hits the ground making a third ring. ¡°RUN!¡± I yell everyone running towards the entrance. We''re attacked by bandits running to the exit. A two of the gnolls died from the attacks. Dammit! We continue rushing towards the exit. We''re almost at the door but rounding the corner we see a group of twenty bandits. The last of their force is grouped. Half aren''t even wearing armor. Most likely woken up by the sounds of the bell. Just grabbing their weapons. I''m not giving them a chance to talk or kill us. The leader looks like he''s about to speak. A smile shows across his face as he sees the army that''s been fighting him is only a bunch of gnolls. With their leader being a young boy, barely old enough to know anything about the world. The look in his eye shows that he already assumes he''s beaten us. That look will be gone once his face is blown apart. I pull out my knives cannon and aim at the leader who''s standing in the middle of the group. Firing before he gets a chance to speak. Boom! 4 of them were killed, 3 injured. Still not enough to even the odds but the sound alerted the beast riders not far from us. I start channeling my chi into a chi wave! If I can I''ll use one hundred percent and kill all the fucking bandits along with myself if I have to! Gobber is the first one rounding the corner. If I fire he''ll get caught up in the blast! The fight breaks out between my gnoll thieves and the remaining bandits. Being outnumbered our casualties are high. The beast riders come rushing in to help us slowly one at a time. The advantage switches. Very few have attacked me but the few that did I barely managed to avoid until my troops could kill them. Around ten of the gnolls have died in the fight¡­ We lost that many troops because of Beatrice... I want to FUCKING kill her! I want to kill her so bad!
Title Army slayer- damage against big groups of enemies is increased by 10%
Title Avenged- 10% of parents class levels are added towards yours
Thief 15 to 25
Level 25 Thief passive skill gained Improved pickpocket- increased chances to successfully pickpocket
Archer 18 to 25
Level 25 Archer passive skill gained Dual fire- able to fire two arrows from your bow at once (doesn''t work with crossbows)
Warrior 13 to 18
Berserker 13 to 16
Master of learning 19 to 20
With Master of Learning reaching 20, your other classes and jobs will level faster
Beatrice finally wakes up, after everything happened most of the people who were freed are sleeping. The gnoll who was carrying her died protecting this human piece of garbage... I waited until she was up. I wanted to hear why she screamed like that, getting my men killed. If it''s not a good enough reason I''ll kill her myself and won''t care how Lance and Trice react. We didn''t lose a single gnoll until the end and we could have got through with far less casualties if our cover wasn''t lost. ¡°Why?¡± I ask a simple question. ¡°Why? Because you were gone for over a year... No normal person would think they would ever be saved! I did what I thought was right... What I thought was best for Trice.¡± I hold back everything trying not to destroy her. Visibly shaking from anger. ¡°Is that the only reason you got so many of my brothers in arms killed!?¡± Beatrice talks almost laughingly. ¡°Brothers? Those were men? They look like monsters to me. I don''t care if you kill me you''ve already ruined my life twice. Once by being born and another killing the bandits.¡± What? I ruined her life by freeing her from servitude under bandits. After hearing her I start to feel less angry at her and more sorry for her. She must have went crazy trying to fit into her new life. Stockholm syndrome is very heavy with her. Even so I lost a dozen gnolls. That''s more then one third of my troops I brought. Ah, fuck it feels so bad. Was their nothing I could do to save them? Maybe if I listened to the leader he''d have let us leave... No! Thinking about what could have been different isn''t the right response. Tomorrow I''ll apologize to the gnolls. I feel like I failed as their leader. I owe them at least that much. The next day we loot the fort. There is an armory with almost one hundred sets of peoples armor. Selling it all would probably net around ten gold (10 gold 15 silver with haggling). We find a treasure room filled with money! Altogether totaling 20 gold. The bandit leader was using a rare sword. Too big for me to use so it goes to Gobber. I can''t wait until I''m big enough to use the equipment that drops. It was a regular enchanted sword with a rare damage increase gem in it. The two stat boosts were to strength and stamina. Depending on if the leader would have talked or attacked. He might have been able to turn the tides of that battle. Feeling better I didn''t give him any room to speak I have to address what happened to the gnolls. ¡°Everyone please listen up! If you are a gnoll and you lost a relative or a loved one in this attack. I''m sorry... From the bottom of my heart... I''m sorry. If I would have just planned everything out better... If I had a little more time... I had to drag you into this mess. Please forgive your stupid leader.¡± I bowed my head. On the verge of crying from my incompetence. We killed the bandits but it felt like a loss. If I had another three months to prepare we might have walked away with no casualties. Nargzar, the leader of the gnoll thieves and one of the three survivors of that group speaks up. "Boss! We all knew exactly what we were getting into before we started. Death is commonplace in this world, you should know this by now. Because of you, we''re far stronger than ever before! To be honest... I''m not sure any of us would even be alive if you didn''t come and take us in when you did." I get it now. Even though it felt like a loss, we could have been wiped out. One more slip up and our group might have been annihilated. A leader can''t dwell on the past because that will effect their leadership in the future. We finish checking the fortress and the only person left is a women hiding in the back. No one even noticed her except for Gobber. His scout is high enough to catch the smallest details now. She''s very attractive and she''s scared to death. Was she another one of the bandit prisoners? ¡°Please don''t kill me, I was forced to be a wife to the bandit. I would never do anything to hurt you.¡± I feel that was a lie. Why lie now? Does she think I''m going to kill a helpless person. With that weird response I have to ask questions now instead of just letting her go free. ¡°Hey has this woman ever harmed any of you?" Ashley stepped forward. ¡°She humiliated me everyday, she poured hot oil down by back before... "For making her man cheat." She is the reason this bandit fort got so big. She''s the real leader.¡± Well I guess that answers the question. I pull out a freshly made wind scroll and load it into the knife cannon. I put a knife in afterwords finishing the weapon. Pointing it at her I ask another question. ¡°Does anyone want me to spare her?¡± She''s violently sobbing. ¡°Please don''t.¡± Trice answered. ¡°She might be bad but the only reason Ashley wasn''t raped every day by multiple men was because she didn''t think it was right to put people through that. Honestly that''s why none of us were raped besides Ashley.¡± I put my cannon away. Trice made a good point. I still feel like she should be punished. Perhaps live as the maid in my fortress so Ashley can pour oil on her? No, I could just cut her arms so she can''t hold anything like they did to Lance. If I couldn''t heal injuries like that... I would do that¡­ I give the cannon to Ashley. She has a right to kill her if she wants. I explain how it works to Ashley. "You just add enough mana to set the spell on the scroll off and it would fire." Ashley points it at her. The bandit queen is lamenting what has become of her life. Ashley is shaking, she''s obviously never killed anyone before. She drops the weapon to the ground... Well that still leaves her punishment open. I ask Trice what we should do. Anything I do will end in her death or something worse then death. ¡°Trice, you''re smart what should her punishment be?¡± Trice thought for awhile. ¡°Turning her over to the authorities in a city would make the most sense. No reason for us to dirty our hands with her blood if they decide to kill her.¡± I guess that makes the most sense. That''s what we''ll do. We make our way back towards the farm to drop off my grandpa. He didn''t participate in the fight... His help could have saved a few of the gnolls lives. I don''t understand why he didn''t help. He must have a reason though. Before we left he told me something. ¡°When you reach fifty with warrior and guardian come back to see me.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. What!? I''ve never told him about my class, how did he know I have those two classes? Did he just guess? Before we leave towards the fortress. I make the trip back to I check my village again. Someday I would like to rebuild this village into something better then what it was. Everyone of the old buildings that used to be here was burned to the ground. I look at Trice and ask a question I couldn''t have asked until today. ¡°How¡­ How did my parents die?¡± ¡°They died honorably. Together they managed to kill twenty bandits. You''re father was surprisingly skillful while your mother was as skilled as I thought she would be¡­ I don''t know if you want me to tell the truth but they were both crying with smiles on their faces when they were finally overwhelmed.¡± That''s good... I knew my parents wouldn''t go down easily. I check the burned ruins of my old house for something to remember my parents by. I see something gleam. It''s the golden comb they bought me for my first birthday. Its slightly melted to being useless as a comb... The best gift I got that day. I cry the hardest I''ve ever cried before. My parents weren''t the best, they barely raised me. Even so they were my parents. The night after I hit twenty I had a dream. A dream that I was a thief on the seas. Constantly battling with pirates, but it was more then a dream. It was a whole lifetime long. The dream lasted over thirty years. While I could only remember parts of it. It felt like the memories I had of my previous life as a warrior. After I thought about it. I realized that it was one of my previous lives I remembered. So was that the bonus for hitting level twenty? I wonder if anything like that is ever going to happen again. Well I might remember something useful from these new memories. Thinking about it, I remember a crescent shaped island where I made my base out in the sea. Holding over a thousand gold I collected robbing ships with my crew. Then betraying my crew hiding the treasure for myself. It ended in my death but I know where a giant treasure cache is. It''s probably been around fifty years since it''s been abandoned so it might not be there. Also having a base in the ocean would be helpful later on.
Mental map expanded
Location of potential class unlocked Pirate
Ship making Woodworking patterns learned
Negative trait acquired Greedy- Willing to betray friends for big enough amounts of money, willing to kill if you feel you''ve been cheated when it comes to money
Title Navigator- Able to transverse the oceans easier from knowledge of the ocean
Wow what a huge amount of new information! I know everything about the ocean close by here. The first chance I get I should head to the base for that money... That negative trait though seems like it might screw me later on... I wonder if there is a way to get rid of it. We make it back to the fortress. The return trip was a joke in comparison to the rush there. I feel light inside, it''s like a huge weight as been lifted freeing everyone from the bandits. Kora is a relative of my mothers so I feel bad that she''s so confused about what she should do now. Until she see''s the fortress. Her eyes sparkle in wonder seeing it. I guess it looks more grand on the outside than the bandit fort. The walls of my fortress are far better looking (wood doesn''t make for good defenses compared to brick). Compared to this base that fort barely had anything inside it. It was only that big to house the number of bandits. My fortress is covered with things to do. Not a square foot of space goes unwasted. She is looking around excitedly about what might be her new residence. ¡°Kora, you''re free to live wherever you want and no one is forcing you to stay here.¡± I have to make sure she knows that. ¡°Why would anyone ever want to leave this place?¡± She responded. Now that I remember she loved being in my families mansion and this is potentially bigger and better than the mansion. I take a few days off. We build some rooms into the walls of the cave for all the new humans that might take up residence here. Beatrice of course leaves towards the city the first chance she gets. Of course she didn''t want anything to do with me, still holding a grudge. I hope Trice or Lance can talk some sense into her. It''s not like I care either way. I have to head to the city later today to take the bandit queen to the guard post. We head to town. Me Hilda, Gobber, Lance and some of the maids. Ashley and Kattie break off heading somewhere once we enter. Kora also heads off amazed at how big the city is. My fortress is great but nothing beats the sight of this giant city. I''m not sure what Kattie and Ashley are doing... Maybe they''re going to visit or going live with a relative? The rest of the group heads towards the guard tower. We enter and there''s Zeke. Like always shuffling papers. It takes a minute for him to look up and ask. ¡°So whats going on?¡± Before I can talk the bandit queen goes off. ¡°These people kidnapped me and they''re trying to punish me for no good reason! I think they might be criminals trying to kidnap my children and sell them but they need to get rid of me first! Look they even have a hobgoblin!¡± I almost laugh at how unfortunate her plea is. Zeke turns to Hilda and asks. ¡°Hilda is that true? Did you quit being a guard to kidnap children?¡± Zeke looks at me. ¡°So you decided that kidnapping is more profitable than saving the kidnapped and doing charity work inside the city then?¡± He turns towards Gobber. ¡°For shame Gobber. Being a hobgoblin automatically makes you a criminal, doesn''t it?¡± She already knows where this is going and with her last hope crushed she shuts up. Having been amused by Zeke''s speech, I speak next. ¡°This women was the leader of a bandit group. We don''t want to punish her so we''ll leave it to the city to decide what to do.¡± There''s no such thing as jail in this part of the world. She was lashed with a whip twenty times and will work as a city drudge worker for ten years. She''s more then welcome to flee the city. If she does they''ll put a wanted marker on her and she''ll never be able to enter any cities again. Without being killed on the spot that is. It''s not really a good punishment for a bandit. Anything I would have done might have drawn unwanted attention from the other humans that where there at the time. I don''t want people to start thinking I''m heartless because of the revenge punishment I would have given to her. It''s out of my hands now and whatever happens to her doesn''t concern me. Drudge work isn''t easy either. She''ll be forced to clean the shit out of the streets that is dumped from the windows. It''s a disgusting practice but large sewer systems aren''t a thing on this side of the world. It''s one of the things I miss from my previous life. That side of the world was more civilized than this part. I missed toilets so much I had one built into my room for personal use. Gnolls don''t really have a problem with that. They''ve made a room separated from the main fortress they go to take shits at. It was too close to the fortress so I had them move it further away after the smell got to strong. It''s amazing that gnolls have better bathroom habits than humans do in the part of the world. The gnolls thought the hot springs was a giant toilet when I first made it. I had to beat the few idiots I caught shitting into it the first day it was made. They adapted quickly to it though. I haven''t had any problems besides for baby and younger gnolls who didn''t know any better using it that way. I''ve gotten into the habit of replacing the water every week though. I go back to school after a few days break. I still need to finish it and it''s important to me. I missed over a month of school from that journey. I''ll be taking it easier from now on. I''ll hold back on my goals until I graduate. I''ll still keep working on things like expanding the size of the fortress. I might make it a tourist spot since it has a hot springs. Speaking of that I should make a cold room with rocks enchanted with freeze to keep food for longer. I also have to keep doing enchants. Making one of each type of ring and I need to learn more about magic circles to make teleport magic work. It would be nice to keep one on me to make quick traveling back to the fortress easier. I should go teach it to the Merlin and see if he knows how it works. I head to the enchanters shop after school. He has a big sign hanging out front, it also says. ¡°Buy a rare get free enchants to your gear.¡± On the door. I go inside and I see two familiar faces, both from the magic school. It seems like he has picked two apprentices up to help with work. Maybe I should teach them how to do the enchants as well? I don''t trust them enough though and it might lead to them finding out about my class. I call of Merlin, this time I don''t hear him falling and crashing. I just see him appear out from behind the door. ¡°Well if it isn''t my favorite customer, what can I help you with?¡± I look around at the new rares, he''s been busy increasing his stock. None I couldn''t make myself though. I pull him aside so his apprentices can''t hear. ¡°I got some new enchants I''d like to hear about. I learned the summoning tree of enchanting and it has a summoning enchant for magic circles.¡± ¡­ He clasps his hands over his mouth, eyes widen to the point they might fall out of his head. ¡°DO! Do you realize that is an extinct enchant! No one''s known how to make portals for hundreds if not thousands of years!¡± Jeez why did I even try keeping it a secret. I make up a story and say it loud enough for the apprentices to hear. "I was only asking about portals because I read about them in a book. Of course I don''t know how to make them! That would be impossible." He kind of shuffles around pushing things looking for something. I hear him say under his breath. ¡°This kid''s going to be the death of me. Springing surprises like that on me.¡± He pulls out a book with a magic circle drawn on the front of it. ¡°Here you go.¡± ¡°Normal payment?¡± I asked him. I would have to teach him how to do the magic. He looks very troubled by what I said. ¡°I''m not sure knowing how to make summoning circles would be good to know. If a king finds out about it he could try to have you kidnapped and used for the sake of making portals for his cities and armies.¡± I speak at a moderate volume trying to be casual but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. ¡°I can still teach you the other summoning enchant tree rares.¡± I lean in close to him whispering. ¡°And it wouldn''t hurt to know, as long as you''re not yelling that you can make them it should be fine. Also thank you for telling me. I might have not realized how important this rare was.¡± He agreed and I taught him the recipes I had learned down to the summoning rune one. Teaching him the rune enchant freaked him out. His hands were trembling, it might just be his old age though since he trembles very often around me. If his apprentices learned that powerful enchant they would most likely end up dead or a slave making them all day. It could endanger anyone else who knows about it. If they''re caught they could give away more information. My gut feelings are that I can trust Merlin. He seems too cowardly to ever betray me and a man to honest for his own good. He'' also can keep a secret from people because his life is also on the life. Well he can keep a secret after he screams about it first. Meaning I''d have to make up a story every time I told him something new. I know that fighting close range is my biggest weakness. Compared to my intelligence and dexterity classes, I haven''t focused strength enough. I don''t gain experience anymore for the intelligence classes from monsters. So I''ll switch up my fighting style and move into close range. Maybe I can apply at the training boot camp in the city. I''m not sure if I can do both at the same time but it shouldn''t be impossible. I''ll finish classes around the same time next year if I start right now. I decide to do that. I head to the fortress to get Gobber. Chapter 38 Applying to the boot camp Entering the training camp with Gobber. I''m greeted by a few familiar faces. It''s the adventurers we saved in the tier two dungeon. That''s why they had so many warrior and thief classes mixed in their group. I head to apply in the main building. The training grounds outside has many people sparring. I head inside. Me and Gobber both apply. No orb we need to touch like the magic academy. Instead we''re separated and led outside. It seems like in order to join here you need to have a practice match to show you have enough skills to make it in. Gobber will do fine but I''m afraid for myself. We''re stripped of all our gear and given a set of training gear. It''s too loose to fit comfortably on me. The practice sword we''re given is just a plain wooden one. I quickly apply infused counter spell runes of control nature to it before the fight, I wouldn''t have enough time to quick enchant it. My training partner is wearing the same gear as me but he''s easily twice my age. Dammit this is going to be difficult! I already know that melee is my weak point. The match starts I silent cast haste on myself, when he sees the effect form on me he''s surprised but keeps coming. I silent cast hex on him and he''s even more surprised. I drop into complete defense and berserker stance. Both have negative effects for either my defense or offense. Using them together increases both overall. Rage starts to fill into me. No harmonicas to play or potions to drink this fight. I charge him. It take''s every trick I know. Aiming for weak points using thermal vision. Attacking with opportune strikes when I see he''s dropped his guard. Hitting with frenzied strikes and heavy rending slashes and doing that much I haven''t even beaten through fifty percent of his health. I managed to stay in the fight because my evasion is so high from the dexterity classes. If I didn''t get my father and mothers levels in fighting I would have lost already. I jump backwards with dragoons passive. I can already jump over the height of my body, around seven feet. I drop out of berserker stance and start channeling water under his feet. I wanted to not be forced to show off my magician tricks early in my time here. Let alone the first battle I''m in! It surprises him enough for an opportune control nature uppercut. It knocks him flat. I here gasps and other noises from the other people watching our fight. Gobber had easily beaten his opponent already. I managed to finish mine off but it cost me the fact that I''m different to do so. I start hearing some of the onlookers talking. "That is cheating!" Someone cries out from the crowd. Finally the master of this boot camp steps forward. ¡°You know this is a place to train fighting skills right? The magicians academy is over there.¡± He points in the direction I already knew it was in. ¡°If you want to practice here you shouldn''t use magic in your fighting. It will become a crutch that you rely on.¡± I guess that makes sense. I make a promise to not use any magic while I''m training here. It turns out a lot of people seen that fight and have started challenging me and Gobber. I haven''t won a single fight since the first one and from what I hear. The person I beat might have been the third or fourth weakest person here... Really? I struggled that hard against one of the weakest people at the boot camp... Gobber is doing fine, he''s lost a few matches but has won far more than that. The people he has lost against were all second year students. They might have had a level advantage on him and that was the only reason. Gobber is not even designed to be a close range fighter. He only has one melee class and it''s more defensive. I don''t know where his strength comes from. Maybe it''s because he changed into a hobgoblin so early in his life? I continue to get pummeled by everyone who challenges me. I''m starting to regret the fact that I promised not to use magic but my levels are definitely going up doing this. Getting beaten is a good way to level I guess. I''ve already gained a few levels, so I''m glad I did it. Me and Gobber head home. Walking back he asks. ¡°Master why didn''t you use magic?¡± ¡°I can''t get stronger with my other classes if I do.¡± ¡°Why do you need to get stronger? You can always rely on Gobber to be in the front. Are you trying to not need me?¡± ¡°No Gobber, I''m just trying to make myself better. I won''t replace you.¡± With the awkward conversation we make it back to the fortress. The fortress runs smoothly even without me there. With the heads of the groups leading each group separately. The beast riders and thieves doing training separately. Most of the gnolls seem to be in high spirits from winning their first big scale battle. Some where still in mourning from losing loved ones. They understood that it was just part of this world. The miners have expanded to the point where they can only dig down. Meaning they reached the other side of the mountain and have dug a path all the way to the ceiling opening air pockets. On the ground there are some buckets to catch the water if it rains. Having an opening to let fresh air in will help keep the cave from running out of oxygen. I should still start raising some plants inside to clear up the stale air. The enchanters have been busy making paper. With the enchants they had been taught, they started to work towards making two teleport circle rares. From what I learned, the magic circle is going to be one of the hardest parts. You need to pour all the magic into it at once. Meaning not over a long period of time. Meaning we''re going to have to combine magics in order to make the magic circle. Even then, we don''t have many magic class gnolls. So they''ll be drained quickly. We might have to use the whole army to make a single magic circle. The chefs, tailors and blacksmith have all gotten really high in their jobs. They might be upgrading soon just because of the scale of their production. It matches the size of an army. Lastly Hilda has started teaching the gnoll children common language. She''s also teaching reading, writing and some simple arithmetic. They also have been told to do basic training with running and sword swinging. Both will increase their fatigue once they get old enough to learn classes. I''m hoping that some of these gnolls can learn magic classes. My routine has started to form again. I wake up and head to magic school. Afterwords I head to the boot camp and get beaten until it''s time to head back home. I heal my sore muscles with the hot springs. We''ve officially opened up the hot springs for tourists but we still need to make the route here safer. We started clearing a path through the forest to make a road. Doing this wont make attacks non existent but it will help caravans get here. So more people can make the trip at once. Also we could provide a protection caravan with some of the beast riders leading the tourists here. That''s the plan after the road is made. We''ve also expanded into the mountain near the hot springs to have rooms to stay in if the tourists wish too. Everything altogether wont be too expensive but if we get enough people showing up over time it could build up our coffers quickly... I can already taste the money! An urge to charge more than necessary overwhelms me. I should be charging the gnolls as well! Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. No! I can''t charge the gnolls, they''re my family... The overwhelming urge subsides. I guess that''s what the negative trait does... I hope it doesn''t happen every time I think about money. I plan to make a library for the gnoll children. The smarter they get the more likely they can learn magic classes. Well that is just a theory right now. I mounted a few of the giant crossbows onto the towers. They can swivel now and even the gnoll children could use them if needed. I doubt we''ll be attacked but every extra step of protection could be the difference between life or death. Months have passed, it is getting close to the end of the school year. Everything is going smoothly with the road being made. Their was a hitch with making the road though. When we were almost finished the group was stopped by a treant. They normally passive and wont openly attack anyone but since we''ve been over harvesting trees, he''s stepped in. I reasoned with him. Saying we would replant trees after words. He agreed to leave us alone until it was finished.... Maybe knowing a treant lives in the forest will be helpful later on. While I don''t think it was needed this time. I feel like paladin might make a difference on crucial talks like that one. I''ve made a knife cannon for each of my generals and Hilda. I filled a room with all the books I could buy from the shop in town over a few trips. The fortress has been expanded again and we have opened recruitment up to humans. I don''t think any are going to join. It might be reasonable to higher a few to help the gnolls level in dungeons. Right now we lack magicians. Once we get enough to risk losing a few I''d like my army to start clearing dungeons close to here. The path through the forest also cuts the time it takes to make it to the city. Gargarz and Nargzar have all evolved into different gnolls. Gargarz evolved into a gnoll magician and Nargzar evolved into a gnoll skirmisher. Neither of them got much bigger but they both stood out more than the other gnolls now. Gargarz has started carrying around a rare white mage staff with infused anti magic runes with control nature. The enchanters made for him and a robe with a basic enchant to magical defense. He''s cast regrowth on the plants and it made a much bigger difference from when I did. Zergnar has taken to carrying around a spear instead of a sword. It''s enchanted with the enchant that increases attack power. His dire wolf also has enchanted gear for defense and an offensive enchanted claw. I hope he evolves soon, he''s starting to feel left out. Finally Nargzar has a pair of rare boost and a set of enchanted armor for defense. The rare boots increase his energy regen from movement. Nargzar has been putting in more effort than the other 2. He must be trying to compensate for his group failing. I sometimes see him overlooking the graves of his comrades that we brought back. I just hope he doesn''t think it was his fault... My pets are both active. Pokodo is doing very well. She''s become somewhat of a fortress mascot. Walking around and visiting the hot springs in her free time. Sock heads out with the beast riders. Just by himself he has a higher body count than every other gnoll besides Zergnar. Gizmo cleans when he''s activated, I don''t know what else to use him for yet. Maybe I''ll think of some other way to use him once I graduate school? He might end up just being a maid forever now. Speaking of maids. Kora, Ashley and Trice have all decided to stay here. With having a communication barrier they have become friends with the gnolls slower than normal. Trice heads into town often and visits the farm to help when she can. Ashley has started cooking again and she seems a lot happier with every day that passes. And Kora just enjoys living here. She does tons of random things. I''ve seen her practice with the blacksmith, the farmers, talk with the stable master, help mine sometimes¡­ She does everything and hasn''t really focused on a single thing to do. If she had my class she would be insanely useful. Finally I''ll talk about myself. I''ve gained several levels in everything. Some are closing in on level twenty five, when I will learn a new skill. Scout hit twenty and I unlocked tracking. I had a ring made for each magic class that I had unlocked the enchanting tree for. I also made a wand with improved summoning on it. I wouldn''t be able to wear every ring so I don''t wear the white magic or black magic ones. Since they don''t stack with "duality of magic". I give Pokodo the white mage ring to wear as a necklace. The summoning ring and wand do stack though. Making a tier two familiar seems to give it some extra properties and allow it to use it''s level ten skill if it''s a class familiar. While the wand increases the size and power by about ten percent. So not a great boosts but any improvement to a semi permanent member of my group is a bonus. With how difficult making the magic circles was we spent two days making them. One for each day. We enchanted one in a secret room by my room. I now have a few secret rooms attached or near mine. The treasure room and the magic portal room. I''ve let all the gnolls know if they''re caught in the treasure room they''ll be killed. The other magic circle is drawn on a concrete slab that is transportable. I made my shield out of wood so I could enchant it with control nature. I made a rare gem for it too that increased defense. I now have plenty of extra rares. I don''t want to rely on rares too much though so I don''t wear them too often. For some reason I feel I could start relying on the quality of the gear and it would end up as a crutch like me relying on magic. We''re also not allowed to use rares at the boot camp. Rares might even slow down my learning speed like the knives cannon. That is just speculation right now though. I managed to finish all the enchanting books I was reading. I learned a lot about enchanting from them and added them to the library. It''s approaching my tenth birthday, I''ll unlock my heirloom weapon on that day. I wonder how much bigger it''s gotten since then. Maybe it''s still too small to even use. I guess we''ll just have to see. Lance and his party visit sometimes. Leaf still hasn''t talked to me since then. Too shy to I guess. Lance often talks with Trice when he visits. Maybe they''ll become a couple in the future? Since Beatrice raised Lance they''re kind of like siblings though... Lance got his heirloom helmet and arm guard for his tenth birthday, making him look pretty distinguished. You don''t see many intermediate dragoons. It has a pretty cool design with two wings on the side of it. The effect it gives is stopping fall damage. The armguard helps protect against injuries from himself while falling onto enemies with his spear. He can easily jump fifteen feet in the air. He does a move I''m going to steal once I can do it. Where he jumps and kicks off the ceiling of a dungeon. It probably quadruples his piercing power with his spear. Gobber is at the point where he won''t lose to any his sparring partners unless they''re about to graduate. He''s easily in the top five members at the boot camp. At least I''m not in the bottom five anymore. A lot of people just assume they''re going to get stronger but do nothing. I''ve slowly passed the lazy students in strength. Chapter 39 The God of Rebirth returns It''s the day of my tenth birthday. I head to school like normal, it''s near the end of school year. The last week of it and within the last two weeks of boot camp. School and boot camp go by normally and I head home. I''m surprised to see everyone was setting up for a party. Someone must have remembered it was my birthday today. I didn''t get many gifts. Some books, a few other things but nothing too special. It''s fine though, this is only a period of growth for people. It''s not the gifts that are important. The party goes by normally and it''s getting late. I already know that when I wake up tomorrow I''ll have my heirloom sword. I''ll have to wait to find out what that book was. So I head to sleep. I''m floating, this is the ethereal body that I remember from when I died. Did someone kill me in my sleep? I start to panic until I see the God of Rebirth. He''s smiling like normal. He speaks. ¡°You''ve been busy haven''t you? To think you would make it to level twenty before your tenth birthday.¡± He starts laughing. ¡°You are very entertaining to watch and so I have a proposal for you. The god of balance forced you to be born earlier than expected. Because of that, you didn''t get to pick a secondary class. The class you picked would have leveled five times faster than any other class you''d level.¡± I''m confused, surprised and furious at what he''s saying. Really!? A god can just decide on a whim to punish me? The god of rebirth reading my mind once again speaks. "No, he went behind the other gods backs. Hoping no one would notice. Instead, because you were so irregular it was easier to notice him interfering in your life. He''s been punished and is not allowed to try and kill you until your twentieth birthday. We still have the problem of your secondary class now... We could do the boring thing and just give you a class. The greater god is against that, so he let the god of chaos design a class for you. A brand new class but their is a catch." He pulls out the book that I''ve been wondering what exactly was written on it. It''s a book that gives me stat points to spend equivalent to the my master of learning level. At level twenty it wouldn''t be much. In my previous lives I managed to reach some stats in the thousands. Even though my stats are low right now they''re all above one hundred. He shakes the book. ¡°Instead of this book the god of chaos has made a new class just for master of learning. The greater god approved it and you''re going to be the dry run for this new class. I''ll give it to you right now as well as the sword but you wont get this book on your fifteenth birthday.¡± Well I mean like I said twenty stat points isn''t a lot. Even though my stats are below average all around. Compared to a warriors mediocre intelligence stat. I''m very well rounded. Averaging my stats together, someone of a similar level would have less but all focused towards one stat. It''s an easy answer for me, a special class! Obviously going to pick that. ¡°I''ll take the class then.¡± ¡­ I giant smile appears on his face. ¡°Please don''t let me down, all the gods are watching you now. You''re very entertaining to watch. You even proved the greater gods prediction wrong when you killed that bandit. Oh! What was his name aga- ah yes Olaf! Do you realize how often he''s proved wrong!? Hahahaha.¡± I still have some questions I''d like to ask that only a god could answer. This might be the only time I''ll ever get the chance, so I ask. "I just got a negative trait, is there anyway to get rid of it? It felt like I was using the teaching job skill before it unlocked, how was I able to? Is Gobber special in any way? He seems special." He looks slightly disappointed in me... Maybe I asked boring questions. He answers the questions anyways. "You can fight that trait but it will be hard. The god of chaos gave you some help so he''s also not allowed to interfere with your life until you''re twenty years old. Gobber is special... The reason why should become clear eventually." He yawns and twirls the stat book in his hand. He burns the stat boost book. From the ashes he forms another book. He hands me the fingertip long sword and the book. I start to drift away from him. I fade back out and I can tell I''m going back to sleep.
Heirloom gained ¡°Sword of Learning¡±
Heirloom gained ¡°Book of Teaching¡±
Title Child removed
New title gained Adolescent- Increased stat growth
Title upgraded Adolescent--> Genius Youth- Retain a portion of the child title''s abilities as well as increase adolescents effects
Class learned "Master of Teaching¡± passive skill revealed Efficient teaching- able to more easily teach and halves fatigue consumption from heavy lesson, passive increase students retention for everything taught Level 1 passive skill Mold Breaker- Able to teach one extra class and job to humans or two extra classes or jobs to subhumans
Wow! Just like that everything changed. The class I unlocked seems extremely strong! Thank you god of chaos! Depending on the mold breaker skill. I might be able to sell my abilities as a teacher to royalty for an extremely high price¡­ But it could also end up with me getting kidnapped by a country and forced to teach troops. Another thing that I have to keep a secret from everyone who isn''t trustworthy¡­ The things I can get kidnapped for seem to be adding up. I keep becoming more and more valuable. Teaching my troops and the people who live at the fortress should be fine though. I just have to think of the best classes/jobs for everyone... Maybe I''ll let them pick their own classes and jobs. It might lead to some breakthroughs and new classes/jobs being made. ¡°Everyone gather around, I have some news. I can teach you two more classes or jobs to each of you. I''ve already gone over all the classes with you. Pick the ones you want, if you want to learn a job. I''ll go over a brief description of each, so you don''t accidentally learn them. Decide what you want then I''ll start teaching you the class or job you want.¡± I''ll have to give the speech again in common. I''ll worry about getting the gnolls out of the way first. It takes all day for some to pick but eventually everyone has learned more classes and jobs. Some have even learned mage classes so I''m happy with the result. With two new classes for each person, everyone is now far more unique than being strictly thieves or plain beast riders. Gobber picked warrior and guardian. He''s already that strong with no offensive classes. So this will make him unstoppable. Gargarz learned black magic and time magic. Zergnar learned dragoon and berserker. Finally Nargzar learned blue mage and fighter. Each of my generals picked the best classes for themselves. Focusing on one path they''ve decided to take. Gobber was already well rounded but focusing on tank will only make him even harder to kill. The next day I ended up teaching all the humans and the remaining gnolls in the fortress except Trice. Hilda learned scout. She always enjoyed being a guard and scout would help her see threats faster. She only had two jobs so she ended up learning construction. With that job, she could make improvements where they were necessary. I can see she''s already thinking of ways to improve the fortress. Kora didn''t want a class but she ended up learning tinkerer from me. With how many things she''s doing constantly. I bet it will help her improve just about every method of doing things. Ashley learned tailoring, once again she didn''t want a class just like Kora though. Trice was different. She meekly asked. ¡°What classes could I best help Lance with? I''d like to join his party the next time he visits.¡± ¡°Well, I plan on teaching all of them as well. So it would be best to see what they go with and fill in a class they don''t have.¡± She understands and is waiting until then. Maybe I should teach the enchanters the synthesis job. Just to see what they can do with it... Maybe tinkerer would get better/less predictable improvements. I''ll teach each one a different job and hope they both make improvements. I have only used synthesis for enchanting scrolls but I could probably synthesize gear down to make better sets for Gobber and myself¡­ I wonder if you can synthesize 2 rares together and what would happen¡­ I pull out off two rings from my fingers. Time magic and nature magic boosting rings and try to synthesize them. It says the process will take 40 hours¡­ It is possible but for that long. I''ll have start doing it as soon as I wake up in the morning. Then stay up for two days straight to pull it off. I spend the next few days synthesizing those rings together. They didn''t have stats on them just the effects. That probably reduced the time. Finally after the forty hours a new ring is formed with the same effect as both rings but in one rare. Was that how the "duality of magic" wand was made? I try combining my two wands this time. It would take a few weeks. So no possible way to pull off. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I work on combining the rest of the rings. The heirloom sword I got is now around the size of a dagger. I think it would make sense to keep that on me. The heirloom book I got I''ll leave in my residence at the fortress. I think I might encase it in concrete so no one could steal it. If someone does, I would lose my second class master of teaching. I tell everyone to never touch that book but also hide it and leave a fake version out just in case. I start keeping the sword on me at all times though. Since it''s an heirloom it should be unbreakable. But if anyone beats me in a fight I doubt they''d try to steal a tiny dagger like sword. It''s the two week vacation now. It would be nice to head to a dungeon close by. A low tier raid dungeon would be nice to increase the levels of troops. We''d need to split up into two groups though since you can only have around fifteen members in a raid dungeon before the monsters start scaling in difficulty. Consuming mana from the party to strengthen the monsters. I decide maybe later in the year and the normal group is put together with some extra gnolls to watch our equipment when we''re gone. Everyone had just gotten new classes so it would be better to wait to do the raid anyways. At least until they''ve leveled their classes up and learned how to use them. We''re heading towards a tier three dungeon. That''s the same level as the displacer beast dungeon. Companions in tow are the three gnoll squad leaders, Gobber and his pets, me and my pets. We also brought Hilda this time. She wants to level her scout while we journey and it''s nice to have an extra close range fighter. I made a few spears of varying sizes for Zergnar so depending on what type of dungeon it is he''ll be able to use the right sized spear. Having a five foot spear in some dungeons would be too cumbersome. It is a few days trip to get there. After a few days of travel we make it to the dungeon. The guards we brought slowed our travel speed a little. We leave the guards behind to protect our things. Realizing that I could just take the portal home afterwords we could set up bases and tie them together with portals in the main fortress. That might be too risky though. If someone managed to take control of one base. They could potentially kill everyone at each base with a surprise attack from the portals. Maybe if we only had it at two or three other locations it would work though. We head inside the dungeon. It''s a fire based dungeon. It looks big enough to use the biggest spear but I tell him to bring the smallest one with him just in case. We start our first encounter. flame imps, about twelve of them. They''re very easy to kill but if you let them all cast at your party. You can be easily wiped out. I can''t do much before the melee in the group manages to kill all the imps. The one that was far enough back to avoid the slaughter I improved counter spelled so he couldn''t launch a fireball. We fight a lot of encounters like that. Fighting an overwhelming amount of imps that could easily wipe us out if we miss stepped and couldn''t kill them in time. We also fight flaming dogs and greater imps which are imps the size of a goblin that casts much higher tiered fire magic and are harder to kill. The dogs are the biggest problem, if anyone takes damage the fire might ruin their gear. We know this so everyone is far more cautious fighting the dogs. Hilda shield was lost but no one was hurt by the dogs. We''re far to prepared for this dungeon because nothing is a threat at this point. The reason I picked this one is because there is a tier four dungeon close by¡­ But the difference in difficulty is extreme so we''ll only test it out. We push through the first two floors.
Master of learning 20 to 21
The fourth and fifth floors were only slightly harder then the first two. The third floor was a safe floor so we moved straight through it. We came across some traps but none that weren''t completely obvious. After searching a bit we seen a rare trap. The only way to get the rare is to set off the trap. Which is a harder to deal with trap then normal. It could be anything. The room could fill with enemies or poison or the floor might give out¡­ These ones are very dangerous because of that. It still might be worth risking if it''s good enough. It''s a gauntlet, I''ve never seen a rare gauntlet before. What enchants does it have? It''s a legendary! Five stats with some weird effects on it. First it was indestructible, second it had anti magic runes on it. (which is impossible to do for any non weapons) Meaning it could stop magic. Third it had a metal absorption effect. Any metal that you wanted could be added to make the gauntlet stronger. Finally it was cursed¡­ Meaning it wasn''t removable after put on. Wow even with the negative that is a strong gauntlet that would sell for hundreds of gold. It has a zero percent chance to learn anything deconstructing it... Also it would be impossible to deconstruct since it''s indestructible. I wonder if the curse could be removed? We have to take this legendary. We prepare for whatever is to come and I take it off of the pedestal. The whole room shakes, is the floor going to cave in? ¡°Who dares steal my gauntlet!¡± Someone outside with a booming voice is coming in. He''s so big he can barely fit through the door, it''s a giant. Shit giants are way to strong to be in a tier three dungeon, but he talked meaning I might be able to avoid combat. ¡°I wasn''t stealing it I was only admiring it. It is a very strong and beautiful gauntlet.¡± The giant smiles. ¡°Ah you''ve noticed. I personally made that gauntlet.¡± Trying to steer the conversation. ¡°Yea it''s just a shame its too small for you to wear. A masterpiece like this should be worn and used, not set aside collecting dust.¡± Besides myself everyone else is trembling. Even though he''s a giant I can tell he''s special in some way. Pokodo has fainted from fear of him. ¡°Indeed, I haven''t found a single person able to see it''s value yet. Normally they just attack me as soon as I enter the room.¡± He gives a little laugh. "Then I crush their heads." Wow! Now even I''m scared. I try to keep acting like I''m not though and speak again. ¡°Well, I''ll place it back on the pedestal and we''ll be on our way then.¡± There would be no way we could beat a giant. Giants are tier one or two raid dungeon bosses. To think we''d stand a chance even using all of my trump cards. Most likely someone if not everyone would die. ¡°W-wait¡­ are you sure you don''t want it?¡± I turn towards him acting surprised. ¡°What!? I''m not worthy to use such a gauntlet!¡± ¡­ He picked it up with two fingers and delicately handed it to me. I continue the act... I''d like for the curse to be removed though. That would make it more valuable. ¡°Well if you insist... But there is one problem with it... Is there anyway to remove the curse from it?¡± He started looking angry at me. Slaming the ground right next to me he screams. ¡°WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO TAKE IT OFF?¡± Almost pissing myself from fear I have to continue being resolute. Here comes the final push, I hope he believes the lie. Otherwise I''ll end up smashed flat. ¡°Well, I wouldn''t want it to get wet or dirty. Being able to clean it would be much harder if I was attached to it. If I do take it I want to take perfect care of it so it never gets smudged or dirty.¡± He puts his hand under his chin. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± He picks it up and channels some type of magic into it. I can see a black aura dispels from it. He removed a effect from a legendary. I didn''t even know that was possible... It didn''t even look like he struggled to do it. Just how strong is this giant? ¡°Hmm what would you put on it if you had the chance?¡± ¡­ I wasn''t sure. I had to think for awhile. ¡°Well, it''s already strong against magic and physical damage¡­ I''m not sure what I would put on it. I leave the decision up to you since you''re more experienced than myself.¡± He closes his hands around the gauntlet. It appears he''s pouring an incredible amount of mana into it. If he could dispel a curse so easily. I wonder what he''s adding with that much effort. ¡°There, it is done.¡± He handed me the gauntlet¡­ The effect was unreadable¡­ What did he add? ¡°What did you add? It''s so powerful I can''t even read it using detect.¡± I ask but the giant only smiled and said. ¡°It''s a secret. Now be on you''re way. I''m a the demigod of armor. This is the first time anyone has ever approached here that my god. The god of creation, didn''t give me an answer on how to treat that person... You must be special to have protection from influence against the gods... I need to go start gathering the materials to make an even stronger gauntlet!¡± With that he left the room¡­ HE WAS A DEMIGOD! The chances of finding one are so slim. You''re more likely to get a relic. If we had fought him there would have been nothing we could have done to beat him¡­ Luckily I have thief and paladin classes. The extra charisma from paladin and the capable liar skill from thief definitely just saved our lives. Both helped me convince him not fight and to make changes to the gauntlet. That could have ended so much worse than it did... I''m now glad no one attacked him before I could talk... I need to get a handle on this negative trait. It almost got me killed but it was actually helpful this time around. I''m still fearful for the effect he added. If he thought a curse was a good effect, the one he added might end up bad too. I''ll wait until we''re out of here and in a controlled environment to equip it. We clear more enemies and make it to the bosses room. I start explaining potential bosses that we might fight. Last time we ended up fighting the displacer beast. If I didn''t explain it fast enough someone would''ve been killed before we managed to get to safety. The potential bosses on a tier three dungeon aren''t that much of a threat but still going over them wouldn''t hurt. We have the lesser flame beast. Similar to the displacer beast but instead of becoming intangible it can turn into pure flames shortly¡­ That will be the most difficult one and the one I explained in full detail. With our luck we''ll end up fighting it. We push the door open but thankfully it was just a fire ogre. Fire ogre''s aren''t that smart, can be easily tricked with simple tactics and aren''t very hard fights. So this boss shouldn''t be a problem... Chapter 40 Tragedy strikes We will not need to use any special tricks for this boss. He''s a dumb brute who can only swing his club around¡­ This one is different though, his mouth is billowing smoke out of it¡­ Shit he might be a rare variant boss. This is going to be a pain. ¡°He might breath fire, if he does retreat immediately he has to have his feet planted so he can''t chase after you.¡± I start making as many puddles as I can and drench the main fighters in water. The reason being, so there equipment doesn''t catch fire from a single attack. We''ve been using this method from the beginning of the dungeon. I start to make a hole and fill with water for later use when the ogre charges. ¡°If he''s moving he can''t breath fire, it takes all his concentration to do that. Just dodge his attacks until you see him plant both his feet.¡± I don''t want to use my knife cannon or knives cannon on enemies I don''t have to. So I''ll hold off for now. We pound him, everyone listened to my instructions. When they see the ogre plant both his feet into the ground they back off. Hilda is slightly slower than everyone else but still fast enough to avoid damage. The plan is working perfectly for now. A single hit from his giant club could seriously wound or even kill someone. All it would take would be one hit. I''ve shot a few arrows into him, I can use bows now but I stick with a crossbow for actual combat. My aiming with a bow isn''t as good. Plus I can''t fire at full power yet. We''re whittling him down, it''s going smoothly but I know from experience he''ll enrage once he''s been weakened. That''s when we have to be the most careful. It''s been around ten minutes since the fight started. He''s used his breath attack several times but hasn''t landed it on anyone yet. Gobber is doing wonderfully with his new classes. He makes an exceptional tank. I think it''s making the ogre madder than the ogre would normally be. He enraged earlier then I expected he would because of his frustration at not landing a single attack. ¡°He''s enraged, run if he''s looking at you!¡± He turns towards me. I use feral roar and cast haste on myself. I look back and he''s not chasing me. He swung blindly at our allies. What!? Ogre''s are supposed to be stupid. Is it because of the demigods magic seeped into the dungeon? It might be because we have one over the limit for a normal dungeon group. He hits Gobber knocking him back twenty feet. He''s in bad shape but not dead or unconscious. His bones might be broken though. If Gobber didn''t have his two new classes I doubt he''d have survived. Let alone still be awake. ¡°Shit! He''s acting differently, everyone be prepared for anything.¡± I pull out my knife cannon. He starts chasing Zergnar the beast commander. He''s faster then he should be! I aim for his leg but stop for a second. Using this would be a waste of resources... No! I have to use it or he might die! It''s not fast enough though. In my slight hesitation he manages to hurt Zergnar, knocking him off his mount. I fire at ogres leg. Zergnar''s legs were hurt and his dire wolf is in bad shape. His dire wolf managed to fling him at the last second making him avoid a death blow. I start reaching for my knives cannon, I hate using this trump card but it''s to save everyone''s lives. I aim it and by that time, the ogre is swinging down his club¡­ It''s too late, I fire the cannon. Zergnar leg''s were destroyed in the previous attack and in the last attack of the ogre''s the dire wolf was crushed to death¡­ My knives cannon lands, shredding the through his body. He''s still wobbling on his last legs though. About to fall over dead, he inches towards Zergnar. Shit! I don''t have any trump cards left I can use at this range. He''s over top of Zergnar he lifts his club up! Thinking quickly I throw Zergnar into the air with a control nature uppercut. Launching him away from the ogre just before he''s crushed. The ogre looks over at me and throws his club! It''s too fast for me to dodge! I''m knocked unconscious.
Blue mage skill learned Ogre''s strength- temporarily boosts strength for 10 seconds
Blue mage passive skill upgraded Reptilian regeneration-->Ogre regeneration- Able to regenerate lost limbs and body parts within months of losing them
Master of learning 21 to 22
I woke up a little later, the boss died right after attacking me. It was the last of his energy in that attack. Zergnar was alive¡­ But in very bad shape, even after using regenerate he still couldn''t walk. Even if he can later he might have a limp permanently¡­ Even worse his pet just died, it was more than a pet though. It was his pet, his mount and his best friend. Zergnar cried morning the loss of his companion¡­ We all just stood there¡­ Feeling sorry for him. There was nothing we could do but feel sorry for him. If only I didn''t have this negative trait! It''s all my fault! I should have been able to control it! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT! ¡°Can¡­ Can I borrow you''re sword Kite? I don''t think I can do what I want to with my spear...¡± Is Zergnar trying to kill himself¡­ I don''t understand. I don''t think he would do that though. If I ask why he wanted it...No I couldn''t ask what he wanted it for. I handed over my sword and he started cutting up his dire wolf. Skinning it completely, he stabbed my sword into him, digging out his heart he ate it... ¡°There, now he''ll be a part of me forever." He took the pelt to make armor out of it. We looted the room and left. Several rares but none for myself and none I didn''t have. My greed acted up but I dealt with it the only way I knew how. Pricking my finger when the urge came over me. Why would I even need rares I couldn''t use but could make versions I could? This trait needs to be dealt with. I need to find a way to remove this trait. Even with losing his pet. I still think we could clear the tier four dungeon. It will take a few days to get there. Maybe he could get a different mount? I half expect Zergnar to head back home but he comes with us. Getting there is too easy, we have no problems. We make it to the entrance after five days. It will take another week to get home too. I''ll miss the first few days of school which is fine. We take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow we''ll head down to the rest floor. Then continue from there after resting a day. With tier four dungeons, the floors can range between seven to ten. I plan to help Zergnar get a new pet. In this area the enemies should be tougher since we''re not near any cities. We wait until night and head out. Everyone else is asleep, I don''t want them to be fatigued for the dungeon tomorrow. Me and Zergnar go alone. The enemies aren''t too difficult to kill by ourselves. I cant focus on making wind scrolls to refill the cannons though. I still need to make two more. I should be able to make scrolls faster once we enter the dungeon because it''s a high mana area. Zergnar was injured so badly that he now walks with a limp. Even healing with regenerate hasn''t cured him completely. We enter a forest nearby. We''re attacked by a few hell bats, immunity to fire, which was their weak point before. Switching to freeze instantly kills them. They fall out of the sky and shatter on the ground. We don''t want to tame one of those for him since he needs something to ride on. We fight more hell bats, I''m ready to quit when we see a pack of dread wolves. They aren''t a part of the dire wolf evolution. Meaning Sock will never evolve into one of these. The dread wolves are pure black and have several tails, all with poisonous stingers on them. They''d be difficult to fight let alone tame, I''ll start by weakening them down with some arrows. I fire a stealth snipe shot at the one in the back. ¡°Critical hit!¡± Instant death. The 3 left in the pack noticed and have started coming! I had already laid some sink traps and watered the surface in some area''s making it more difficult to get to us. I fire a few more arrows killing another 1. Before they got to close to use a bow anymore. Pulling out my sword and shield I beat on the one I''m fighting while Zergnar tries to tame the other. I block until I have the chance for an opportune control nature spear. It''s skin is weak enough to impale with the ground unlike the owl bear. Mines dead but something is wrong with Zergnar. He should easily be able to tame these pets on his first attempt but it looks like he''s struggling. The monster is attacking him viciously, with him barely defending. Should I kill the last dread wolf? No, I need to let Zergnar handle this. He''s not doing very well though. ¡°Whats wrong? Why aren''t you taming it?¡± I ask moving in to defend him. He''s silent for a moment then speaks. ¡°If¡­ if I tame another wolf... It will be like replacing Bloodyfang.¡± I just assume that was his dire wolfs name. ¡°Bloodyfang wanted to you live Zergnar. He launched you out of harms way so only your bottom half got crushed. The blow from the ogre would have killed you... If he didn''t put himself into harms way and toss you off at the last second.¡± He stands there thinking about it then asks. ¡°What does that have to do with me replacing him?¡± ¡°He wanted you to live, having a pet is your lifeblood. If you don''t have a pet you are far weaker. You''re still grieving, I understand but if you can''t move on than chances are you will be a hindrance to yourself. And to us and to your future. You would make his sacrifice pointless?¡± Crying Zergnar finally tames the dread wolf¡­ We go back to camp, Zergnar takes watch for the rest of the night with the few other gnolls we brought for that purpose. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Before we head in, I want to try on that gauntlet. I''m hoping their are no negative effects on it. That would be awful. I use detect on it again. I noticed the name changed. It was originally called ¡°The cursed gauntlet of pure defenses¡±. Which was far too long, it''s name now is ¡°Aegis¡±¡­ What kind of a name for a piece of equipment is that? It sounds like the name of some type of shield or a person, not a gauntlet. Realizing I wasn''t getting any information about the mystery effect from the name I reluctantly equip it. The moment I do I feel it latch onto me, sucking all my forms of resources. My energy is completely drained dry! My rage is being filled and sucked out! My chi is slowly seeping away! My mana is draining steadily down! I can''t remove it, it''s latched onto my arm! I thought he got rid of the curse!? Finally it stops, I check my stats... Everything is replenishing that does so naturally. My chi lost was only around seven percent. As long as it doesn''t do that every single time I equip it, it should be fine. My health and fatigue have also been drained. Both sitting at half what they normally are. My health is slowly going up from my rejuvenate. I try to constantly keep rejuvenate up on myself. Even a weak version is enough to help level druid. As shape shifting goes, once I hit 25, I should able to transform into 3 animals. A few besides the ones that I had granted levels are getting close to 25. I assume my fatigue will once we get some sleep. Zergnar was still awake. It looked like he had been crying the whole night. We head towards the entrance but he doesn''t come. ¡°I need to level this pet up more so it doesn''t die. I will not let that happen again.¡± I understand and we head into the tier four dungeon. With Hilda in the group, we''re at the max limit of five people. We had six in the last dungeon and that might have effected the difficulty. Some adventurer groups still adventure with more than the recommended amount. Without Zergnar this will be more difficult but also less difficult. It''s another time dungeon¡­ WHY! These are the hardest dungeons. We''re barely inside when we get into our first fight. Devil horned rabbits, I lay down some string and make a trap out of it. It slows the first one down but the next one manages to break through. Dammit, this couldn''t be easy could it. Gobber was waiting for it thankfully and finished it off in one hit. The other one that tried to rush through first was completely tangled still. He was easy to dispatch. Any groups bigger than that and we risk someone getting impaled by the devil horns. This one is going to be more difficult than the tier three dungeon. I''m half tempted to just leave with how many negatives are adding up. We push forwards anyways. I doubt anyone would want to pack up and leave without trying to make it to the boss. The first floor was only devil horned rabbits. That being the case it was still difficult. The only one injury so far being Nargzar. He went in for an attack and got impaled through his stomach. We thought he died but it somehow missed all his vitals. With 3 healers here. He quickly was healed back to full health. The hole in him was healed with regenerate. The only big difference was the giant sized hole in his armor. Pets don''t count towards the total amount of people in the dungeon. I think it has to do with them being made from mana so it won''t be siphoned from them in dungeons. Once we get more well organized, that means we could have fifteen beast tamers with three or four pets each in a single raid dungeon. Without any negative effects towards the difficulty! The second floor we start seeing time mages. These ones are more difficult. Both boosting the speed of enemies, while slowing our own speeds. Me and Gargarz could cast haste. Which could provide protection in the form of precasting haste on people so the slow would be negated. Some of us still managed to be slowed though. With 3 healers again it is quickly dispelled. The speed boosts to the devil horned rabbits was the biggest obstacle. They could push through my web traps without them needing to sacrifice at least one of themselves weakening it.
Master of learning 22 to 23
Floor three was similar to floor two. The next floor or the fifth floor will be a rest level. We need to make it there quickly because some of us are worn out. Gargarz has the lowest fatigue out of the group and he might be slowing us down some. I let him ride on Sock for a moment to help ease his lost fatigue. We push forwards to the fourth floor, unfortunately it isn''t a rest floor. There is a new monster in the form of a bloated blink monster. It can teleport as well as spew out vomit that causes the paralysis, confusion and sickly debuffs. If someone''s hit by that during a fight we might be in trouble. We have to pull each group carefully. I stealth shot snipe a target every single pull. Hoping for it to be an instant kill. Gobber also fires arrows for these groups. We have too much defense and not enough range without him helping. We can kill one-two mobs before each pull depending on my luck at criticals. We make it to the fifth floor and rest for the night. During the break on the fifth floor. I refill my knife cannon and knives cannon and patch the giant hole that was made in Nargzar''s armor. I know we''ll probably need them for the boss fight soon. During my dreams I kept dreaming of myself being devoured, when I woke up I swore I heard someone say. ¡°Feed me.¡± But everyone else was still asleep. We''re going to push towards the boss floor today which should be either the seventh eighth or ninth floor... Depending on the size of this dungeon. We head out and the next floor has no new enemies, we''re still careful and take our time heading to the seventh floor. We get to the seventh floor. I notice the layout is slightly different for some reason and go to walk forward but Gobber stops me. ¡°My sense trap is going off.¡± That means Gobber is already level 40 with scout at least, probably more. I get the feeling that the room is tilted slightly to the left now. Even still I don''t see what type of trap it would be. ¡°I can''t tell what trap is here, anyone know?¡± ¡­ We think for a minute then I notice something. The floor tiles are all color coded. Where the wall is the highest are openings, so chances are. Depending on which color you step on, it will make something pour out of each hole. Testing this theory I step on the blue one and water comes pouring out. I managed to route it around myself with elemental magic or it might have made me slip and fall against the wall which would probably result in a trap to my death. We look at each trap design and figure the only safe ones are the brown ones. Nothing comes out of when stepped on. There is a treasure chest in the middle of the room¡­ Should we risk it? YES OF COURSE!... Even fighting my urges I still think we should. I tell them to get to safety on the other side before I attempt to open it. Everyone easily makes it across knowing the trap now. I don''t even open the treasure chest, depositing it directly into my void bag I feel the weight being drawn off a trap. Once it''s fully off the walls open up above the trap holes on the main side to reveal several blink dogs. They rush towards me setting off the floor tiles. Everything goes insane! Arrows are shooting out! Lava! Magic! Water! Boiling oil! All moving towards me because of the slanted floors. I jump towards the exit but am hit with three arrows doing so. I''m down to twenty five percent health. Some of the blink dogs have already been taken out by the hazards but a few are left alive. Gobber shoots and kills one. The last two manage to make it to us. Hilda, Nargzar, Sock and Gobber are all ready to defend. Easily killing the first one but the last one left alive blinks passed them. It''s right above me! I''m already about to die! With no weapons or my shield in my hand, nothing to defend myself with. I try to block with my hand. The wolf bites down on the gauntlet causing no damage. I forgot about the gauntlet! I easily defend the few seconds it takes for the dog to be dispatched by my companions. We heal up and I remove the treasure chest from my bag. It had around a dozen gold and two rare rings. One was a ring I already had but the other was an illusion ring. I had a one hundred percent chance to learn it too! Totally worth me almost dieing. I''ll deconstruct it once we''re safe but for now I''ll equip it... WAIT WHAT!? Their was a rare inside my other rare, shouldn''t an explosion happen? I guess I need to do more research on how long it takes... Maybe it being in a container removed the chances of it interfering with each others mana? Making it to the eighth floor we notice new enemies, time knights. They''re difficult to kill because they can rewind damage on themselves and allies. Any knights we come against we have to sneak attack and kill first or the fight will be drawn out tremendously. The knights can''t rewind death so it''s easy enough to just kill everything by focusing each target. Then ganging up on him afterwords. Everything is adding up though. With the hasting and slowing of the time mages, the potential one hit kill rabbits, the debuffing blink monsters and now the healing time knights. We could easily be outlasted by a group if we aren''t careful. No near death experiences in the dungeon¡­ We are all prepared for the boss fight. Chapter 41 Stronger ally and new ally We enter the boss room, immediately we know which boss it is. A giant slime rests in the center of the room. We''re not fucking around with this boss though. I tell everyone to take out their knife cannons. I made them previously for all my generals. We aim together and fire at the same time. The slime explodes into smaller versions of itself. We need to kill the bulk before they combine. The time slime we''re fighting has a regenerative effect like the knights. If you can''t kill the boss fast enough the parts you''ve sliced off or bashed down will just regenerate. Gargarz starts casting fireball and I cast flare and take care of the bulk. To stop them from fusing, I impaled the rest with spikes. Everyone else needs to stop them from reforming or this boss would be a pain in the ass to kill. I''ve heard stories of adventurers fighting against a time slime for so long that they eventually ran out of food and left. They''re that difficult to kill. If we didn''t have such a strong weapon to use against it, we could have spent days fighting against it. While it is slow it never stops moving, meaning you''d have to have someone be a distraction while the rest slept. It would get very exhausting if we did it fighting normally. We came prepared though. My cannons are too strong when used that way. The boss is easily defeated because we didn''t hold back.
Blue mage skill learned Absorb- able to eat enemies and can gain skills, buffs and stat boosts you wouldn''t be able to get any other way
Achievement gained Crushing Victory- Kill a boss far faster than the average time it would take, skill gained Quick return- Able to quickly return to the entrance of the dungeon after beating it
Master of learning 23 to 24
Pretty anticlimactic but we''re all exhausted from the dungeon and just want to get out of here. The dungeon would have been much harder than the boss anyways. He is just very annoying to kill. He dropped some nice rares. A helmet for Gobber, a pair of boots that managed to fit Hilda well and some others. While I wanted them, I forced myself to not make a big deal out of it. We managed to get four altogether but a few will need to be sold. We''re about to head towards the exit with our new skill, quick return but I''m stopped by Gobber. ¡°Kite, I leveled to one hundred with knight.¡± Wow! I guess it''s about time for him to start reaching those levels with classes. He puts in more effort than anyone else I know¡­ Besides myself. In comparison, I train around four hours a day while he trains around two. Not including schooling or fighting monsters which are similar time. If I didn''t pick this class I would have easily broken the one hundred barrier for my main class. I would be around thirty or forty with my upgraded class. The way I level I realize I''ll never be the strongest person in the party. We exit the dungeon. Everyone was waiting patiently for us but Zergnar. Apparently he left when we did and hasn''t been back¡­ Should we leave without him? We stay for a few hours before he finally returns. What! His dread wolf is twice the size it was before, it looks far more dangerous and strong. So did Zergnar, he was easily ten levels higher¡­ What did he do since we''ve been gone? Training non stop probably wouldn''t show those results but that is what he did. He also had a hell bat with him. Compared to the other hell bats it was actually smaller, but more intelligent and agile. He was also holding two spears, one in each hand. Which would have been very difficult to do, if he wasn''t twice the size he was before we left¡­ What the hell happened to him? He speaks up. ¡°Welcome back everyone.¡± He cried out happily, I wasn''t the only one shocked by his new appearance. ¡°Zergnar¡­ what exactly happened?¡± ¡°Ah, I was training until now for two days straight.¡± Saying that he fell off his dread wolf passing out from exhaustion. Wow I didn''t realize how determined he was to get stronger. I though what he said was going to amount to him gaining a few levels while we were gone. I honestly don''t know if Gobber''s stronger than him right now. I hope they never have to fight to see which one is though. More than just those two would end up being injured or even killed in their fight. We''re leaving and I hear someone ask again. ¡°Feed me!¡± Where''s it coming from though? I feel all my resources draining again. Shit! This time it''s twice as strong, once again the gauntlet can''t be removed! Dammit what did that demigod put on this thing!? It stopped drinking twice the normal amount, I''m almost passing out from loss of health and fatigue points. I ask Pokodo for a heal. Starting to feel better, I wonder what is wrong with this gauntlet. I try to remove it, the gauntlet wont let me. I hear a voice in my head again. ¡°Sorry about that. You just haven''t fed me yet so I''m starving. By the way my name is Aegis.¡± I think my gauntlet is talking to me¡­ ¡°Yep I also can read your thoughts too. Read the effects again, you should be able to tell now.¡± I do just that, the names the same. Everything is the sam- WHAT THE HELL!? He become a relic! I read the mystery effect and it says. ¡°Symbiotic Relationship¡± What does that even mean? ¡°It means that I''ll help you out as long as you feed me.¡± I ask. ¡°So what do you eat then?¡± ¡°Metal mostly, I can eat all forms of everything though and grow from it. Right now can you spare a piece of that armor? My mouths been watering, figuratively of course, since I seen such a rare metal. I just want to eat it all... One piece will do for now¡± I take off a metal plate from my armor and feed it to my gauntlet¡­ This all feels extremely weird. We''re still heading towards home but I continue to talk to my gauntlet in my head. ¡°So symbiotic relationship, doesn''t that mean you have to help me when I feed you?¡± ¡°Well that depends what you want from me. If you want information, I could settle on some lower quality metals. I''ve lived for around a thousand years. While the past hundred years I''ve been stuck in that dungeon. I still know much about the world. If it is something more, like power spikes. I can siphon your power while not in combat and give you a portion of it back. We can discuss the particulars of that later. Feed me one of those rings or wands please.¡± I feed the time magic ring to him. ¡°Ah that hits the spot, I can break down one of these rares every few weeks so remember that and check my effects again.¡± I look at his stats and... What!? He now has time magic boost as an effect on him. So he can hold all kinds of enchanting magic without causing mana explosions it seems. Well this is good for removing some of the clutter from myself. I wont have to wear so many rings and switch between so many wands. After seeing everyone else get stronger I feel a bit lost... Gobber reaching one hundred. Zergnar evolving and gaining so much strength in such a short time... Putting so much effort for so little to show is starting to be a drain on me. Even more than Aegis. I need to get stronger, faster. There''s no way to cheat to get stronger though. I just need to keep putting more and more effort into it. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. I know from experience killing humanoids gives more than average experience... Maybe I should kill a few to boost my levels? NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I''ve always been a good person, helping the needy, doing my best for everyone else... "And where has it gotten you? It''s gotten both of your parents killed, it''s made you weaker than everyone around you. If you horde your strength you can still be the strongest!" All of this was my in thoughts fighting with each other... Aegis speaks up. "Oh great! I''m in a relationship with a crazy person. Can you keep it down I was trying to sleep." I didn''t realize Aegis was eavesdropping... I feel slightly embarrassed he caught me fighting with myself... I often think about where I would be if I was a different class. Would I have left home that early? Would I have managed to recruit the gnolls? Would I have managed to do the things I''ve done in this life?¡­ If I chose a boring class, I probably would have had a boring life. I might have ended up dead or a bandit or so many other things could have happened. The one thing I''m sure of is, there is no way I would have been able to avenge my parents. Any other path than this one, so I''ll take that positive. We make it back to the fortress. Nothing exciting happened while we were gone. Starting school again tomorrow. I need to try to befriend Rock this year. Knowing and having a golem indebted to me would be a big advantage later. I might be able to convince him to move to the fortress if I can help him enough. Aegis has eaten another one of my rings, eventually he''ll eat all of my rare rings and wands. He also told me to feed him a bag with void storage on it. I''m in the process of making that. I''ll start doubling my training once school starts back up. I need to get stronger while I''m still in school for what I plan to do afterwords. I also disassembled the illusion ring.
Alteration tree learned Enchant weapon visual distortion learned Enchant armor visual distortion learned Enchant ring illusion magic boost learned Enchant helm alter face learned Enchant helm control mind learned Enchant boot gravity manipulation learned
School started again, I picked tier three time magic as my main lesson and a few other fill lessons. I''m going to focus my lessons around support magic over offensive or healing magic this final quarter. Having higher illusion magic might come in handy. Boot camp also started again, the few that I was better than dropped out. I''m now the worst second year in the school. It doesn''t phase me much though. I went there to get stronger anyways. Most of the first years wanted to challenge me to a fight because of how weak I am. I managed to beat around half of them but soon, anyone with any willingness to get stronger will surpass me. It felt good to actually win some fights though, I wont get used to it. One of the new first years beat me into the ground though. He managed to break my arm before I conceded. If I didn''t have regenerate I would have been in trouble but I''ll wait to use it until I''m making my way home to heal myself. The next day the student who had beaten me was wide eyed. He seen me returning to boot camp uninjured from our previous fight. I sparred against him again and was badly injured and almost knocked unconscious. If I didn''t have a years worth of training at the boot camp I might have been injured much worse. I found out his name was Burke afterwords, he reminds me of people I knew in my previous lives... He might become a problem later on. A few weeks have passed, like expected most of the first years have improved to the point where they can beat me now. I get laughed and mocked by some of them but I don''t care. Using magic I could probably beat most of the first years at school. Using my trump cards I could probably beat everyone in the city one on one. How do you counter six knives that come out so fast they explode? I can''t let it go to my head though, they''re trump cards for a reason. If I have to use them it means my opponent is stronger than me and it''s my last resort. I''ve started meditating for two hours every night instead of one to increase my chi. I haven''t been filling it back up as much recently since I''ve been dungeoning. Aegis draining some of it also wasn''t good. Aegis spends most of his time sleeping, which is fine. A few times he was awake and eavesdropping on my conversations. Butting in and almost scaring me. I probably look funny sometimes when I''m talking to him in my head because I tend to stop what I''m doing... I''ll have to work on talking mentally and continuing what I was doing. I ask him a question. ¡°Aegis, you said something about lending me power.¡± He must have been sleeping because it takes longer to respond, meaning he wasn''t reading my thoughts. He speaks to me mentally. ¡°Yea, depending on how much you want to sacrifice, I can give a portion back in times of crisis. I get part of it for storing it for you though. How much do you want to store?¡± ¡°Well can you store all my mana, energy and rage for now since I''m not using them. Having a storage of those resources would be helpful later on.¡± ¡°Rage is only generated through fighting but I can make rage with your fatigue if you want.¡± ¡°That''s fine you can use half of my fatigue for that everyday.¡± ¡°Also can you siphon stats? Sacrificing some of my stats now for a boost when it''s needed, might come in handy later on.¡± ¡°I''ve never tried give me a sec.¡± Aegis tries sucking my stats out. I feel myself get weaker, slower and stupider. Guess it was a success. He asks another question. ¡°How much do you want to store of these?¡± ¡°Can you deactivate it to see if I get my stats come back. If the damage to my stats isn''t permanent, I''d like to sacrifice 20% of each.¡± ¡°20%! You know that you''ll become extremely weak while it''s activated. To the point of losing 5 to 10 levels in everything.¡± ¡°That''s fine for now, I''m in no real danger of dying.¡± It takes around three hours for my stats to reset back to normal. With that I''ll start storing my resources and stats for later use... I wonder how much Aegis is going to take for himself... On another note I need to get rid of this negative trait... I have something planned for it. I''m not sure if it''s going to work though... Chapter 42 Managing problems I head to the slums with a small fortune. I''m going to force this greedy trait out of me if it costs all of my money. My body is almost fighting me as I walk there. I brought some guards in the form of Gobber and Hilda. I''m also going to heal any other injuries I didn''t get to last time in the slums. I can''t risk teaching because if someone learns a third class my secret will be revealed. We make it there and 2 more guards accompany me as I go to heal and give out money. I set up a makeshift table and yell. ¡°I can heal anyone with an injury for free today! I''m also giving away some money to anyone who needs it. Only 1 silver per person, if I see you in line more than once you''ll be punished by the guards.¡± It starts normally enough, a small line forms, then gets much larger. A few people in line with injuries but even more for the free money. Every time I give away money I feel myself both cringe in pain by the act and feel the greedy trait get more under my control. I hear a voice inside my head. I''ve heard it before trying to convince me to do something I wouldn''t do normally. ¡°What are you doing! Why give away all this money! We need it!¡± ¡°I need to stop you! This is your own fault that I''m fighting you.¡± ¡°I figured this would happen eventually. Someone with the kindness trait would never get along with someone who has the greed trait¡­ The greed trait isn''t a negative trait at all... You just perceive it as negative because it''s the polar opposite of you''re kindness trait.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I mean every person is born with a trait. Most people only have one trait throughout their lifetime. A life guiding trait that defines what they do in life. The memories of the warrior in here are all kindness trait memories. We are just too opposite of each other to ever see eye to eye.¡± ¡°You''re too much of a threat to leave in my head! You got Zergnars dire wolf killed!¡± ¡°No I didn''t! I only made the option to not help him clear. If you keep helping people you''ll never be the strongest! You keep forgetting about all the good I''ve done too. I got you that new gauntlet with no curse on it. Everything has it''s drawbacks. These people you''re helping, might get mugged and killed later for the single silver coin you''re giving them. Just because you can''t see from my point of view, you''re trying to get rid of me.¡± ¡°That''s right! I have to get rid of you. If I don''t, your greed will get more of my friends in trouble!¡± ¡°You think so? Back in my life, the life you haven''t tried to remember. I was a thief that commanded a pirate ship. I had plenty of companions I would risk my life to protect¡­ But you''re just going to ignore that because it suits your purpose as a kind person. Every problem we had since I started voicing my opinion you''ve blamed on me! You''ve already made up your mind to get rid of me, so do your worst¡­ But know this! The first time I get control over this body and I won''t let you ever have a say with it again.¡± Aegis finally speaks his mind. ¡°He''s right you know. It could have been the reverse of that situation very easily, forming a symbiotic relationship with your greed would probably be better in the long run. That''s just my opinion though.¡± I finish handing out the money and healing people. It''s far more quite now, I doubt he''ll talk for a long time.
Trait Greedy- deactivated
I feel bad now¡­ He was right on a few things. He did help me several times, I just couldn''t stand him risking my friends lives because it might have cost time and effort to replace the knife cannon¡­ Thinking about it though¡­ I doubt I could have stopped it from happening even if the greed trait didn''t slow my reaction time down. Well for now having a trait like that would put to much of a hamper on my training. I need to double up my efforts to get stronger. If he shows up again, we can talk then. I start falling into another routine, waking up for a brisk jog to the magic academy. Doing classes then heading over to the boot camp. Some of the first year students have started to wonder where I am for the first few hours of boot camp. It''s fine to be a little mysterious. I duel any challengers until they get tired of beating on me or it starts to get too late in the day. Running back to the fortress, I activate all the siphons Aegis can do. I increased the weight in my backpack from fifty to seventy pounds. Any more and I''d risk causing damage to my muscles since I''m still so young. I mediate a lot more than usual now. Three to four hours every night is added to my chi. If I move around too much with the siphons on. I''d burn through my fatigue too quickly. I start making improvements to the fortress again. Tinkering in my few moments of spare time I have left would be good too. I start working on enchanting the water in the hot springs with regenerate magic. It would not be nearly as strong but it might help heal the stress and slight wounds everyone gets through daily activity. Having an escape tunnel would be a nice addition. I have the miners working towards expanding straight through the mountain. My mental map says that cutting through the mountain would save two weeks travel to get around it. It lets out towards the ocean too. I''ll eventually need to make a shorter path there. Since I no longer need wands or rings I''ve started to redesign some of my gear. I''ve been working on poisons for arrows and poison gas vials. I''ve been working on a type of explosive. If I attach a tier three or four flare scroll to an arrow with the explosive liquid in a tiny glass container on the end. I can make a far bigger explosion happen. I''ll work out the kinks before I use it in actual combat though. Attaching a few powerful scrolls to a very large crossbow. One even bigger than my giant crossbows. It would be a devastating weapon. I''ve also switched to using a bow full time now. I can''t fire arrows at about the same pace I could use the crossbow at. With the passive dual fire I can technically fire twice as many but they are nowhere near the accuracy to use in combat yet. I need to think of ways to reduce the amount of equipment I have in my hands. If I do, I can deal with things more effectively. Dropping my bow to pull out a sword and shield once enemies are too close, isn''t a very viable strategy in many cases. Aegis says something. ¡°I have a solution for that if you want to hear me out.¡± ¡°Of course, we''re in this together Aegis. If I die you lose a big source of food.¡± ¡°Yea you''re right, I haven''t been so full for my entire lifetime. Being with you I''ve gotten to eat so many good tasting things. Those rares taste so amazing it hurts to stop eating them!¡± ¡°Yea so it goes without saying that neither of us want me to die.¡± ¡°Well that being said I do have a solution. Feed me your shield and a few more of those mithril plates.¡± I do that, giving him the mithril plates reduces the coverage on my sides though, so I hope its worth it. I pull the rare gem out of it beforehand. He wouldn''t have been able to use the reduced damage taken effect anyways. I don''t think any of my generals can use it. Gobber has a rare shield that would explode if it was added to it. I''ll hold onto it for now and give it to Lance once I see him again. ¡°Here we go then.¡± With that, Aegis formed a metallic shield over top of the gauntlet... How? ¡°I can store things other than metal inside me with the void bag and change my shape to mimic them perfectly. I can only do this with how much metal I''ve eaten. Bigger things might be too difficult for you to use. I think you can handle a smaller crossbow, you should tinker to try to make one that is a bit smaller then a normal size one.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I''ll have to think of some other things to add to him. I might be able to add a knife cannon. Having to pull out my knife cannon has caused problems that could have been avoided if I could use it instantly. It would solve those problems. I work on making a smaller crossbow. The only type that I could make without the bow itself being to bulky or losing too much size of the bolts was a compound crossbow. It also had a crank for pulling the string back to load it. Any other form of pulling the string back would be too in the way or lose too much draw weight. Once fired the crossbow limbs stretch out to the normal size making it a bit clunky but once loaded with the string pulled back it runs even with my arm. I''ll mount a knife cannon under my other arm and make another one and give it to Aegis to store. Double barrel knife cannons could be fired instantly now wherever my hands are aiming. Aegis shouldn''t need the crank to fire or load the crossbow but making a few more for my generals to wear on their wrists might come in handy. So it''s somewhat of a trial run for mass producing a few for my generals. Making a few hidden blade weapons for my thieves would also be a good idea. Maybe adding knives to the soles of their shoes and under their arms like my cannons. It would make their fighting style much less predictable. They wouldn''t have to pull out their weapons once they dropped their crossbows. It might also be a good idea to make cloaks for them with the visual distortion rare effect to help conceal them. Perhaps in the future since it would take far to long to mass produce them. I should also make a few sets of the net cannons I''ve been messing around with since I''ve picked up the net from the lizard men. It works on the same principle of the knife cannon except it shoots out a net instead. I''ve switched the net with my webbing and lined the inside of a much bigger metal pipe with my poison so it wouldn''t stick. Most of the silk will stick to anything it touches after it''s fired. Making it a very good weapon to stop combat from happening. Sometimes having a means to capture instead of kill is extremely helpful. I could make one for each of my beast riders. I''ve been trying to befriend Rock lately in school. As I said having a golem ally wouldn''t be a bad thing. Rock doesn''t attend many classes. (usually one in the mourning) Then he leaves to head outside to the stables or into the forest. I haven''t found a good way to talk with him yet. He doesn''t understand much common. I decide to ask if I can head with him. We head outside towards the stables. There Rock sits for an hour petting all the animals. Would Pokodo be able to communicate with him better? I''ll have to keep that in mind. He then heads into the forest nearby, the few monsters that attacked him he didn''t retaliate against¡­ He might be too kind to be a good guard for the fortress now that I see how he acts. I''ll still try my best to befriend him. I brought Pokodo to school with me the next day. She seems to be able to understand him better than myself. She talks with him and is pet very gently by him. It seems like I can use her to convey messages to him. ¡°Lets try and teach him some common for now.¡± After classes I let Pokodo handle teaching Rock all day. It will probably take awhile to teach him enough to gain his trust. ¡°Pokodo do you want to stay with him for now? It would be easier for you to teach him. Just come find me at school when you want to come home.¡± This is the first time Pokodo will spend time away from me... Maybe I should stay in my room here for a few days¡­ It should be fine and it will be harder if I don''t go home. I just hope nothing bad happens to her when I''m not around to help but I don''t think Rock will accidentally hurt her. It''s been a few weeks since I left Pokodo with Rock. I feel regret sometimes. Hoping I won''t lose my companion if she decides she wants to stay with Rock forever. Though I''ll be fine with that, if that''s what she wants. Rock understands common enough to hold conversations with Pokodo. She can read his body language and it seems like they''re communicating even when they''re not speaking. Today I''ll try to teach him a new class to try winning him over. What should I teach him though¡­ I''ve always been a fan on time magic. Elemental magic might be better. I''ll try and teach him both so starting with the easier one would be better to even see if he can learn. I''m using Pokodo as an intermediary. ¡°Ok, so I''ll try teaching you time magic today.¡± I start going through the basics. I''ve done this a few times already. We''re at the stables right now which is one spot that Rock is almost always at. Pokodo interrupts me. ¡°Master I''ve learned it, now what?¡±¡­ What!? Pokodo just learned time magic! I had no idea I could teach animals classes! Since it''s Pokodo maybe she''s the exception? ¡°Aegis do you think you could learn classes if I tried teaching you?¡± ¡­¡°Well I''ve paid attention so far and haven''t learned anything so I don''t think so.¡± There must be some hidden requirements to teach. Still Pokodo learning that means she should be able to learn more. ¡°Pokodo did you get any other weird notifications, like you can''t learn any more classes?¡± She takes a minute to try and remember. ¡°When I joined with you I got a title called Servant of the king.¡± I''m not sure what that means. I''ll ask more questions. ¡°Did it give you any bonuses?¡± ¡°No but I also got one for befriending Rock that gave me a bonus to earth element control and resistance.¡± ¡­ I should try teaching Pokodo nature magic and elemental magic next and have her try and teach Rock on her own afterwords. Teaching Pokodo those 2 classes took almost all my fatigue. She learned 4 classes altogether before she hit her limit. White mage, time mage, nature mage and elemental magic. With most people, it would be impossible to learn any type of magic with elemental magic. I think her bonus from befriending Rock might have given her the means to learn it. I guess there is no way to activate my siphons today but that''s fine. Making Pokodo stronger is worth missing a day of that. I should try teaching Sock some classes, not sure it''s possible though. I''ll try teaching him some melee classes to help keep him alive, knight and guardian might be good. I should try teaching all the dire wolves classes at the same time. The next day I gather them all up and have Pokodo there to tell me if any of them learn anything. After 3 hours of trying to teach knight with no luck, I give up on that 1. Trying to teach guardian is about the same outcome. After 3 hours I''m ready to quit when Pokodo speaks up. ¡°It seems like Sock can''t learn it yet, he needs to evolve again.¡± Well that''s fine then, I have a goal for Sock to hit now. Chapter 43 Falling back into old routines I have a feeling that only a big boss will rank Sock up for some reason. Maybe instinctual, or maybe from the fact that we''ve killed so many things without him evolving yet. There might be certain requirements for him to evolve too. I''m sure Pokodo evolved into something more special because she had a certain thing happened that let her evolve that way. Now that I think about it I remember Pokodo using a scroll to heal me. That might have been the catalyst for her unique evolution. Maybe if Sock can use scrolls he''ll evolve? I try and have him use the scrolls like Pokodo did. Even putting it in his mouth he still won''t use them. It can''t be that easy I guess. I''ll eventually figure it out. Pokodo being so much further ahead of him makes me feel bad though. I need to try to figure it out in my free time. Sock is in no way weak. Pokodo is just more reliable as a companion than he is right now. Lance''s party visited the fortress today. I gave him the rare gem for his shield, he was excited to get it. Then realized he couldn''t use it. He already had a rare shield. When I told him that I could teach them new classes, he was shocked at first but then happily agreed to it. His group has definitely getting stronger. For the sake of anyone not learning the wrong class I''ll have to tutor them separately. Lance learned knight to couple with his other classes. He''s a tank, so it suits him well. Kattie ended up learning druid magic. Having slightly extra healing as well as the ability to shape shift will help her in the future. I haven''t found a use for druids shape shift forms. While they get new shape shift forms they also gain new skills like normal classes. Too bad their isn''t a shape shift that changes you into a bird. That would be extremely convenient for traveling. Maybe I can learn a secret skill that does it? Druid is a good filler class. Once it levels to 100, you can gain half forms that give boosts to a single stat. Like if you use half rat form you''d get a boost to dexterity. Fox would boost intelligence. Ram would boost stamina and bear would boost strength. I also taught her the regenerate healing skill by her request. Leaf learned time mage¡­ Very quickly and when I asked about the meeting, Leaf fled. Not wanting to hear my response for now I guess. It''s kind of embarrassing that Leaf declared her love for me. She set a date on when to give a response but we''re constantly crossing paths, because of our acquaintances. I''m fine with waiting though. Our age difference this young does show. Leon learned fighter. Finally, I called over Trice and asked if Lance wouldn''t mind taking her. If she can fill a spot in their group. It seems like their group is missing some support. The warrior and archer they were grouped with both left the group because of an argument. Teaching her something to fill the gap in support would be the best. Her only class right now is scout. She had a low reincarnation, meaning it would have been hard for her to learn a secondary class. That might be a benefit now though, since I can teach her two classes. I teach her blue mage first. Also all the skills I can teach her from blue mage. She managed to learn almost all the blue mage spells I have. The passive ones were much harder to teach. It takes far more effort because you can only explain you can''t show. I tried teaching her elementalist but the requirements for learning it must be hard to reach. No one has been able to learn it except Pokodo, who had an elemental advantage to learning it. Thinking what would be best for her to learn¡­ Red mage would be good if she can''t learn spellthief. I try teaching her spellthief and after a few hours of trying to, it finally happens. Thankfully! Red mage would have not been the right fit for her. She can stay further back in the fights now. The class combos she has will give her supreme utility against mages. She even managed to learn improved counter spell. Trice is going to be traveling with Lances group. From what I taught her, she''ll be a real asset to the group. Anyone able to counter mages in any way is invaluable. Normally it is impossible and you would just have to deal with them in other ways. Like healing through their damage. Or block it with a powerful anti magic shield. They''ll spend the night at the fortress and prepare in the morning. They''ve cleared a good number of dungeons in the area and Lance managed to break through the level one hundred mark with his dragoon class. The next morning before they leave. I drag Trice to the side and whisper. ¡°You have to make the first move, Lance is a smart kid but he''s not smart when it comes to relationship stuff.¡± Trice is as red as a tomato. I''ll leave it at that I guess, it might be awhile before they visit again. Some people from the capital were looking for me at the school today. I went into sneak and tried eavesdropping on them but they were too quite. There''s numerous reasons why they''d be looking for me. I can''t avoid them until I graduate but they might be here to kidnap me for one of the reasons I keep my powers hidden. I rush back to the fortress and put on my armor. Bringing Gobber along, just in case things get crazy. Having him there would definitely put the odds in my favor. We approach the three envoys from the capital. They appear to be high level, high grade armor, some rares. I recognized the leader¡­ He''s from the dungeon the prince died in! I approach guardedly. ¡°Hello my name is Kite, I understand you''ve been looking for me.¡± ¡°Ah yes, we''ve come on behalf of the king to request you seek him out after graduation. With the improvements you''ve made to this city. His majesty wants to reward you and ask for assistance improving the capital.¡± Breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn''t because they found out I can make portals. Or teach beyond normal means. Or make extremely deadly weapons that can kill very easily. Even how to make automatons might have gotten me forced into the army to create combat dolls. Putting on airs, I speak up. ¡°I thank you for you''re understanding, that I wish to finish school first. You can tell his majesty I''ll make haste forthwith after graduation.¡± With that the envoys left. Thankfully it was over such a small thing. Information still might get back to him. I head to boot camp since there is still time left in the day. Dueling has been getting more and more brutal lately. I''ve improved to the point where I can fight evenly with around thirty to forty percent of the school. The only people who want to challenge me are the people stronger than me and school isn''t fair. Many older students try to fight me. I haven''t turned down a single fighter but I often end up beaten badly and with injuries from losing. I''ve even had a few of my bones broken. If I couldn''t heal my injuries, I would be in a lot of trouble. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I''ve fought more mages at the academy and spellthief finally reached level 10. I gained an amazing skill. Mana slash, with it I could use my mana to expand the reach of my attacks. Spellthief seems to take much longer to level than other classes. Maybe because I don''t fight many mages. It would be in my best interest to practice fighting mages while I''m still at the academy. It didn''t expand my attacks very far but it could be used in unison with opportune strike... I seem to rely on a few skills to combine with others to make my strongest attacks. I wish I could use opportune strike with my archer skills. A stealth snipe opportune strike would be amazingly strong. While I could use opportune strike with assassinate, my strongest move. It is extremely hard to pull off. Even though I''ve been practicing sneak, I still can''t get within kill distance of any enemies. Maybe with a well placed blink strike I could get into range to use assassinate before they could notice me. Control nature could be fashioned into a fist which worked with opportune strike. Even though I could make sharp objects like swords, a blunt attack seems to work better. Burke loves challenging me. He''s around the age of thirty. He has the full set of heirloom gear from master warrior. I can''t come close to beating him without using magic. I''m here to learn how to fight in close combat, not go all out. His attitude is bad, so I''ve been thinking of taking him down a peg or two. Out of all my injuries, his have been the most severe ones. I''ve seen him fight Gobber once. While it was relatively close at first, Gobber could still beat him without much effort. I think being friends with Gobber, the only person in the school stronger than him, is getting me targeted. If Burke put forth as much effort into getting stronger as he does bullying the weak, he would actually be a challenge to Gobber. I started attempting to make alterations to Gizmo. He''s learned enough that he''ll work without any commands. He can follow very complex commands. I don''t want to break him for that reason, so I have to be very careful. One of the only ways to become an automaton doll creator, is by becoming an apprentice to one. The only other way is to travel to the east and join an academy that will teach you. Even then they have a very strict policy of who they teach. Meaning their are very few people who can make automaton dolls. So me being able to learn it so easily is very convenient. It takes months of practice to teach dolls how to do even basic commands. So that makes Gizmo especially valuable since he''s so much smarter than normal. He''s been learning common with the younger gnolls, so he can understand most conversations. I also think he''s picked up some of the gnoll language but there isn''t any way I can tell. Perhaps if I gave him a writing quill and some writing paper, he could respond to people. It takes Gizmo a few hours to learn how to hold a writing quill. His arms are wood, so having very little control is going to make his writing very hard to read. Gizmo has also watched over the classrooms during writing pracitice. He understands the basics enough to write his own name and some other words. ¡°Gizmo can you understand me?¡± Gizmo scribbles down yes. Alright good to know he can understand basic common. I ask again in the gnoll language. ¡°Gizmo can you understand me?¡± He scribbles down yes again. So he does understand two languages. I ask Gizmo to read me his status screen. Everything is normal. Writing down his total health, mana (guessing he has mp since he needs it channeled into him to work) even his stats. I assumed that''s all he would write down but he wrote Classes (none) Jobs (none) as well¡­ That shouldn''t be an option for anything that can''t learn classes or jobs¡­ Can Gizmo learn classes? I''ll have to experiment later. After I figure out the best classes for him. Yes! It seems that after teaching Rock some classes and being his companion for such a long time. Pokodo managed to convince him to move to the fortress after I graduate. I''ll have to talk with the headmaster about Rock graduating this year. He''s lived at the school for so long but no one taught him much. He still could barely speak common. With mine and Pokodo''s help, he''s already improved to the point he can speak in more than one word sentences. Having a giant golem as a protector for the fortress lets me feel safer when I travel away from it. Aegis chimes in. ¡°Why not just make your own golem?¡± ¡°What the hell, you knew how to make a golem this whole time and only tell me after I befriend one? What do I need to do to make a golem?¡± ¡°You need to enchant the summoning skill, conjure familiar into an inanimate object.¡± ¡°Wont that reserve my mana permanently though?¡± ¡°Only for a few weeks. Then once it gains sentience you''ll get your mana back. The main thing is it will take a long time, even hundreds of years until the golem can even move on its own. Depending on the size of it''s body. Even after that, it will take years to teach it how to follow even the most basic command.¡± So golems are like easier to make automatons but they''re useless for a long time and need to be taught in order to understand commands¡­ Why would someone bother making golems then? I guess if automaton creation wasn''t one of your jobs it''s like a pseudo doll. It can also gain sentience which the dolls can''t...Well I''m not sure if they can''t yet, seeing as Gizmo is smart enough to write, he probably has sentience¡­ But the other dolls at the school are just mindless workers... I wonder why. Aegis talks again ¡°How do you not know yet?¡± It seems like he knows why Gizmo is special. ¡°I''m not going to tell you either. It will spoil the surprise when you hit level ten with your new class.¡± So it''s tied to my class then? Master of teaching, does my class give mindless things sentient life? Aegis laughed. ¡°Not quite, think about it... It doesn''t matter that much, you should be getting level 10 soon just by teaching constantly. That class is leveling very fast compared to other classes.¡± Chapter 44 Boiling point reached I decided that since I''ve worked so hard to take a break today. One thing I haven''t done is use my shape shift forms a lot. I''ve never had a use for turning into mouse form or fox form. Ram seems useful but I don''t have it yet. So today I''ll turn into a mouse and sneak around spying on everyone. I''ll spy on Gobber first. He''s in his room with Hilda so they''re probably doing something I shouldn''t see... I''ll check to make sure I''m not intruding first as a human. I eavesdrop on the door and here them talking. Totally safe I turn into mouse form and crawl through a crack in the base of the door. If there wasn''t one I could have used control earth magic before I turned into mouse form to make one... What are they talking about? Hilda is talking right now. "Did you mention making a whip to the leather worker?" "Yea, I still don''t understand why we need one though." "Well Gobber, showing is better than telling. So when I get the whip I''ll show you." Hilda said the last part as sexy as she could... Gobber still has no idea what she was tal-. Gobber noticed me! "IT''S A MOUSE! KILL IT KILL IT!" Gobber grabbed his giant crossbow! Really! For a tiny mouse shit retreat! I hurry out of the room but Gobber gives chase. He has scout of course he would have noticed me. He also has scout so getting away from him is going to be dif-. Bam! A sword is swung right beside me! If I wasn''t so small and running away Gobber would have never missed. Shit! I might die... Do I turn into a human again? I have to, he''s going to kill me otherwise. I''ll run to my room to change. I barely make it through the door before it is kicked open by Gobber. Quickly changing back into a human I address Gobber. "It''s me! It''s me! Stop Gobber." "Master!? What were you doing... And why are you naked?" I look down. My badge must have gotten destroyed when he swung his sword. My cloths are in a pile at me feet. Well this is awkward. Gobber speaks again. "Wait a second... YOU''RE A GUY! This whole time I though you were a girl by how weak you are!" "...What!? I''ve never made any indication that I was a girl. Heck I''ve even taken baths in the mens section of the hot springs." "I just thought you were a weirdo. For some reason now that you are the opposite gender that I thought you were. I feel mad!" "That is kind of weird Gobber... I never made any indication that I was a female... Why would you think that?" "I don''t know! I''ll have to readjust to understand that your a guy now... It will take some time." I don''t understand... Even being a girl would barely change the events that have happened so far. Why would he get mad over such a silly thing... I''m not sure... But I am 100% male! I spend the rest of the day spying on people but they''re far more boring then what happened at first... The next day is back to normal. I mapped out the most important classes for Gizmo to learn. I don''t know how many classes he can learn. Warden, so his total mana expands as he levels it. Illusionist so he can eventually cast magic once he unlocks silent chanting. Summoner for reduced mana cost passive. Black mage for potential damage and white mage to round out combat potential with healing. I don''t think he can sacrifice his fatigue points since they don''t ever go down. Automatons can''t become exhausted. I doubt he can learn anymore then that. I''ll stick with these classes for now. I teach him warden, it takes longer than normal but eventually he writes down he''s learned it! He might be able to continually stay active now. He has a class that allows for mana to regenerate. After teaching him illusionist, he says he can''t learn more than 2 classes. It''s regrettable that he can''t learn more but even learning 2 is better than 0. I can also keep teaching him to level up his classes so I''ll do that today. I spend almost the entire day teaching him the two classes. Warden to level ten skill then we switched. Him unlocking the level ten skill for illusionist is important. I make sure he gets to ten as illusionist. I ask him to cast a shield spell on me once he does and he can. Shortly after something weird happens though... He talks! ¡°ThAnk yOu fOr tEAchIng mE mA-stEr.¡± It comes out in many different voices, like he''s pulling them from his memory since he doesn''t have his own voice. It sounds slightly creepy. I''m more amazed he can talk. ¡°Gizmo, how can you speak?¡± If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I Am UsIng IllusIOnIst thrOw sOUnd wIth thE sOUnds pEOple hAve mAde.¡± Wow, I would have never thought of using throw sound that way. It also means he''s speaking with a 4 second delay. That''s a lot better than having to write to communicate. With the development of this I decide to make a brother and sister for Gizmo. Eventually I''ll teach them the same classes so they can communicate. It will take a long time for them to learn enough common to understand my teachings to learn classes though.
Level 10 Master of Teaching passive skill revealed Full potential- Creatures move towards the best version of themselves by just being around you, teaching them can increase their max potential
Well that makes sense now, unlocking my level ten skill for Master of Teaching¡­ It was already being used since before I even unlocked the class though¡­ Most shown in Gobber, if he wasn''t moving towards his full potential this whole time he wouldn''t have been nearly as attractive or strong. The god of chaos was secretly helping me with pre-activated class skills for his new class. Even before I unlocked his class. I finish making Gizmos bother and sister. These models are far different than him though. His brother is a giant in comparison to him. I had to use a ladder to reach the top of him. He also has augmented arms that have blades attached to them and an iron protected body. His sister is the same size as him. She''ll become a maid eventually to replace him while he comes with me on adventures. I named his brother Tank and his sister Barbie. I activate them both and they''ll start observing the common language lessons Hilda is teaching. I wonder if I can teach Hilda teacher... She already has tutor... I''m not sure how to teach it though. Once they become able to learn classes easier. I''ll teach them classes similar to Gizmos. I might teach tank two defensive classes instead. With his augmented body he shouldn''t need any help to survive though. I want to gain a few more skills and level my other jobs before I make an automaton army. I also don''t need one yet since their is no one to fight against. I head to school, classes are normal that day. Burke is being more and more dickish. I''m getting more and more of an urge to fight him at full strength. One slip up and I''ll destroy him. I should prepare for it before hand. A few months have passed with normal training, school is getting easier. I''m stronger than around fifty percent of the first years. Still only stronger than a few of the second years. Some of the females attending school have started openly flirting with Gobber. Gobber is definitely the strongest person attending the school now, he''s broken fifty with both his new classes. Burke doesn''t like that, he often tries to incite Gobber to attack him. Gobber hasn''t taken the bait yet. I find it funny that Burke is jealous of Gobber. Graduation is coming up soon. With everything I''ve learned from both the school and the boot camp I feel much stronger. I''m glad I came here because of that. My classes are getting close to twenty five. I''ve been leveling them up evenly besides the ones that level up faster than normal like freelancer and scout. We''re about to leave school when Burke comes up and starts trying to force a fight with Gobber like normal. He''s been doing it for months and It''s getting very annoying. ¡°Hey green fuck, why don''t you fight me like a man with our lives on the line.¡± Burke jeers. We just keep walking like normal but he keeps following us today, with his entourage following behind. They follow us all the way to the city gate. We leave and I can even see them watching which direction we''re heading towards. Which is towards the fortress¡­ I get a feeling like if we don''t do something his band of dumbfucks might attack the fortress and get themselves killed. I head back towards the entrance to the city. ¡°Hey I''ll fight you right now if you promise to stop harassing us if I win.¡± His band laughs almost hysterically when I say that. All of them are first year students. None of them have seen my full potential so they don''t know my combat abilities. ¡°Fine but if you lose, Gobber isn''t allowed back in the town.¡± Burke says getting serious. ¡°I won''t hold back this time, are you prepared for that?¡± ¡°Heh, what makes you think today will be any different than any other time we''ve fought?¡± ¡°Give me one second to go and get my gear I left at the fortress and we''ll continue this once I return.¡± Me and Gobber head towards the fortress. Even if I beat him, I have a feeling that they won''t keep their promise. They might try to kill us after the fair fight. I''m going to grab a few people to even up the odds just in case. Getting the three gnoll leaders, my pets and Hilda. I grab my rare equipment. I don''t use it at school so it might be the edge to beat him. Even if I have to kill all of them for the sake of Gobber, I''m ready to do just that. Chapter 45 Fight with Burke When we arrive with the party of new members they all show fear in their eyes. The only strong one out of Burke''s crew was himself. We also outnumber them now. Our group is also far more balanced. Burke has three warrior friends and a thief friend with him. If we were going to fight as a group we would mop the floor with him and Burke knows that. ¡°H-hey, bringing all your friends to fight us. How''s that fair?¡± He mocks. ¡°It''s still just a fight between us Burke, no one else has to be involved but I don''t want you saying I cheated and attacking me after I beat you.¡± He seems confused, he has only ever seen me as a weakling. To talk so big he probably has many doubts I can actually back it up. If I can I''d like to embarrass him with just melee¡­ I don''t trust my own skills enough. Burke isn''t weak¡­ He''s actually quite strong, I''ve never beaten him in all the times we''ve fought. Taking him lightly will end in my defeat. I can''t allow that to happen. I''ll use every trick I have and if that''s not enough I''ll use my trump cards. If that''s not enough I''ll make something up on the spot to beat this piece of shit. His arrogance is going to be his downfall. We''re waiting for each other to act. I active my harmonica''s, inject a potion and activate a weeks worth of Aegis''s stat boosts all at once. I have a few new tricks to use against this prick. He rushes at me. I cast haste, feral roar and sprint all together. I wait for him to get a little closer then a rush towards him and use ogre''s strength. Moving so fast I throw him off I point my family sword at his throat going for a opportune strike! "Critical hit!" The first move was made by me, it managed to take down ten percent of his health. I feel I might stand a chance. He retaliates but I''ve already started moving back to evade. I turn completely away from him and retreat, casting elemental magic to weaken the ground behind me. I hear him slip falling on his ass. ¡°Son of a bitch!¡± He cries out. I turn and fire an arm arrow into his foot. Aegis normally rests with my mini crossbow out. It should slow him down even more. I''m going to outrun this ass until he gives up. He starts standing up and I cast plague, incinerate and hex on him. His health has dropped to 70%. He starts to get up, confused from everything I''ve done so far. As long as I keep this up I can slowly beat him¡­ Or so I thought. Standing up he charges me with the level twenty five warrior skill. He moves faster than I can respond to or run from. He''s right on top of me. He swings with a heavy rending slash. Fuck! I couldn''t defend against it. Half of my health is gone and I''m bleeding! I think charge has a minute cool down. He shouldn''t be able to get close to me again for that long. I still have to get away from him as it currently is. He attacks again and I block with Aegis. Aegis does all the work blocking and I barely feel any weight behind the swing. I get kicked by Burke backwards and down. He moves towards me. I had already been channeling nature magic for a control nature opportune strike uppercut. I use the energy instead to launch him off the ground towards me while I launch myself at him. He shows surprise in his eyes by the sudden lack of his feet on the ground. I nail him with an opportune strike midair. We''re close to the same health, around 40% health¡­ This is far to close for my comfort. ¡°Fucking dickhead! You cheater!¡± He yells. I don''t care what he thinks is fair. He''s twice my age! How is it fair to fight someone that young? How is it fair to fight someone who''s weaker than you? How is it fair for me to not use my full strength! His attitude pisses me off. I won''t give him the satisfaction of beating me or forcing me to use my trump cards. I pull out a tier 4 healing scroll, boom! Full health. I drink a regen potion. He rushes towards me, before he reaches I drop into complete defense and berserker stance. Pulling out my wooden sword he smirks. He doesn''t realize how strong this wood is. He continues to rush at me, we weren''t separated by much space so he''s quickly in melee range. I have only my wooden sword in my hands. He swings as hard as he can and I easily block it. He assumed it would cut through far more easily than it did. In his confusion I fall back to one of my signature moves. Control nature opportune strike uppercut! He''s knocked backwards but he must have compensated for the hit. He wasn''t knocked off his feet only backwards and it barely did any damage. He''s far more cautious now. He must have realized the me he''s fighting now. Isn''t the one he''s fought so many other times. ¡°You¡­ You''re different today¡­ How? Why? How are you so much stronger?¡± Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.Burke is confused, I think he might be giving up. He''s looking less prepared for battle. I guess I can answer him. ¡°I was practicing just melee. No reason to go all out against you. You''re weak Burke, all that time spend thinking of ways to get better than Gobber. You could have been training.¡± The entire time, he was moving almost incomprehensibly closer and closer. The time I noticed he was already too close! Swinging at me I''m disarmed! I go to pull my metal practice sword, the only sword I have left and he stabs my arm right as I grab it, instantly dropping it. Shit! I jump backwards with dragoons passive. Ah, my hand is hurt bad! Burke''s cocky attitude is back. ¡°You''re disarmed and hurt. You should just give up¡­¡± I will not let it end this way. ¡°No we''re still fighting come at me whenever you want.¡± I encourage him and he obliges me. He moves forwards. Much slower than normal, possibly waiting for me to give up. No! I won''t give him the satisfaction, I''d rather die! He thrusts his sword at me. I pierce my own hand through it. His eyes show fear at my determination. I force my hand all the way to the hilt, the pain seizes my hand. I don''t think I''d have been able to move it normally. Even so I grab down and yank it from his grasp. My blood must have made it slippery enough for him to lose his grip. He couldn''t believe what just happened, who would hurt themselves to win a fight to help out a lowly hobgoblin. I doesn''t register in his head. He speaks up. ¡°Why!? Why do you care so much what happens to this green fuck!?¡± Answering him was easy. ¡°I know your kind Burke, you bully people weaker than you. As soon as it gets tough you immediately look to blame everyone else. Truth be told Gobber is far stronger than you. As unfair as that seems he''ll always be stronger than you.¡± I start pulling his sword out of my hand. It hurts to the point where I might pass out. I get about a foot of it out of my hand. Then step on the cross guard with my foot and yank the rest of my hand out of the sword, all at once. Casting regenerate magic and pulling out another tier 4 healing scroll. My wound quickly closes shut and is usable soon after. Burke is stunned by this event. I continue to speak. ¡°Bullying him to fight you so your friends have a reason to kill him when you''re beaten is cowardly. I baited you with an easy way to get rid of him. Of course a weakling like you would jump at the opportunity to get rid of him. Without having to risk a fight where you''d be embarrassed in. You''ve lost Burke, I swear I won''t tell anyone the school failure beat you if you never bother Gobber again. But if you don''t.¡± I pull out my knives cannon, pointed it towards the forest and fired. Tearing a tree down and smashing into a few others. Burke''s goons all look shocked, confused and scared. I was half tempted to use the knives cannon on Burke. But I know his kind. He''ll take the beating and limp awa-. Burke slams me with his shield, knocking me to the ground! He picked his sword off the ground still covered in my blood and pointed it at me. ¡°You think this little magic show is enough to stop me! YOU CHEATED! EVERYONE GET THEM!¡± On cue his minions attack. Each squares off with one of my group. Burke is still focusing on me. I''m too close to him but I''m still on the ground. I channel a control nature burst under myself to propel me backwards just before his sword hit me. Even unarmed I can sti- SHIT HIS CHARGE WAS UP! He''s right on top of me again. No way to dodge! I reach up to block with Aegis but I still will not make it in time! All my other companions are busy, no one there to stop it! I brace for impact but it doesn''t come. Sock has my family sword in his mouth and blocked the attack! This confused and offset Burke. Time for my last trick up my sleeve. I aim my hand with Aegis at him. He was just out of reach of a normal sword range. Burke has used his size to his advantage the entire fight when in melee range. Aegis forms into a sword. Opportune strike mana slash hidden sword attack! ¡°Critical hit!¡± He''s blinded. I stabbed him in the eye. I run around to the back of him cutting his achilles tendon he falls onto the ground. He''s beaten... Should I stab him through the throat? I cast control nature to make the earth swallow his body. He can''t possibly move now. I turn to look how everyone else is doing and they''ve all easily beaten the other goons. Gargarz and Pokodo were healing the enemies that were injured badly from the fighting. None of my generals were hurt or even hit in the fight¡­ This was a complete victory. ¡°Burke you have three options now. Since you sucker punched me when I wasn''t ready... twice! You can either. A: Become Gobber''s slave. I''ll make the collar to control your actions later. Option B: Be a cripple the rest of your life. Or C: Beg! Beg Gobber to spare your pathetic existence. I''ll let you decide. Have your men dig you out and come answer me. If they attempt to attack my fortress I''ll have them executed on the spot.¡± My group walks back to the fortress in silence. Chapter 46 Reappearance of an old enemy Burke might not come today. While I doubt he''ll pick the option to become a slave... I still think having a few collars would be helpful, for people who just can''t be reasoned with. I''m not exactly sure how to use them myself, both my previous lives I had dealt with them. I never had the knowhow to make them though. I could make them with the illusion enchanting tree. Never in my entire life would I have thought to use a slave collar on another human being¡­ Maybe the thief memories I have are influencing some of my decisions¡­ I feel like I could use slave collars if it was on the right person. Like Olaf, or the bandit queen, or Burke. While easy enough for me to make. If you add the cursed effect to it, slave collars like that would go for a hundred gold coins. They''re bought by nobles for more¡­ Nefarious purposes. The more elaborate the design the higher the price too. Who wants to see a hunk of metal attached to someone you own all day? Ideally it would be something more unnoticeable¡­ Why am I thinking so hard about this right now? My hatred for Burke is corrupting what I''ve been thinking about. I need to change focus for now. I head to the blacksmith, he''s been busy and has also improved to the next rank of blacksmith. He could have picked either weaponsmith or armorsmith. Everyone who ranked up, I let them pick their own ranks. I assume they''ll make the best decision for themselves since they know what they''d like to do more. He picked weaponsmith. Seeing as most of our troops don''t wear heavy armor except for a few pieces but everyone of our soldiers uses a sword. Some even use two, plus he could make better bolts and arrows. So the rankup fits him better. I''ll have to make another gnoll a blacksmith eventually for the armorsmith rank. Next I''ll go talk to the tailors. Both had picked a different path than the other. They suit each other a lot. The rank up would have unlocked clothier or seamstress. Clothier can more easily change the colors of cloth and also add more detail to any non clothing pieces. Like, blankets, flags and cloth bags. They can also sell cloth items for more than the seamstress. The seamstress has increased finishing speed of everything made plus a bonus to making clothing. I had them sew an insignia to show each branch the gnolls belong to. Either being thief, beast rider or mage now. The chefs all picked master chefs. The glutton rank up doesn''t suit anyone who isn''t an adventurer. Even still chefs can cook monster meat and make it edible. While glutton only gets a skill that I need badly. Anything the glutton eats they can gain some of the stats from that monster. It''s honestly an insignificant amount for most monsters¡­ Except the strongest ones, eating a dragon would boost each stat by at least 10¡­ Which isn''t much for the risk you''d have to take to kill a dragon. Still even unlocking it, any stat boost to me is significant when my stats are low compared to other people. I wonder if it stacks with absorb? I''ve used absorb on every monster around here. While some only gave one stat point in the type of monster they were. Spiders giving intelligence, wolves giving strength and bats giving dexterity. None gave a skill and from what I found out. The permanent stat boost only counts for the first time I absorbed a monster. Meaning I couldn''t build up my strength by absorbing all the wolves I fight. The five or ten stats I got from all the different types of monsters wasn''t that big of an upgrade. The stat buff I get for consuming monsters isn''t good either. It''s ten times stronger than the permanent stat boost but only last for five minutes. It would be hard to absorb something and fight something else in time to get the benefit from the stat boost. The alchemist could pick between potion expert or poison expert¡­ We already had enough potions, so he picked poison expert¡­ He poisoned himself and almost died though¡­ So while he''ll be able to make poison traps around the vicinity he might also kill himself or someone else on accident. Even so, having an expert poison maker will help in long term more than a potion maker. Poison can be added to weapons increasing killing potential. With how many great healers we have in this group. I doubt even if we raided, we would need to rely on potions that much. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Finally we have the enchanters. I really wanted to learn what they''d unlock but they still haven''t hit 100 yet. They''re close but not there yet. I did teach one the synthesis job and the other the tinkerer job. With that they''ve been messing around with increasing production. The synthesis enchanter can now combine two rares. Reducing the time it would take to add a second effect to a piece of gear. While the tinkerer made a makeshift enchanting table. It was gold lined running to 8 different places that could hold enchanting paper. Making it possible to enchant 8 pieces of paper at once! Wow what a find! I''m so glad that I taught one of them tinkerer now. That cuts the knives cannon production down from one week to one day. Pokodo is the only other elementalist but she can''t help make wind scrolls because she''s not an enchanter. Some of the woodworkers had managed to rank up. A few have chosen lumber worker. Making it easier to handle and deal with large scale building with wood. Others chose wood craftsman, making their wood work far superior to the lumber workers. Put together though, they could make intricate buildings very quickly that are also aesthetically pleasing. It''ll come in handy for building more fortress''s in the future. I could also higher them out as laborers for buildings in Shienta. From what I understand a lot of people in the slums have started making enough money to expand their house sizes. Finally the stable master who was a beast tamer and beast rider leveled both up to rank up. Beast tamers can become beast masters or hunters. Beast masters make the best stable masters so he chose that. From what it sounds like hunters gain more benefits to help themselves and their pets in combat. It would be better for myself¡­ Beast master increases the amount of pets you can tame¡­ So either would help me in the long run. While the beast rider class hit level one hundred it didn''t rank up... I didn''t even know that was possible¡­ Maybe it''s tied to gaining new mounts or something? Maybe it''ll never rank up. We also have horses, pigs, cows, chickens and wolves at the stables now. The horses are from the bandit camp. I bought the pigs and more chickens and cows for food sources. A few of the beast riders have taken to going on expeditions to find new pets. I''ve tried to bring dogs into the fortress but they don''t get along with the gnolls very well. The rarest pet we have is probably Zergnars dire dreadwolf. Since I''m close to the forest entrance at next to the stables, I get the feeling like we''re being watched. If it''s Burke''s group looking for a chance to attack I''ll kill them all. The only way I could sense them is because of scout. I call out not seeing them but sensing them, I''m not sure it is Burke''s group yet. ¡°Who''s there? I know someone is there!¡± A shadowy figure comes out of the forest. I still can''t make out his face or see any distinguishing features. He has his body cloaked in shadows with the bandit passive¡­ MEANING IT''S A BANDIT! ¡°Show yourself! GNOLLS! TAKE AIM AT THIS PERSON!¡± I feel more fearful than normal because it''s a person of unknown strength. They remove their cloaks hood. Underneath is the bandit queen¡­ Why is she here? Running away will get her banned from every city, making her life a living hell essentially. I guess cleaning up shit has gotten the better of her. She looks defeated, almost sad how miserable she looks. On the verge of crying she finally gets words out. ¡°You¡­ You help everyone unconditionally right?¡± ¡°Of course not, first, the person has to be a good person. Secondly, the person has to not have poured boiling oil down my friends back. Thirdly, the person has to not have had their husband cut the hands of my friend. Fourthly-¡± She cuts me off, I can hear desperation in her voice. ¡°LOOK! I know that this is a long shot! I had no one else to call on for help! If you won''t help¡­¡± She looks at the ground¡­ For all the wrongs she''s done, I thought I would have been furious if I ever seen her again. I guess time heals all wounds because I do feel sorry for her. ¡°Come in. Depending on what you have to say, I''ll help you.¡± Chapter 47 Preparing for war We move inside. From as soon as she entered the gates everyone had been staring her down. I guess the few gnolls that were their for the battles with the bandits remember her. They might have attacked her if I wasn''t the one who found her. I head inside grabbing all the generals I come across and sending Pokodo to get the rest. We wait until everyone has gathered before I allow her to talk. ¡°What I did was wrong. I know that. You all know that. Lets just put that aside for now. I came here to ask for help on killing my sister.¡± What a weird request. What does this have to do with anything? I have to hear more information because right now it just sounds like a crazy person talking. ¡°My sister is one of the few people who has made my life as it is right now. She was the pirate queen for the pirate army. Not only is she ruthless but she''s also a master tactician. She''s aligned herself with another country and has plans on invading within the next 3 years with the other region. She betrothed me to the bandit king I was married too. I may be useless for fighting but my sister saw my beauty as an asset to gain more support for when she invades. The army you destroyed was focused on expanding and within another 3 years, they''d have pushed towards Shienta to overthrow it and meet up with the pirate army.¡± Why is she telling all this too me? I barely beat the misfit group of bandits she was allied too. With a competent leader and an army a much larger size than mine. I wouldn''t stand a chance against the pirate queen. She''s also a master tactician, so she might see through some of my plans and turn them against me¡­ It just seems too dangerous. The bandit queen interrupts my thought process. ¡°What I''m saying is she''s not going to stop just because the bandit fort was overrun¡­ So where is she going to be in three years? INVADING SHIENTA!¡± SHIT! I understand now, of course no one would believe her. She was arrested and everyone would see her as trying to make excuses for her freedom. I know better. She''s just afraid for her life like the normal bandit scum she is. She wasn''t sad being made the bandit queen of a small army. It was a bonus for her that I destroyed. If what she said was true than it wouldn''t matter to her because she would just flee Shienta before it was attacked¡­ So this is most likely a trap to get me killed. She assumes her sister is better than me and will destroy my army. If what she''s telling is the truth though our country could be in danger of being overwhelmed. After thinking it over I''ve decided a plan of action. ¡°Take her away for now. Put her in one of the storage rooms. I need to confirm her story is the truth and there is only one way to do that. I need to make a mind control collar.¡± Her eyes widen in fear. She''s dragged off kicking and screaming to the storage room. Thinking about it now I need to make a few jail cells to hold prisoners in. I plan on making that mind control collar sooner rather than later I guess. I copy the tinkerers idea and make another two enchanting tables. The gold it costs to make it, is worth the speed increase of enchanting. We''ll be able to enchant twenty four papers now all at once. Cutting the time it takes to make a single rare drastically. We easily finish the mind control collar by the next day. When we wake her up the next day she struggles until I get it around her neck. This is only a mind control collar so I can remove it afterwords and it shouldn''t leave any negative effects on her. She''s still struggling but I yell. ¡°Stop! Every time you move, you feel immense pain.¡± She stops completely¡­ To the point she''s not breathing! ¡°Except for breathing! Now from here out, you''ll be put through immense pain whenever you lie to me. The pain will be unbearable. You can''t lie without me being able to tell¡­ So you better not lie. Nod your head if you understand.¡± She nods her head but when she moves she still feels pain from the first order I gave her¡­ I''m really bad at this interrogating stuff. ¡°Alright from here on out, you''ll be allowed to move and speak but if I yell to stop. If you don''t, immense pain again. Do you understand? Nod your head.¡± She nods her head, this time she isn''t put through pain. Maybe I should offer an incentive to answer correctly? Like giving her freedom... No I think the pain is a big enough threat for her to not try it. ¡°Alright so first question. Is everything you said previously about your sister the truth?¡± She looks at me with some fear in her eyes and responds. ¡°Yes.¡± After she said it her face crumbled from the pain she went through. Well that gets the hard part out of the way at the beginning. I doubt she''ll lie from here on out. ¡°Whatever you lied about tell me or you''ll be in twice as much pain from lying as you just were.¡± She answered quickly. ¡°I didn''t care about the city! I only wanted you to fight her so she would kill you!¡± As expected, she didn''t mention anything about the attack in three years though¡­ ¡°Is what you said about the pirates and enemy nation invading within three years true?¡± Without any hesitation in her words. ¡°Yes¡­ And I hope they kill everyone in this whole fucking country.¡± I need to warn everyone about this at once! It''s the beginning of a new day so my generals and myself head towards the city. Hilda pulls me aside while we walk to talk. ¡°What did she do that you would have to put her through such inhumane treatment?¡± We keep walking¡­ I don''t know how to answer that to someone who wasn''t there during the fight at the bandit fort¡­ I still think of an answer. ¡°Have you ever bathed with Ashley? Did you see the scars on her back? Have you ever heard of the story about the bandits trying to cripple Lance? This woman is a snake in the grass. She can''t be treated as a human when it comes to other people. She''ll lie, cheat and steal her way to whatever she''s trying to accomplish.¡± We keep walking¡­ In silence now, after I put my feelings into that speech. I don''t think Hilda will question my reasons, at least for now. The collar is extremely helpful, I put rules on her that said she can''t take the collar off. She can''t try to escape. And she can''t try to injure us without being put through immense pain. Enough pain that would stop any attempt at whatever she would do. The first place we head is towards the mayors office. Entering the office, my ragtag bunch of three gnolls a hobgoblin a child (me) and two extremely attractive women are all being eyeballed by everyone in the building¡­ I forgot how many secretaries the mayor had¡­ And how much attention Gobber drew from the opposite sex¡­ They''re almost eating him with their eyes. I ask a question. ¡°Where''s the mayor?¡± The head secretary pulls me aside. ¡°What might this be pertaining Kite the little wonder boy?¡± I quickly answer. ¡°We have information pertaining an imminent invasion from another country, also the potential destruction of the city by an army of pirates.¡± She looks at the bandit queen then back at me smirking. ¡°Oh? And where did you get this information from? I hope it''s from a reliable source.¡± I feel like she''s mocking me. Thinking I''d believe anything I hear without questioning it. I guess a demonstration is in order. ¡°It was obtained through the usage of a mind control collar.¡± I need to prove my point I guess. I turn towards the bandit queen. ¡°HEY! Bark or feel pain!¡± It''s a few seconds of quite before I hear cries of pain shortly followed by the barks of women. Mimicking a dog. This was enough for the secretary to rush out of the room to fetch the mayor. We waited for a minute... Than another minute... Than after another minute I told the bandit queen to stop barking... Around ten minutes later the mayor rushes into the room. ¡°KITE! What''s this about the city being attacked by pirates!?¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Food smearing his face, dripping with sweat from the short run to his office. He would have finished eating even if the pirates were at the gates to the city. He looks over at the bandit queen then his eyes look towards her angrily first. Than towards me angrily. I guess his secretary didn''t explain it properly. ¡°Do I have to reiterate again? Can you bark like a dog for me again please?¡± Within seconds of saying it this time the queen started barking before she was put through pain. Tears coming down her face... I guess what I asked was very embarrassing. The mayor looked confused at first¡­ Until he seen the collar she had on. Then he spoke in fear. ¡°You mean she was telling the truth this whole time!? We''ll be invaded soon by pirates?¡± I knew he wouldn''t understand, than panic as soon as he did. I calmly state. ¡°Well three years isn''t soon but yes. You need to send scouts to the capital to warn them. I would also like a detachment of guards to protect me as I take this bandit to the capital. I''d suggest sending envoys to the magic academy and boot camp to have them militarize their students. I can have my gnolls set up within the city to help with advanced preparations for the war when it comes. Fortifying the city should be your first priority right now.¡± While he looks confused over everything I just told him to do he quickly set everything off with his secretaries. ¡°You heard Kite! This is a matter of life or death here. Everyone needs to being doing something!¡± I doubt he''ll even remember everything I said by the time we leave towards the capital. I''ll leave Gobber and Hilda here to oversee the operations. With Gobber leading the gnolls, no one should bother them. Hilda has enough experience with building that she should be able to make improvements to the defenses of the city. It would be nice to have some of the bricks enchanted with shielding magic or something similar. Also my own designed giant crossbows mounted on guard towers should help in the event of an invasion. I''ll leave the gnoll generals here as well. Me Pokodo and Sock should be fine traveling to the city with the guard the mayor puts on us. It might be too soon to be building up defenses against a force we''re not positive will even come. Still every preparation now is one less chance the people I''ve grown to care about to die in this stupid war. It is over land that won''t matter in a hundred years anyways. Everyone who fought in the war will be dead. I doubt we''ll be attacked before we can warn the king but he might not even believe my story. Heading towards the capital of Merideth. The guard we have includes four warrior/knights. A black/white mage and an archer/bard. It''s a pretty decent group... Too stacked for my liking but I doubt it will have any problems in the future, handling almost any situation. With us having a guard detachment. I doubt we''ll be attacked by bandits. We''re a week into the trip. Zero problems so far. A few of the guards were weary of Pokodo at first since she can talk. While walking near a cliff one of the knights fell off, dieing¡­ It seems that the guards protecting us might not be all that great. The white mage who is traveling with us is fairly useless. Not only has he not been very helpful. He spends most of his time sleeping in the carriage the group is using. I brought my tent plus my bag. Through experimenting I found that Aegis could stay inside the tent without exploding. I figured this out by throwing him into the tent then running away and waiting a few hours. With no explosion I assumed it was fine. Aegis said it was because he could control the mana from rubbing against him so their was no mana disruption... Then he yelled at me for throwing him. We all have enough room to sleep in. The first time the guards seen the inside of the tent they were shocked that it was bigger. I guess it is a rare so having one would be unusual. I asked if any had rares on them and none did. I assumed as much but I would rather not have an explosion happen to me while I''m sleeping. Through testing it seems to take around three hours of rares touching for them to explode... The damage is big enough to leave a crater in the ground where it happened. Which would likely kill anyone inside the tent if anyone had a rare... I realize this is like sleeping inside of a bomb. Enchanting isn''t a very common job. A few reasons being it is very hard to learn. Just acquiring enchanting would mean learning from a teacher or spending months, if not years reading books on it. The magic academy is also a recent establishment. So out of the all the time it''s been active, only a few dozen enchanters have come from it. Sometimes I don''t even realize how lucky I am to have a class that lets me learn things so easily that others would struggle with. We push onwards. The last stretch of land we need to pass through to make it to the capital. It is a road leading between two mountains. The enemies in this area should be harder but nothing the guards can''t handle. After we make it through the mountains we should easily be able to make it to the capital with no problems. The bandit queen has been quite this whole trip¡­ The rules I put on her shouldn''t restrict her speaking. I have to see if she''s still sane. ¡°Hey bandit queen, you still alive?¡± She looks at me. Her eyes are dull, it looks like she might be giving up on life a little. With everything that happened I guess I understand that. I continue to ask her questions until she gets angry and snaps. ¡°I HAVE A NAME YOU KNOW!¡± Huh I didn''t realize I''ve never even bothered to learn her name... I do that more then I''d like to admit. It takes up to much memory remembering peoples names that aren''t important though... Like what good would knowing the other villagers name from Leafs village be to me now? I guess she''s one of those people who don''t like to be called nicknames like bandit queen. ¡°Well? What is it? I ask. She sits down, she only stood up to yell than, then sat immediately back down¡­ She''s not going to answer me. ¡°You know I can force you to answer me, right?¡± It looks like that might have helped her become more talkative. ¡°It''s Gem¡­ My father named me after his favorite thing in the whole world¡­ Which was gems.¡± Sounds pretty pirate like to me. I doubt she''ll ever be normal with parents like hers. ¡°I guess your sisters name is something similar?¡± ¡°Yea, she''s named Gold, for my fathers second favorite thing¡­ I think being named that made my sister resent me. Seeing as I was the first favorite she always had to look up to me¡­ Until she became a pirate captain. Out leveling me things started to shift very quickly¡­ I know it sounds messed up¡­ Even after all this, I still love my little sister¡­ Even through all the shit she''s put me through intentionally...¡± She looks down grabbing the collar and getting pierced by self inflicted pain. She talks again. ¡°And unintentionally¡­ Still though, it could always be worse. I could have been born when my grandfather was alive¡­ From what I hear from the few times my father wasn''t completely drunk. He was an even worse parent than him. He had a scar on his face from his father cutting him for touching his gold¡­¡± Shit! Memories come flooding back into my head. Memories from my past. Being a thief on the seas, many of my children ended up being pirates¡­ I remember having a boy, a boy who had been stealing my MONEY! I had gotten so mad at him I was about to kill him but managed to hold back enough to just cut him¡­ I was an awful person in my previous life. Just thinking about it makes my greedy trait want to reactivate. Seriously hurting my own child... What the hell was wrong with past life me? This entire situation... My village being burned to the ground... Me capturing Gem, all of it was caused by myself¡­ Well the past version of myself. That means I''m Gems grandpa. I laugh internally at the situation. We''re still talking when I hear the guard yell from in front. Chapter 48 Consequences for being stubborn Katties point of view We''ve just finished our first dungeon as a new group. The few before that were starting to get too difficult because we had 6 members in our group. Making the bosses harder than normal because our group was too big. Axel almost died but I had learned regenerate from Kite. He didn''t sustain any injuries I couldn''t heal. Even so it scared him off of adventuring, at least for now. Gunter was tired of being the ¡°second¡± tank of the group¡­ It was fine for them to leave but that left us short from the perfect size until we visited Kite. He taught us all another class plus gave us our fifth member. We''re now far stronger as a group because of that. Trice was a great addition to our team. With Axel and Gunter, our group had too much offense and defense. We had a heavy lack of support. It ended with us needing to retreat sometimes to deal with larger groups. Especially groups with casters. Trice stopped all of that, not only could she shut down casters easily. Her well versed skill set from blue mage applied well too her intelligence. She was also a scout with a crossbow made by Kite. She could spot groups far before they became a threat and we could more easily deal with them. We quickly finished dungeon after dungeon with this new group. I''m getting close to my rank up! We make it back into town, it''s far more hectic than usual. After inquiring about the circumstances of what was happening. We found out pirates would invade soon and the city was preparing for that. Kite had spearheaded the operation and was going to the capital to talk with the king while his men reinforced the city. While the humans were the same. We see gnolls running through the city. It was hard to understand but if Kite believes it, chances are it''s going to happen. We head into the slums and see a familiar face. Gobber is ordering some gnolls to pile wood near the door to be used as braces if they attacked from this direction. Ever since I''ve met him I''ve had a crush on him¡­ It makes me feel bad because shortly after Leon was healed we''ve been in a relationship¡­ Gobber is just so damn attractive it should be illegal! Lance approaches him and asks a few questions. Even still just his voice is enough to make my legs weak. Both Trice and Leaf don''t seem to have the same feelings as myself¡­ It makes me feel even worse since I''m the only one in a relationship. While he''s talking someone yells out of nowhere towards Gobber. I''ve never met the person but he''s hunched over with an eye patch. ¡°Hey! Green fuck! Where''s your leader at? I''m picking option D. Where I kill him!¡± What is this man carrying on about? Kite wouldn''t intentionally hurt another human. He didn''t even kill the Gem, the bandit who burned the village to the ground. This man seems belligerent for no reason. Is it because Kite didn''t heal his injuries? He speaks again. ¡°Kite ruined me, I can''t even fight fairly anymore! If we had a rematch I''d kill him before he got the chance to fight back using all his cheating moves!¡± Finally Gobber speaks. ¡°YOU! You really think you stand a chance, don''t you? He held back, he could have blown you away before the fight even started. In several ways! He held back because you''re a human. If you don''t go away I won''t have the same sympathy he had towards you.¡± He looks defeated. He''s almost on the verge of tears. He squeaks out a reasons still. ¡°E-even so. He promised he could heal me. Yet I haven''t seen him since that fight. He must have lied since no one I know could heal injuries this bad.¡± I speak up. ¡°I can heal, Kite taught me how to heal injuries like yours. I don''t think I can salvage the eye if it''s in bad shape.¡± He looks at me like I''m lying. Like there is no way I could have that skill. It starts to make me mad that he''s bad mouthing Kite. Kite has done so much for me! Of course he has, he''s done so much for everyone. I''ll heal his injuries to prove him wrong. I move close and cast regenerate. His closest injury, his leg is being healed first. It takes a moment but he steps down with it, then steps harder. Finally he gives a hard stomp to check to see if its real. His eye shows amazement his legs been healed. I cast regenerate again near his face. He pulls his eyepatch off to reveal a puss infected eye. It is disgusting! Did he not get his eye treated? It starts to heal in front of our faces. I cast dispel on him. Just in cast he had gotten any negative statuses from letting his eye fester like that. It fully heals and he moves it around, he smiles and lets out a laugh securing the feeling that it worked. He looks at me gives a brief smile, then cuts my throat. ¡°I''m dead.¡± Lances point of view Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! WHAT THE FUCK! Why did he just kill her? There was no reason for it. What the hell!? WHAT THE HELL!? We all look at him. This can''t be happening, it''s just a dream. No way this can be real. I''ve known Kattie for my entire life, she can''t be dead. He had no reason to kill her. Why!? I just can''t understand. What happened, was it Kites fault somehow? He did talk about him like he put him through hell. Gobber rushes in swinging his sword that''s blocked by this unnamed person. What the fuck is happening!? Gobber is pushing him back easily. He could kill him without much effort. I still don''t understand why he just did that. Even though the man is being pushed back he has a smile on his face. I see four people surround Gobber. Outnumbered five to one Gobber wouldn''t stand a chance. A few of the gnolls he was with had stayed but even so they''re not close enough to help him. They were all too far away to even realize Gobber was in trouble. I step in, using my throwing knives which with practice I could manage to use four at once hitting all the same person. He fell to the ground from the pain. Not enough to kill but enough to deter weaker enemies like him. This got the attention of all the goons. Before they could do anything I had already rushed into range and impaled the hand of one of the other goons. He screamed out in pain while this was happening. Gobber and the man had been fighting and slowly moved away. That leaves me with the last two members of his gang. Both rush me at the same time. I raised my arm mounted shield up and blocked the first one. Jumping away with my dragoon passive kicking off a buildings wall and coming back down impaling him with an empowered jump strike. He''s killed instantly. Only 1 person left. The last one fearing for his life had started to try and run away. I used my new secret skill from dragoon. Jumping into the air as high as I can I get a clear view of the area. Gobber and the unknown person had left. All that is left in the area is for me to take out last enemy. I toss my spear towards him. "Lancet!" It''s moving so fast it is almost blurring from the speed. It goes through him and sticks to the ground two feet. It will be difficult to get my spear now¡­ WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!? That fight verified this is real¡­ KATTIE!!! Gobbers point of view I easily pushed Burke back into a corner. He''s weak, far to weak to challenge someone as strong as me. As I think this I''m surrounded by his 4 goons. They all look at me with smirks because they have the number advantage now. I still might be able to beat them because they''re all so weak. As I think this one of them screams out in pain. He had been hit with knives from the side. Is Kite here!? I look over and it was Lance. He moved quickly enough to injure another one. Burke has been hiding in the corner this whole time. His plan is collapsing around him. He doesn''t even try to speak. He turns and runs away from me. He doesn''t make it very far. With the scout class I easily catch him, stabbing through his freshly healed leg. He cries out in pain and collapses on the ground. He starts crying, WHY DID HE KILL KATTIE!? I could forgiven him for everything else. Calling me names, constantly trying to fight. I can''t, no I won''t forgive him! What would Kite do though? He''s already given him a chance once. Knowing Kite he would forgive him again¡­ He won''t have my sympathy. He starts crying out pleading for his life. ¡°Please spare me! I know what I did was wrong but if you just spare me you won''t regret it!¡± Wow! He''s fucking awful at begging for his life. I wouldn''t spare him even if he was good at begging though. A crowd has started to form, if I kill him now I might be set on by people who didn''t understand what had happened. Thinking quickly I make a story up to make him easier to kill. ¡°This man is a spy for the pirates! He''s been sent here to look for weaknesses in our defenses and sabotage us! He''s killed a white mage already and he must be punished!¡± I don''t give him a chance to talk, I pull out my knife cannon Kite made for me and fire it at him. He dies instantly with no time to retort my accusation. I assumed people would swarm me, that I might be killed on the spot for attacking a human¡­ But they cheered for me instead. It might have been a lie but it was better than letting that maggot get away again¡­ Lance came towards me. He was crying, he looked sadder than I have ever seen him before. Of course he was, one of his friends just died in front of him. I can''t believe everything that''s happened either. What an awful turn of events. I''ll have to explain everything to him later but for now he has to be told about the lie. I whisper so only he can hear. ¡°I told everyone he was a pirate spy. We need to go kill the rest of his goons before they can say otherwise.¡± He looks confused. ¡°Why do we have to kill them?¡± Lance questioned. ¡°Do you think they showed sympathy to Kattie?¡± Even if Lance won''t, I''ll kill them all myself. Chapter 49 Sacrifice ¡°It''s a basilisk!¡± One of the guards cries out. A BASILISK! That''s a world traveling raid boss! We can''t possibly beat it. It''s a giant lizard right below a dragon! It spews toxic breath that can cause a few negative statuses. It has the ability if you stare into its eyes for too long to become paralyzed. Even with a group twice our size with a better group composition then ours.We still might not kill it. We only have six people who can actually fight and my two pets. Gem isn''t strong in combat. The basilisk is slow moving once it''s fully grown, this one seems to be smaller than normal. I still don''t think we could beat it with a raid group. The group isn''t retreating though! They seriously think we can beat a raid boss with six people!? I use feral roar as a speed increase then yell. ¡°The basilisk is a raid boss! We can''t fight it, run!¡± One of the guards speaks up. ¡°We won''t make it! This one is too much faster than normal!¡± He barely finishes his sentence before he''s chomped in half by the basilisk. Eating the top part of him while his legs fall to the ground. What the hell! I could easily make it away from this basilisk but no one else would survive¡­ Should I run!? As a last resort I will. The two surviving knights move to the sides to try and avoid its paralyzing stare and status breath. Sock runs to it''s side and starts biting its rear left foot. We''ll need to slow it down in order for a chance to run if things get bad. So that''s a good idea Sock had. I''ll try to blind it if I get the chance. I activate Aegis, giving me a stacked stat bonus of twenty for five minutes. Aegis talks up. "Twenty times stacked boost! That''s going to take twenty hours of siphoning per minute! Five minutes means one hundred hours of siphoning gone!" "I know that but we''re fighting a raid boss. I need to boost my stats up that high." A twenty stack of Aegis''s siphons increases my stats by around four times normal value. All my stats are around one thousand after the boost. I inject a potion and activate my harmonicas. I move in towards the front of the basilisk and it rushes me. IT''S FAST! Faster than I thought it would be. I reflexively jump into the air, far higher than normal. It looks up towards me. I have a clear shot at its face. While it is trying to position itself in a good spot to eat me as I fall. Double barrel knife cannons! Both explode right in its face. Enough to stun it so it wouldn''t eat me. One of my three trumps have been used though. The mage of the group finally woke up from the noise of the cannons. That lazy fuck was sleeping through this crucial fight! One of the basilisks eyes were injured. That will most likely slow down the time it takes for the basilisks gaze to paralyze someone. Chances are it can still paralyze though. I pull out my knives cannon with my right hand. The hand that Aegis is on. I''m going to fire it point blank at one of its legs. If we can hobble its movements we might be able to take down the basilisk. It will also make it easier to flee. Its attention dropped from me as it turns towards the knight captain. It breathed in his direction causing all sorts of negative status effects. The knight captain will most likely be eaten before he can react now. I still need to cripple this fuck. The white mage who just woke up should be able to dispel him before he dies though. The archer of the group has been firing arrows the entire fight but hasn''t been able to land a single well placed shot. Its skin is too thick to pierce unless you hit the eyes. He must be afraid of being paralyzed. The basilisk is moving in for the kill against the knight captain. I get behind its left rear leg and fire upwards at the tendons where the body and leg are connected. Boom! Loud enough to wake up the white mage 5 times over. The white mage is too panicked to help at all. He could have dispelled the status off of the knight captain fast enough for him to escape but was too dumbfounded by the situation to act. If I knew he wouldn''t cast dispel, I would have done that first before taking down the basilisks leg. It''s definitely crippled now. We could make our escape but as I think that the knight captain is eaten by the now in pain basilisk. Shit! What was the mage thinking? As I think that I hear Pokodo yell out. ¡°Dispel! If someone takes in any of the basilisk''s breath! If you''re not going to heal I can switch to dispelling!¡± This entire time Pokodo has been weakening the ground where the basilisk would walk making it harder to move. Pokodo shouting must of snapped him out of it. He rushes towards the group now into range of dispelling if he needs to. It only took someone dying and Pokodo yelling to get him ready for battle. The archer fled. He didn''t want anything to do with this fight and decided his life was more important than his mission. It''s me, my two pets one surviving knight and the white mage. Gem is watching, she''s more terrified than the white mage was. She''s a low reincarnation so she can''t fight anywhere near equally with someone of a higher reincarnation. If she tried to help she would only get in the way. I only have a single trump card left! The basilisk turns towards the last remaining knight. I doubt he''ll last much longer than anyone else so I yell at him. ¡°Run! If it''s looking at you run!¡± The knight started to turn around but it was already too late! He was paralyzed by the basilisk''s gaze from staring directly at it''s eyes for too long. The basilisk slowly starts to move towards him, I''ve already started silent chanting dispel. I get it off a few seconds before the white mage has even started channeling his. It is just fast enough for the knight to realize he could move and get out of the way of a stomp attack from the basilisk. He fell onto the ground still too close to the basilisk, he''ll be crushed in a few more steps. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I channel a control nature uppercut to throw him away from the basilisk. While it startled the knight, it did place him back on his feet so he could run away. I don''t think he''s going to stay around either and will retreat like the archer. The basilisk now turns towards me again. My pets have been attacking and supporting this whole time. I didn''t even realize that Pokodo had cast haste on every single one of us. She used control nature sinkholes to slow down the basilisk enough for the knight to get away. It''s facing me! I have a few more things I can try before I''ll give up and work on retreating. Even if we do retreat it might chase us for miles and I doubt the white mage or Gem would be able to run for that long. It''s staring at me while I look at it from the corner of my eye. I throw a poison vial at its face, the wound from my double barrel knife cannons was enough for the poison to seep through even if it didn''t hit its eyes. It shrieks out in pain. It''s eyes are now completely closed. It should be much easier to hit and run now. I pull out my bow. I had been unarmed this entire fight and take out a specialty arrow. The explosive arrow I made might be enough to hurt its skin. If I fire the specialty arrows at it in the same spot enough times I might make a weak point to target. While I''m doing this the basilisk is thrashing around frantically. Almost hitting Sock unintentionally in its upheaval. This is a world raid boss, I doubt it will stay blinded for long. I fire an explosive arrow. It''s tip isn''t sharp at all, it is however a glass container full of liquid explosive. The small explosion that goes off is big enough to set off the tier four flare scroll attached to it. The explosion is massive! Big enough to cover the entire side it hit of the basilisk in flames. Its skin begins to crack and dry out from the hot flames. Yes! This might just work! We continue to whittle it down. Slowly but surely we might be able to kill a raid boss with just my pets and me. The basilisk finally regains its sight. It immediately turns towards Sock. Fast enough to catch him with its breath! Shit! It''s too close to save him! What should I do! Pokodo had already pre-chanted a dispel and without a second to spare Sock avoided being eaten. Most of him anyways. His tail was bitten off by the basilisk while he fled. I heard him yelp in pain. THIS FUCKER WANTS TO HURT MY PETS! I fire another explosive arrow in the same spot. The skin cracks and starts too bleed slightly where I''ve been shot at. Sock had already retreated, I''m going to go all out with a chi wave. As I start channeling it Aegis chimes up in my head. ¡°Don''t use me! I''ll eat up too much of the chi you''re going to use.¡± I start focusing my chi into a chi wave. I move in towards its weakened side. 10%! Twenty percent! Thirty percent! Forty percent! Shit how much should I use!? It is a raid boss¡­ Fifty percent was enough to kill the hobgoblin king¡­ Will that be enough? I''ll have to go over that in order to be safe. Fifty percent. Sixty percent. I move in as close as I can. Seventy percent. Eighty percent! I fire the chi wave! My hand can''t handle the blast it shot out! The chi wave came out of my hand. It started imbedding into the basilisk. The chi wave was almost big enough to hit the entire side of the giant lizard. The lizard big enough for me to walk underneath. I feel the pressure snapping bones in my hand. Shit the pain is more unbearable than when I stabbed the sword through my own hand and pulled it out. I''m on the verge of passing out. I force myself to stay awake long enough to see what happens to the basilisk. The blast propels it off the ground. The basilisk must weight at least five tons! The skin that was sensitive from where fire hit was peeled away instantly. The parts that weren''t hit by the fire are also slowly being chipped away. Everywhere without the layer of skin armor is completely destroyed. I can see flesh being ripped from this giant lizard. The chi wave is like a giant blender to it. The closest leg to where the chi wave was fire to is completely ripped off the basilisk. I barely managed to stay awake long enough to see the chi wave come out on the other side of the basilisk, splitting it in half. I pass out shortly afterwords.
Blue mage skill gained Evil eye- Able to paralyze creatures for a short time with your gaze, only works on weaker enemies
Blue mage passive skill gained Thick skin- Skin is more resilient towards projectiles and gives a slight boost to defense
Sock (alpha dire wolf) has evolved into unique variant Direwere
Title gained Lord of the mountain- Killing the owner of the mountain has made the monsters of the area less likely to attack you, increased mental map expanded (now includes the mountain you just conquered)
Title upgraded Against the odds-->Against all odds- Survive an encounter no one in the group you were in was supposed to survive, further increased chances of surviving deadly encounters
Achievement gained Impossible victory- Kill a raid boss by yourself, 10% increased damage to raid bosses
Master of learning 24 to 27
Chapter 50 Arrival at Merideth I wake up. My head is ringing like crazy. I went to reach for it to stop if from shaking but my hand didn''t move. I look to my left and where my hand should have been¡­ Was nothing¡­ Shit! Where''s my hand at!? Oh life god why! I don''t have a hand anymore... The chi wave was so powerful I lost my hand to my own attack! Not just my hand, my whole arm, almost all the way up to the shoulder. I look around, I must have been knocked out of a long time. I''m in the tent right now. I hope I haven''t been knocked unconscious for a few weeks. My pets must have moved me into the tent. We figured out the Aegis could influence other rares mana. Doing so, the rares would not cause explosions. If we hadn''t figured that out, I doubt I could ever use any of these void storage containers. Through more testing, we figured out that you could put rares into a non rare container. Then put the non rare container in the rare void storage container. So like a treasure chest can hold a rare ring inside a void bag. I look around and see no one. I try to get up but my body is still too injured to move. Pokodo was probably casting heal and regenerate on me since I''ve been injured and I''m still this hurt... Something else might have happened. I need to get up though. I start casting heal and regenerate on myself to help ease the pain. ...I would be far more upset if I didn''t have the ogre regeneration passive. At least my arm will eventually grow back. Blue magic is so powerful! I feel like my class master of learning, might be increasing the speed I would learn some of the blue mage skills at. I need to get up and check my surroundings. My whole body is in pain. I still can''t believe I beat a raid boss. The amount of preparation I just wasted killing it is insane though. Weeks of enchanting scrolls down into tier 4 scrolls to use for my explosive arrows. The tier 3 wind scrolls for knife cannons. The days upon days of channeling chi I just used. The arm I sacrificed¡­ It was all worth it to save my pets and myself. Exiting the tent I can see the capital. The entire time I''ve been unconscious we''ve been continuing to move forwards. I see Gem riding on the front of carriage. The tent set-up is on top of a cart that''s being pulled by the carriage. I don''t see anyone else though...Did Sock and Pokodo die!? I look to my left and see a terrifying sight. A wolf monster is walking beside the carriage! He sees me and yells out. ¡°Good morning master! It''s nice to see you finally awake.¡± Master? Wait! It can''t be! Sock evolved into a human like creature who could also talk! I''ll have to ask for the rest of the details later. Pokodo is riding on his shoulder. I look to my right and see someone different. It was the white mage, I completely forgot about him. He was the only guard left. The two who fled made no attempt to come back¡­ SHIT! He seen my trump cards. If he tells anyone about them¡­ I think we''re passed that point though. If we''re going to war, chances are I''ll have to use them anyways¡­ All this keeping them secret was starting to get annoying anyways. He might not even say anything about it. He turns towards me, he must have heard Sock address me. ¡°Hey welcome back. For awhile there we thought you weren''t going to make it...¡± He jump onto the cart the carriage is pulling and the one I''m currently standing on. ¡°I''m going to sleep, yell if we have any problems along the way.¡± Really!? He''s just going to act like I didn''t just kill a raid boss with a single attack? Well more like several precise well planned out attacks that weakened the defenses of the beast I wanted to kill. Everything all added up to victory. Aegis must have just woken up himself. He sounded far more tired then normal in my head. ¡°Ah, welcome back to the living Kite. Good job with that basilisk. I had sock skin the scales off it to make a few sets of armor with. I had him grab some of it''s meat to cook and for you to absorb later too. If you can enchant the scales with a magic defense spell it should be able to withstand all kinds of attacks.¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I''m kind of mad at him he wasn''t more concerned with my injury. ¡°Hey asshole! Why''d you tell me to use my other arm if I was going to lose it not using you. I almost die and the first thing you can think about is collecting scales for armor!? I bet you made Sock feed you pieces of it while I was unconscious you selfish dick.¡± Aegis must also be getting mad. He sounds far angrier defending himself. ¡°I would have blocked the majority of that spell you launched if you shot it out of me. Half of that spell wouldn''t have even fired if it came from me because it was that big. You don''t even realize you braced your other hand with me. Where does your lost arm stop? Right where I was bracing, you''d have been destroyed along with him if I wasn''t in front of you. If you fired it through me it wouldn''t have been strong enough to kill the basilisk. I wouldn''t have told you not to use me otherwise.¡± He still sounds a little sad but continues to talk. ¡°And¡­ Of course I ate some of those basilisk scales¡­ I''m a worry eater. Of course I was worried about you Kite. You just always seem to worried about the end results so I put that in mind while you were unconscious. Do you know how much mana I had to spend moving your body around while you were knocked unconscious.¡± ¡°...WAIT! You can control me while I''m unconscious?" I asked slightly scared. ¡°I didn''t even know myself. Sock and Pokodo immediately knew I wasn''t you though. It took some explaining and convincing that I was helping you for them to believe me. The two humans that were still around were convinced easily though¡­ I think the white mage thinks you''re a demigod. You might be able to use that to your advantage later on.¡± Before we make it to the capital I need to talk with Sock. He''s now as tall as Gobber. Slightly more muscular than Gobber though. He still has a wolf like head and he''s covered in fur. I guess when he evolved he was completely naked. Aegis using my body, fashioned a set of gear for him out of the basilisk scales and some spider silk. It looks surprisingly good on him. I''ll have to do some touch ups with it. Aegis doesn''t have the tailor or tinkerer job. So it''s extremely shoddy compared to what I could make. I''ll ask him a few questions. ¡°Sock, did you get a class when you evolved?¡± ¡°Yes, I got the warrior class.¡± ¡°Did you get any titles or secret skills?¡± ¡°I got the valiant secret passive skill for warrior.¡± ¡°What does that do?¡± ¡°It increases my defenses the lower my health is.¡± Wow that''s strong. I''d like to learn it before we make it to the city. So the remaining time we have left I have him teach it to me. It takes far longer than normal since he''s brand new too teaching and it''s extremely hard to explain how to use a passive skill. 4 hours later we reach the gate and I learned the skill. I''ll teach him new classes later when we''re alone.
Secret Warrior passive skill gained Valiant- As your health decreases your defense increases
I managed to get a few levels from this trip. A few skills from this trip. And Sock evolved so far. If I didn''t lose my hand, I''d say this trip was going perfectly. Chapter 51 Audiance with the king We head through the city. It''s even larger than Shienta! The whole city could possibly hold tens of thousands of residence. It is split into four quarters. The kings quarter. Which is at the peak of the hill, also the smallest quarter. The high quarter. The more wealthy live on the higher portion of the city, overlooking the other quarters. The middle quarter, most adventurers would live here. No reason to buy into the high quarter unless you plan on settling down. The lower quarter, it''s very similar to the slums. We passed through this portion first. It''s awful, far worse off then Shienta. The lower quarter is even larger than Shienta by itself. All living in the worst filth. The upper quarters probably dump their waste directly into the lower quarters. Disease is most likely common here. If war wasn''t approaching I''d like to set up a sewer system for the city. I still might if I think I''ll have the time. Even a simple sewage system would cut lost lives tremendously. The lower quarters could use cheaper solutions. Like a few public toilet houses that could use the stool as fertilizer for crops around the city¡­ Speaking of which, approaching the city I didn''t notice any crop fields¡­ How do these cities function properly? Is Grey making food for every single city around this region? That old man is probably loaded with money¡­ If I was still greedy I''d pay him a visit. We make it through the lower quarter. Before I leave, I''d like to set up a stand to heal some injuries. The middle quarter is much better off. A visual difference is seen from entering. The ground goes from dirt to brick roads. The houses are much larger and less run down. They have a collection bin for all the sewage they make. I doubt they would just throw it out of their windows, like they do in Shienta. This part is fine how it is. I see a giant building, that must be the adventurers guild. I also see a few buildings around it that are smaller guilds. I''d like to apply for a few memberships for my troops. My crafters should definitely join the crafting guild¡­ SHIT! Now looking at the guilds I''ve forgot to make any of my troops merchants. They''re crucial to building a well armed army. While we can provide for ourselves most things. Some things we''d need to trade for¡­ I''ll have to teach a few once I get back. I don''t think applying for adventurers membership should be a problem. Shienta has an adventurers guild. It would be better to pick the right followers to become members though. Having a full army try to take credit for missions would be too hectic and no one would go up through the ranks of the guild. Every general would be fine though. I would like to join a few guilds. I know from my past life that most people will only join one guild. With my classes and jobs I could benefit from joining every guild. I should really make an alter appearance mask to start making fake versions of myself. With bandit I won''t need to make a suit of armor to change my appearance. All plans for later though, we need to go ask for an audience with the king. Going from the middle quarter to the high quarter isn''t much different. The houses are bigger, they also have yards splitting them apart. That''s another problem with the lower quarters. Any fire could potentially burn the entire city to the ground. We approach the kingdoms castle. I talk with a guard for one second and he lets us in. The scouts sent ahead of us have already explained the situation. We are let through to wait for an audience with the king. While waiting a few maids come by and freshen us up. If we greeted the king covered in dust from the road it would be an insult to him. He finishes with the group he was with and we''re lead in. Me, my two pets, Gem and the white mage are kneeling before the king. I''m surprised he let my pets join in the audience but it''s understandable. He has a few dozen guards in his royal court. If we made an attempt at his life we would be crushed by numbers. I''m waiting for him to speak, from previous experience with kings I know better than to talk out of turn. Finally he addresses us. ¡°So, the scouts you''ve sent beforehand have filled me in. I see no reason why you''ve come here just to tell the same story.¡± ¡°Your right your majesty. We''ve come to verify the story and ask for assistance with troops at Shienta in three years when it is invaded.¡± He face holds the same neutral expression. It''s difficult to look up at him in a kneeling position. He yawns then speaks again. ¡°Did you not think we already knew of the impending attack? If it''s too be launched in unison with the assault on Shienta we wont be able to offer any help¡­ Is that all you''re here for?¡± ¡°Of course not your majesty. I''ve also come by your request I heard of from the words of your royal messengers. My name is Kite and I''m the boy who cleaned up the slums.¡± His eyes raise up in shock. Finally dropping his neutral expression¡­ I''m disappointed by his answer though. Bringing Gem was completely unnecessary. I''ll take her collar off once we''re done here and let her live here from now on. The torture of heading here would have been intense enough to make up for her past crimes. I''ve also started to feel bad for her since she''s technically related to me. The king speaks up. ¡°Ah, I''m very sorry. I didn''t realize who you were since I''ve never met you. I''d like for you to talk with my city planners about correcting some of the mistakes of the lower quarters¡­ Is that all you''re here for.¡± ¡°Of course not your majesty. I''d like a handful of men to try and defeat the pirates before they invade in three years. If we can squash the problem before it happens. The troops at Shienta can militarize for the capital in three years once the war starts.¡± His eyes go up in even more surprise. My question was quickly shot down. ¡°I would never risk troops on a suicide mission a small child was leading. But I''ll give you one chance to convince me to help you. If the reason is good enough then I might give you a handful of men.¡± ¡°Your majesty. I already have a small set of troops I''ve personally trained. I''ve also heard that the demon tribes are being used as pawns for skirmishes on the front lines. If they''re disposable, I would like a few dozen of them if you can spare. I would like to not risk human lives in this quest if necessary.¡± ¡°Fair enough, I will also send a few envoys with you to make sure you''re not attempting anything threatening towards the kingdom.¡± ¡°That is fine your majesty. Might I ask for the messenger guard that you sent me to be one of them?¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He plays with this beard while he answers, he must be getting bored. ¡°That should be fine. Anything else?¡± ¡°Of course your majesty. If I might question, can you give the members of the demon tribe freedom if they join with me? I would rather not be worried about my new troops betraying me the second I enter my ship. That seems like it would be the easiest way to deal with the problem.¡± He probably doesn''t think we''ll come back so he agrees to it. While the king is bored we talk for a few moments longer than the discussion of my hand came up. He asked how I lost my hand. ¡°We were attacked by a basilisk your majesty. My entire group besides the white mage and me was wiped out by the basilisk.¡± He looks surprised by what I said. ¡°How many troops did you have? The basilisk is a hard to defeat world boss.¡± Before I could say anything the white mage spoke up. ¡°It was only six guards sent by the capital and Kite that fought it.¡± The king looked even more surprised. Not only by the fact that this is the first time the white mage has spoken up. Also at the small numbers we had. I try to backpedal and make it seem less impressive. ¡°Your majesty, it isn''t as impressive as he makes it sound. The basilisk was barely grown, it was no where near full strength when we faced it. We also lost everyone else fighting it.¡± The mage spoke up again. ¡°Your majesty. Kite managed to kill it all by himself. Not a single piece of damage was dealt by anyone else to it. Except maybe his pets, which one of them evolved into the wolf man you see before you after the fight.¡± What the hell! Why is this mage so talkative all of a sudden!? The king speaks again. ¡°Thank you for your update Kline. You can continue to be an envoy for this young man¡­ But might I ask how he managed to kill the raid boss?¡± ¡°He killed it with a single blow¡­ The blow was so powerful it split the basilisk in half and blew his own arm off. Even after that, with injuries no normal person could walk around with. He was up giving instructions to his pets to collect the remaining scales of the beast and some of it''s meat to cook before we departed towards the capital¡­ I think this man might be a demigod.¡± The king stands up. He moves close to me eyeing me over. He looks at my arm¡­ Shit! He''ll see that Aegis is a relic and might try to take him from me! I look at my arm and see that aegis is marked as a common rare with increased defenses¡­ How!? It must be Aegis masking his true power¡­ Now that I think back, he was probably doing this the entire time I''ve had him on¡­ I wonder how many more fights I''d have been in if people realized I had a relic. The king gets all the way down into my face. Stares at me very carefully, to the point it''s uncomfortable. ¡°I knew something was off about this boy. He seemed odd from every new report I would get about him. From the fact that he could supposedly use multiple classes and jobs. The fact that he can heal injuries without risking the patients sanity¡­ Which god do you represent?¡± I have to think of a lie¡­ Which god would be the most believable? God of chaos? It''s true it would be the most believable but he might see me as a threat¡­ Shit I''m just sitting here saying nothing I have to think quickly! ¡°I''m a servant sent from the god of life your majesty¡­ She sent me to guide the demon tribe to safety from extinction. If you don''t give them their freedom from this war. They''ll revolt at the same time the enemy forces are invading. The enemy would have used them as pawns to help crush you¡­ While my original goal was only to remove them from combat, I can still help in the war if you declare them to be free after I defeat the pirates. If not, chances are the region will be destroyed in the process...¡± I pray now¡­ I hope that my capable liar skill is enough to make this story more believable¡­ I just hope they don''t have anyone with predict lies¡­ We''ll have too see¡­ After a few moments of thinking everything over¡­ Out of our entire talk I barely mentioned the demon tribes. Acting like they were merely pawns to me is the subterfuge a god would use in that situation. ¡°Fine, I''ll give you the demon troops to help fight. I''ll also give them their freedom after the war. If you say you''ll help save my kingdom I''ll agree to those terms. I can only take your word for it. Now is their anything else?¡± ¡°Yes your majesty. Since this city is going to be saved from your brilliant negotiating. I would like to make changes to the city.¡± ¡°That sounds fine. I''ll leave it to you, please discuss the details to the city planner. Do you need anything else?¡± ¡°No your majesty and thank you for your understanding.¡± My group had stood up after being given permission and started walking towards the exit. The king stopped me. ¡°Kite¡­ Thank you for respecting my son¡­ From what I understand he died in a dungeon you were clearing¡­ I just wish you were in his party¡­ He would not have died then...¡± With that I left¡­ Things played out differently then I thought they would¡­ It might have been more to my advantage than I expected. Kline might have helped me secure a few strong allies in the future with that assessment of me. Before I leave the city I''ll have to do a few things. Number 1, fix my arm, I have to find a solution for the regrowth problem so I can treat people later on. 2, I need to teach Sock classes. 3, add a sewage line if it wouldn''t take too much time doing. 4, heal the sick and injured in the lower quarter. 5, start crops growing to increase the expenses the capital can spend elsewhere. 6, check the local enchanter for new rares I don''t have. 7, tinker with some of the local shops equipment to make them better (a well equipped army is always better). 8, buy some guild badges to help start building the reputation of my army. 9, teach some of the citizens some jobs and classes to help make the city better. Chapter 52 Month in the city I teach Sock 3 more classes. He''s going to be a tank like Gobber from now on. I taught him knight, druid and monk to couple with his warrior class. While it will make him weaker to start than other high defense classes. Once leveled, having a shape shifting wolf bear throwing out chi waves seems strong. I wonder if you added the change appearance to a set of armor if you could move it around to form armor in different animal forms? It would also be nice to have another person who can do semi big chi waves when I need them. I have to save mine for crucial moments. Once done, Sock said. ¡°I''ve gained a secret skill wolf form¡­ Would you like to learn it master?¡± And so I learned a new skill from Sock, very glad I taught him that now.
Secret Druid skill Wolf form- change into a wolf, increase to critical strike chance and dodge while in this form
For my hand I''ll try numbing it with poison before I cast regrowth on myself. As long as the poison lasts long enough I shouldn''t feel any of the pain. I can''t use my own poison because I''m immune to it. I buy the items I need and make a very strong numbing poison. Injecting it into my shoulder where my stump started my whole body almost goes numb. Now or never I guess. Casting regrowth I can see my hand slowly regenerating flesh and bones. The stump that was there is now bloody from the new skin forming. This is going to take days¡­ I don''t think I have enough poison to last through this whole thing¡­ Druid''s poison resistance activated!
Blue mage skill strength increased Poison spit- Can now spit either weak or strong numbing poison
Shit! I FEEL PAIN!!! OH DAMMIT! The pain is so intense! It''s like my hand being torn off over and over again! NO way I can remain sane through this! What do I do!? Dispel! It didn''t work, it wouldn''t work on friendly spells. Ahh the pain! I pull out my heirloom sword! It''s now the size of a short sword from leveling! I cut off my freshly regrown skin off my arm¡­ I can''t use this method to regain my limbs¡­ Covered in sweat, people have entered the room in the castle I was staying at. In front of them was a man with a part of his own body chopped off in front of them. Some ran out of the room screaming¡­ I guess this method won''t work for me, it will work for everyone else though with lost limbs¡­ So besides the horrific pain, I guess this was a success.
New skill gained Ambidextrous- Can now use both hands to a similar ability
I spend the rest of the day working out the system I will use as the sewer system¡­ This city is built on a hill. Using gravity to get rid of the sewage from the city would be the easiest way. The next day I head to the slums to acquire some workers. I pick out about two dozen citizens after questioning them about their classes and jobs. I found out they had an open slot in each. I could teach a third class and fourth job to people. I don''t think they''d appreciate being given a new job as someone of a low reincarnation though. It will also keep something about myself a secret. Like the king said, he already knew parts about me because of spies. So the opposite could be the same with spies from other countries trying to find out information about me. I teach the two dozen workers nature magic and the farmer job. They''re all surprised and happy about the changes. Some begin to weep from their new lot in life. We get to work on tearing a two foot wide by three foot deep hole in the bricks that line the street at the very top of the upper quarter. We work it all the way down into the lower quarters and it is getting too late to do anything else tonight so we call it a day. To keep the new recruits from running off I have them escorted to an inn in the slums. I need all their help so we can''t have any run away yet. The next day after waking up we finish making the hole all the way out of the city. I go back and round the hole out more with everyone else helping with nature magic. Soon enough the hole is completely smooth, so nothing will snag while it makes it''s way out of the city. I cover back over the surface with a thin layer of bricks all the way back down into the slums. Since the slums is comprised of dirt with nothing to overlay I used control nature to cover the hole over with reinforced dirt and rocks found while digging. It should be strong enough to ride a carriage over without it breaking. Now all that''s left is to tell the city planner to have the servants of the upper and middle quarters, who would normally take the buckets of sewage down into the lower quarters. To deposit them directly into the few openings I left in the pipes. Instead of carrying them down into the lower quarter to toss into the streets. While this seems silly, like it wouldn''t make much of a difference. With the sewage flowing out of the city less people will die to diseases caused by the sewage. What seems like a small thing now will save hundreds of lives within the next few years¡­ Hundreds of potential troops in the upcoming war. The castle being in the middle of the city will be the only building with working pluming. It will be an added bonus to the king for letting me upgrade the city. Also it wouldn''t be bad to have the king indebted to me so thoroughly. It would be far too hard and take too long to link all the upper and middle quarters to the sewage lines. They can just have their maids or themselves deposit it into the pipes directly. I''ll have to task someone to take several buckets of water everyday to the top and flush the pipes. Maybe the city planner can hire someone for the new task? We do the same thing over the next two days with the opposite side of the city. The city forms a ring around the capital, so having only one side with a sewage line wouldn''t be enough. Now with the sewage problem for the royal, upper and middle quarters out of the way we can work on the food problem. The sewage is all leading into collectors that can be used as fertilizer for the crops. Splitting the two dozen nature mages up into 2 separate teams. Each at a side of the city to care for the crops should help with the food problem of the city. While it''s fine to have food delivered to the city. If the city is under attack the first thing the potential war party is going to do is cut off the food lines running to the city. This will also allow more money to be spent elsewhere than on food being delivered. I''ll leave the nature mage farmers to their new jobs. They should be able to easily provide for their families now and might even be upgraded to middle class. The city will need to build protection around the food sources but it wouldn''t be hard since they have around three years to do it. Kline''s point of view Life was very boring until I met Kite. I thought my life was over. If I had run from the basilisk my fatigue would have eventually drained and it would have eaten me. Kite blew it in half with a single strike¡­ I was fearful of what happened. Almost going insane from the fact that a person¡­ A young boy! Could kill a rare by himself¡­ With a single attack was impossible. I finally realized he must have been a demigod. That was the only thing that could explain such a strong attack. Demigods are the only things stronger than raid bosses. Today Kite made it to the city. He spoke with the king and after asking for troops. He also asked to fix up the city. I assume it will take a very long time to fix. If Kite plans on waging a war against the pirates, shouldn''t he be more focused on that? Well I''ll spy on him for now. I doubt he''s plotting something nefarious. A few days after the meeting he headed into the lower quarter. I was out of sight from him but from what I could see. He talked to about two dozen people then they all started crying and yelling¡­ What did he do? I managed to pull one of them aside afterwords and learned he taught them all the nature mage class and farmer jobs. WHAT!? IN ONE DAY!? As expected of a demigod. Not only that but he also vandalized the upper and middle quarters? I''ll have to see what he is doing tomorrow. The next day he finished what he was making. Running all the way out of the city is a hole to dump sewage into. What I thought would take months if not years to make, he did in two days¡­ It''s so simplistic of an idea its ridiculous no one has put it into play yet. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The next two days were the same thing except on the exact opposite side of the city. He then left the nature mages to care over the farms he set-up. No asking for help later on or asking for money or anything... He did this for the sole purpose of improving the city. He had no ill intentions towards us. This simple design will save us lives and money very quickly. I''m amazed every time I see him do something, it''s surprising. The next day he went and gathered another 2 dozen people. This time I was close enough to hear what he was talking about. He was explaining woodworking to the two dozen people. I couldn''t hear him completely talk only a few words here and there. After a short time the crowd cried out in happiness like the one before it. What!? He was teaching with such an easy amount of knowledge, yet they were learning jobs. He taught them construction as well. I moved in close enough to hear the entire conversation and picked up the job. Through no means was what he explained difficult, he almost explained no new information to me. I knew almost everything he explained but still gained the construction job¡­ Which isn''t good because that was my last job slot¡­ He spent the next few days gathering wood, I wonder what he''s going to do with it. After he gathered up enough wood too make a few houses he headed off into the lower quarters again. His new entourage of woodworkers following behind with as much wood as they could carry on carts. They already cut it into planks to make a building out of it. After watching them shortly I still didn''t know what they were making. They finish the frame of the building and I wait for them to leave. I still can''t tell what this building is¡­ It has weird pot like things sitting in the room. I can''t figure it out so I''ll have to wait until it''s finished. The next day they quickly finished the building, I hadn''t noticed before but it ran on the sewage line he recently put in. When I entered the building I still didn''t understand what it was. One of the construction workers was still hear and he explained to me that you could sit on these pots and it would deposit the excrement into the sewage pipe. This would help keep the lower quarters from dumping their sewage directly into the streets like normal. Over the next week he built another three of these buildings. Another one on top of the other sewage line. Then two more, making their own sewage lines while they were being built. With the lower quarters population outnumbering both the upper and middle quarters put together. I guess they would need their own sewer lines. All this for cleaning the cities¡­ I don''t understand. While it would take a long time for this practice to catch on. With his start the city will need to add in more toilet buildings eventually but having a start will reduce disease related deaths in the city. He then let the workers go. Not asking for any extra compensation for teaching them then the work they did. The next day he set up a table in the slums and yelled out he could heal people with unhealable injuries. As unbelievable as it was soon enough a small line formed. Until he healed someone with a broken leg. Then the line got bigger¡­ Then bigger still. After treating around one hundred people, drinking four mana potions altogether. He said he was out of mana and fatigue and that was all he could do that day. When he treated people with lost limbs he handed them 5 vials of purple liquid¡­ I wonder what that was for? The next day he did the same thing on the opposite side of the lower quarter. He managed to heal twice as many people this time. He brought far more mana potions¡­ Doesn''t he know that could destroy his mana regen by drinking those? Maybe it''s different from demigods. He repeated this process a few more days in different parts of the lower quarters. Together healing almost everyone he possibly could. It totaled around 1000 people he helped¡­ He has to be a demigod to pull that off¡­ He hasn''t even been here a month, yet the site of the city is completely different. The slums is already much cleaner. The smell that was stuck in the lower quarters from the sewage is now almost gone. When he healed someone he would tell them to clean for one hour moving sewage out of the town as payment. Doing this for so long he acquired almost one thousand hours of work cleaning in just a few days. Even if ten percent of the people did clean for an hour it was still enough to make the lower quarter much more respectable. Thinking about it a thousand people are now potential soldiers in the war because of him. The second to the last day he was here he spent walking through the city. He must have been inspecting all the changes he made. The citizens would just give him things for free as he was walking. A few bakers gave him bread. Some alchemists gave him potions. Visiting the blacksmith then leaving I heard the blacksmith''s cries of happiness. He finally stopped at the enchanters hut. I moved in close to the door to try and eavesdrop but couldn''t hear anything. After a short visit he left. I went in to see the enchanter crying¡­ What did he do this time? After asking I found out that he had taught him two entire rare trees for two rare pieces of equipment. The day he was leaving he asked for a handful of guards for protection. I volunteered of course, wanting to keep an eye on this person¡­ I see him doing great things in the future and I''m willing to risk my life to watch him. I would even betray my kingdom to see what he becomes. Kite''s point of view I finished up my business with the capital. With the changes I made it should help them compete with the other region when the time comes. If it comes down to it. I''ll teach them all extra classes to help us win. I''d like to avoid that though. I asked for the demon race members to be sent to Shienta. They''ll arrive a few weeks after I do. It would be nice to sprint back to Shienta quickly but I don''t want to risk dieing now that most of my trump cards are used up. I need to rebuild my chi again. I asked for a few escorts to take me back and to my surprise Kline was with them. Was it the king''s order for him to spy on me? That seems most likely. I''ll have to be more secretive around him from now on. I caught him following me in the city a few times but there was nothing I could do. I can''t just walk up to him and say. ¡°Hey stop following me.¡± He was probably following me under the kings orders. Before we head back I deconstruct the elemental ring I traded the enchanter for. It was an enchanting tree I needed badly.
Elemental tree learned Enchant weapon boosted elemental strength learned Enchant ring elemental magic boost learned Enchant gloves boosted elemental control learned Enchant water unending water source learned Enchant fire unending fire source learned
I''ll put a bucket at the top off the sewage pipes and enchant them with never ending water source. I head back to the enchanters hut and make him a table to enchant 8 pieces of paper at once. He even gave me the gold I needed to make it. When he sees what I was doing he was trembling from how much faster he could make rares with this. I tell him it''s his once I''m finished here. He cries again... This whole city is filled with crybabies. It takes two days for me to finish the rare bucket enchants but it''s done. That way even if only a slight trickle of water is formed running down it might help keep the sewer lines clean. We head out and make it back to Shienta with no problems. Kline is staying with me¡­ He is obviously a spy any way you look at it now. My destroyed hand is about halfway through recovering from my month away from Shienta. Ogre regeneration is extremely helpful¡­ Regrowth would have been faster but from what I got out of it, it is worth not having a hand for another month or 2. Chapter 53 Return to Shienta, return of Greed The past month I''ve been gone, both schools finished. I wonder if I graduated or failed¡­ Either way is fine. It was also my eleventh birthday. I''m still too young for what I''ve done so far in life¡­ I wish I was older... I''m a child going to be leading an army. The city of Shienta wasn''t the same city¡­ It was far more defensible position than it was before. Every tower had a giant crossbow personally installed by my troops. The doors were far more barricaded than previously. It would take a few days to break the doors down now, instead of a few minutes. Inside the towers was full of what appeared to be rocks and barrels of what I would assume to be oil of some kind. You could throw that on pirates trying to climb the walls and light them on fire. Huge deterrent for trying to scale the walls. I make it inside and start to look around when someone yells behind me. ¡°Welcome back master!¡± Gobber noticed me and yelled out before I had noticed him. He seemed extremely happy. I look close to him and Lance is carrying a few supplies for him. Did Gobber take on Lance as a follower or subordinate? He looked less happy than Gobber. I couldn''t tell very well but he looked slightly sadder than normal. I''ll have to ask later. ¡°Yea sorry I was gone so long Gobber. I had to sort a few things out at the capital. Everything is fine now. So what happened while I was gone.¡± Before Gobber had a chance to talk, Lance spoke. ¡°Kattie¡­ Died in an attack...¡± WHAT! I have to ask for more information! ¡°What happened!?¡± ¡°She healed a man who was injured and he killed her when she was finished¡­ Gobber explained that the man''s name was Burke¡­ He had a grudge against you and Gobber, so he tried to kill Gobber because of that¡­ Kattie was just collateral damage.¡± WHAT! Burke attacked someone for such a stupid reason¡­ WHY! That makes no sense. I didn''t see him as a threat at all¡­ FUCK!¡­ If only¡­ If only I had killed him when I had the chance¡­
Trait Greed reactivated
I hear a familiar voice. ¡°Hehehehe. HAHHAHAHA! HO HO HO HO!! I told you! I said you''d regret locking me away! If you''d have had me, I would have never allowed such a dangerous person to go free. I''d have killed all of his goons for their power and for levels¡­ That''s the problem with you kindness types¡­ You only see the problem at surface value. I knew a mile away how bad Burke really was! If you''d have just let me stick around your friend wouldn''t have died!¡± I couldn''t answer him¡­ He was right¡­ If I wasn''t so kind I would have definitely killed him. ¡°That is another problem¡­ If you hadn''t noticed yet, you take it easy on all the humans you fight. The only people you have fought with all your might, you killed in a second with your knives cannon¡­ Imagine that for every single fight you''ve went against. You could have killed a few other people. Maybe getting more skills and levels¡­ You''re weaker because you''re so kind.¡± As right as he is¡­ As much of this is my fault¡­ I can''t let him win! If greed takes over he''ll get all of my friends killed. ¡°DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF! Go through my memories! They''re loaded with good memories of me with friends. Stop cherry picking the one time I hit my kid and look at the big picture! You need me. Without me other people will still be ruthless. Other people will still kill your friends. Other people will still take advantage of you! Every single chance they get.¡± ¡°...Fine¡­ I''ll listen to you¡­ BUT! If you EVER! Risk my friends lives for money EVER! I''ll destroy you again.¡± I can almost hear greed smile in my head¡­ Wow that feels gross. Aegis chimes in. ¡°If you two ladies are done arguing Lance has been talking this entire time.¡± Shit! What was he saying! I was talking to myself. Aegis got me covered though. ¡°He said while it is unfixable it''s a part of life. He understands that you were doing what you thought was right by not killing him. How it was partially his own fault and partially Gobbers fault for not seeing him as a threat. And most importantly it was Burkes fault the most for doing it. Also Burke was killed. And that''s where he''s at. As soon as Aegis finished his summary of what Lance said, Lance spoke again. ¡°I''m sorry Kite¡­ I just wish¡­ I wish I could have done more to stop it from happening. I don''t know what to do with myself anymore Kite...¡± ¡°You just live Lance. Nothing is going to bring her back. If you want to stop anything like that from happening again you need to get stronger. So strong no one ever wants to hurt anyone close to you again! Just keep getting stronger. It will all work itself out eventually.¡± I think what I said cheered him up a little bit¡­ He seemed like he was already almost over it. Seeing me made him sad again, so me cheering him up is a good thing. Death is too common of an experience for everyone in this world to be bogged down by it. I wonder when it happened. Gobber finally spoke up. ¡°Well now since that is out of the way. Since no one else has brought it up¡­ WHAT THE DEATH GOD HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND!?¡± Lance looked down at my hand and his eyes widened intensely. He must have not noticed at all. I''m already over it but I guess people who haven''t seen me in a long time would see that as different. ¡°I fought a raid boss and blew it up along with my hand.¡± Normally that sentence would shock anyone else. Since both people knew me though they knew I wasn''t lying and it was completely believable to them. Gobber spoke up again. ¡°Ok so now that I know that I have another question. WHAT THE DEATH GOD HAPPENED TO SOCK!?¡± Lance turned and noticed Sock for the first time. He jumped back, startled by Sock''s new appearance. Sock answered that question. ¡°I got stronger.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. If it was anyone else they probably would have been shocked for longer¡­ Seriously, you don''t realize how much you change until you see someone who knew you from before you did. Gobber spoke up. ¡°Any other surprises you got for us?¡± ¡°After speaking with the king I gained the demon race as troops. We''re going to wage war on the pirates before they head here.¡± Finally surprise showed in their faces again¡­ I almost laugh at how much I could surprise people in a row. Gobber looks at Kline finally. They noticed someone new was following me. Gobber was assessing him¡­ It''s probably the first time Kline has ever seen a hobgoblin speak such fluent common, so he''s as shocked as Gobber and Lance were. I''ll have to pull Gobber aside and explain they think I''m a demigod later. I look around for other people I know and greet them. My troops will head back to the fortress for now. We need to finish mining through the mountain before long. Almost a week has passed since I''ve returned. I met with Lance''s group¡­ Everyone was downtrodden from what had transpired¡­ Some wanted to quit adventuring because of it. Leon was definitely the worst¡­ I feel bad for him but there is nothing I can do. It would be a huge waste if they quit. I gave them Gargarz to replace her fill her spot¡­ I wont use words like replace when speaking of the dead¡­ Greed spoke up. ¡°Why do you care so much? I''m just sad she didn''t let us see that book before she died. Would have been nice to pick up a few extra moves before she outlived her purpose.¡± ¡°Really! It hasn''t even been a whole week and I want to get rid of you again.¡± Aegis cut both of us off. ¡°Both of you are fighting over the same thing! How do you not see that? You are both sad she''s gone. It doesn''t matter that greed only seen her as a pawn. She was valuable enough for him to miss her¡­ That''s about the best your going to get with sadness when it comes to greed.¡± Aegis has been having to break up these fights between us ever since Greed reactivated. Greed spoke up again. ¡°Yea I''ll miss her but she isn''t a Gobber¡­ I can''t believe you were going to kill that asset when you first met him, you hypocrite!¡± I''ll ignore Greed for now. He''s only trying to bait me anyways¡­ And I''m better than him¡­ YOU HEAR THAT GREED! Over the next few weeks since Lance''s group has left. I''ve been training and getting everything set up for when the demon tribes show up. I visit town everyday, looking for them and healing the injured in the slums. I cast regrowth on them after I inject my numbing poison, then give them a few more vials of poison. Just in case the first one wears off... Another thing I did was visit Merlin. After convincing him to give me some gold I made two enchanting tables for him. He didn''t understand what I did until I placed eight pieces of paper down and enchanted them. He was very happy with the outcome. It would increase the speed he could crank out rares. The shortage of paper was still a problem. I also told the city guards, if they see the demon tribe to send them towards my fortress¡­ While I gained a few levels in master of teaching from my visit to the capital. It and spellthief are by far my lowest classes. Beast rider is also low since I don''t participate in mounted combat. It is the only other class that isn''t above 20¡­ Over the next year I plan on getting them all passed the 25 threshold when they''ll get a new skill. Finally the demon tribes show up¡­ Totaling one hundred soldiers¡­ The rest are women and children not fit to fight¡­ Oh god of life this is all that''s left of them? I don''t see him¡­ In the group¡­ Where''s Epieoth? Did he die fighting against the other region? I hear someone from the crowd yell at me¡­ Never mind he''s standing right in front of me. ¡°Hey Kite, how have you been?¡± ¡°I have some things to talk to you about, before we continue.¡± I spend the rest of the day explaining everything that''s happened to Epieoth. I feel I can trust him since he''s already spared my life once. I''ll also need to start befriending the demon tribe before we go to fight the pirates anyways. Epieoth will be their leader, if he''s not the strongest than I''ll make him a sub leader. Epieoth was surprised when I told him I took down a raid boss by myself and the king thinks I''m a demigod now. Thanks to that I managed to get the demon tribes their freedom¡­ A whole race of people brought down to numbers under one thousand¡­ Even if they manage to avoid fighting I don''t think they''ll survive as a race for much longer¡­ Epieoth has been looking at me weirdly. Like theirs something wrong with me... I hope it doesn''t become a problem. I gather all my generals and explain the plan. Each one will go off and do their own thing for one year. Zergnar should work on gaining pets and leveling the remaining gnoll troops. I''ll give him most of the soldiers and a healing gnoll for his travels. I hope he gets a lot of nice pets for us. Gobber needs to get stronger¡­ My fortress is holding him back. I''ll give him a few soldiers and Kline to heal him through dungeons. Hilda also goes with him, obviously. Same with Sock, I''ll let him travel with Nargzar, some of the other troops and Pokodo¡­ They can technically have seven members including my pets. Since pets don''t count towards the people count of dungeons. Lastly I''m going to stay here and train until everything reaches 25¡­ Besides spellthief, master of learning and beast rider. Which are my lowest/hardest to level classes. I will start leveling spellthief by fighting other spellthieves from the demon tribes. I need to befriend the new troops anyways. With the plans setup, their is nothing more to do until the meeting time 1 year from now. When my generals will come back and surprise me with their progress. Chapter 53.5 All of my classes have hit 25 besides spellthief, beast rider. After teaching all the demon tribe new classes and jobs master of teaching did in fact hit 25. I''ll go over a quick summary of each class and the new skill that I''ve gotten. For spellthief and beast rider, I''ve asked people with that class which skills I would get at 25 so I can add them to my list. Strength based classes are Spoiler :
Warrior- Level 25 skill Charge- Rush an enemy before they can retreat (1 minute cool down)
Fighter- Level 25 passive skill Athletics- Increases your chances to dodge by a portion of your strength
Berserker- Level 25 skill Berserkers rage- Rage is constantly increasing while in berserker stance
Dragoon- Level 25 skill Lessen fall damage- Reduces fall damage to 1 quarter what it would be normally
Dexterity based classes are Spoiler :
Bard- Level 25 skill Dexterity ballad- Plays a song that increases the dexterity of allies that hear it
Archer- Level 25 passive skill Dual shot- Able to fire 2 arrows at once (takes practice)
Thief- Level 25 skill Improved pickpocket- Able to more easily pickpocket people
Beast tamer- Level 25 skill Animal handler- Able to more easily control animals (3 pet tamable. Kite can tame 3 more pets since Sock and Pokodo are bonded)
Bandit- Level 25 skill Dual Edge- Doubles the chances of critical hits and being critically hit
Beast rider- Level 10 skill Quick Advance- rush a target quickly with the speed of a mount Level 25 skill Trample- Attempt to crush an enemy under your monsters feet. (hasn''t unlocked yet)
Intelligence based classes are Spoiler :
Black mage- Level 25 skill Mana arrows- Able to make and fire arrows with magic (can use used as ammunition for bows as well) (works with dual shot) Secret skill unlocked Tracer arrow- Creates an arrow that follows the same trajectory path as other arrows fired
White mage- Level 25 skill Weaken undead- Weakens undead targets for 5 minutes
Red mage ¡°Spell-sword¡±- none
Blue mage- Skills I''ve gained so far with this class Silence, Drink blood, Night Vision, String attack, Poison spit, Kings leadership, Feral roar, Water affinity, Blink strike, Ogre''s strength, Ogre regeneration, Absorb
Purple mage ¡°Warlock¡±- Level 25 skill Blood pact- Able to form pacts with living creatures to gain and share power
Grey mage ¡°Time mage¡±- Level 25 skill Slow- Cast magic that slows enemies for a short period of time
Orange mage ¡°Illusionist¡±- Level 25 passive skill Detect magic- Able to read mana in the area (helps with sensing magic traps and telling if the areas mana heavy since bosses like to stay in those areas)
Green mage ¡°Nature mage¡±- Level 25 skill Barkskin- Can apply a boost to defenses of 1 ally (makes them more susceptible to fire magic)
Summoner- Level 25 skill Conjure lesser spirit- Can summon an elemental spirit to help fight for you (takes the shape of the element you''re most closely tied too) (combines with elementalist to make conjure spirit which is a larger/stronger version of the lesser spirit)
Warden- Level 25 skill Absorption shield- Cast a shield that will absorb magic if cast at you and turn it into mana (much shorter duration than shell)
Elementalist- none
Spellthief- Level 10 skill Mana slash- uses mana to extend the reach of your melee attacks Level 25 skill Spell steal- Able to take a single magic attack cast at you and store it indefinitely, occurs a 5 cool down once spell is cast (hasn''t unlocked yet)
Stamina based classes are Spoiler :
Druid- Level 25 skill Mark of the wild- Boosts all the stats of a single friendly target (decreases defense) (combines with barkskin to make Gift of the wild which increases both defense and stats with no negative effects)
Monk- Level 25 passive skill Improved meditate- Increases the chi gained through meditation by fifty percent
Paladin- Level 25 skill Smite evil- Attack that deals eight times more damage to undead targets (combines with weaken undead to make Turn undead which deals damage and weakens any undead enemies)
Shaman- Level 25 skill Create totem- Able to create totems with wood (depending on the moon cycle changes the totem made)
Knight- Level 25 skill Ten percent stamina increase
Guardian- Level 25 skill Shield slam- smash the target with your shield stunning them (combines with charge to make Shield charge which applies both moves at once)
Chemist- Level 10 skill Increased potion tier- Increases the potions you crafts tier by one automatically Level 25 skill Mad scientists potion- Boosts one stat for five minutes by a tremendous amount, random stat, can''t be used with other potions
Specialty classes Spoiler :
Scout- Level 20 passive skill Tracking- Able to more easily follow someone
Freelancer- 20 stat points still unspent
Scholar- Level 25 skill passive Learning from reading- able to more easily learn things from books, increases the experience gained towards jobs and classes from books
¡°Master of Learning¡±- Level 20 skill Increased experience gained for all other classes
¡°Master of Teaching¡±- Level 25 skill Learning through teaching- increases experienced gained for other classes while teaching those classes
I should also go over the skills that have become merged skills, secret skills and my signature moves. The ones I normally default to when I''m fighting. Merged skills Spoiler :
Steal + Pilfer = Mug- Able to attack with a chance to steal items and gold from the enemy
Hide + Silent movement = Sneak- Much harder to see or detect, slows movement speed in favor of being completely hidden
Control elements + Fireball = Flare- Deals slightly more damage and covers a far bigger area than fireball
Control elements + Ice bolt = Freeze- Deals slightly more damage and covers a far bigger area (no addition to freeze time)
Control elements + Nature shift = Control Nature- Able to shape and move wood and earth more easily
Sneak attack + Goblin race = Assassinate- Attack that deals eight times normal damage if the target hasn''t noticed you yet, completely silent
Heavy slash + Rend = Heavy rending slash- An attack that deals double normal damage and also causes the target to bleed
Defensive stance + Iron will = Complete defense- Reduces both physical and magical damage done to you while active
Infuse + Anti magic runes = Infused anti magic runes- Empowers weapon with a permanent buff that imbues your weapon with a magic and also allows your weapon to cut through magic
Silence + Counter spell = Improved Counter spell- Causes a feedback effect that injures mages with their own magic they are trying to cast, also silences for thirty seconds (one minutes cooldown)
Inspect + Detective = Detect- Adds more information to everything you inspect
Drinking powerful numbing poison + poison spit = poison spit- Can spit either weak or strong numbing poison
Predict lies + Detective = Interrogate- Can put captives through questioning that will lead to information you wouldn''t normally be able to gain
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Secret Skills Spoiler :
Capable liar- Able to more easily lie to others
Predict lies- Able to tell whether someone is lying more easily
Summon Undead- Summons a skeleton to fight for you
Bear''s ferocity- empowers your berserking to deal heavier blows and regenerate rage faster
Sprinting- Able to boost movement speed at the cost of fatigue points
Regenerate- Able to fix injuries previously impossible to fix with other healing magic (cannot regenerate lost limbs)
Improved haggling- Shortens the time it takes to haggle and increases the amount you can haggle by five percent (totaling fifteen percent)
Caterer- Able to obtain more food from all sources, store food for longer and serve food faster and to more people
Trap proficiency- Able to make and set-up traps
Quick return- Able to quickly return to the entrance of the dungeon after beating it
Valiant- As your health decreases your defense increases
Wolf form- Change into a wolf, increase to critical strike chance and dodge while in this form
Ambidextrous- Able to use both hands with similar skill
Signature moves Spoiler :
Rock cannon- Uses a tier three wind scroll to fire a rock (replaced with knife) at enemy (takes an entire day of making the scrolls) (1 day cooldown)
Knives cannon- Fires six Knife cannons at once, extremely strong and applies every single negative effect Kite can infuse onto weapons (one week cooldown)
Control nature uppercut opportune strike- forms the earth or the wooden sword into a fist that surprises the opponent allowing for you to attack with it combining with opportune strike
Fast rush special- Uses all movement speed increasing skills to get an attack in on a surprised enemy
Hidden blade opportune mana slash strike- Uses the blade stored in Aegis to attack an unsuspecting enemy with an increased range opportune strike
Activating harmonicas- uses bard skills and wind magic to automatically play buff songs
Activating Aegis stat boosts- Uses the stats and resources Aegis has been siphoning from you, can be scaled to amounts needed and single stats can be increased instead of increasing every single stat (20 stack boost can only be active for the max of five minutes before it starts destroying Kites body)
Stat potion injection- Injects a stat boosting potion that Kite has made himself (can be drank for a longer lasting, weaker effect)
Drink regen potion- Drink a potion that slowly regenerates resources over time (can be injected for instant resource boost)
Double barrel knife cannons- Fire both knife cannons attached underneath both arms (replaces rock/knife cannon)
Poison potions- Uses made poison potions to injure or blind enemies
Explosive bolts- Fire an arrow that has an explosive chemical on the end, once exploded it sets off a tier four flare scroll to increase the damage and scale of the explosion
Chi wave- Final signature move, last resort attack that fires a portion of the stored chi in Kites body to attack, the more chi put into attacks, results in bigger attacks.
The equipment I have currently. I''m equipped with my heirloom weapon I use with my left hand. (Left handed person until ambidextrous skill gained) Aegis is equipped on my right for defense and utility. Armor is plain leather with a layer of mithril scale mail over top of it. Three pairs of boots that regenerate different resources were added to Aegis. I now gain resources while I move. Rare bolt pouch that reduces weight on left hip with mixed enchanted bolts. Rare scroll pouch that reduces weight on right hip. Rare void bag with a bedroll inside of it. Rare bag of everything else I use. (potions, harmonicas, totems and so on) Backpack full of rocks. (If entering a difficult fight I remove it from myself) Wooden sword and metal sword. Gold pouch. Before everyone left I managed to get them to read me their stats. I''ll also look at my own stats for comparison to everyone else. Kite and generals current stats Spoiler :
(Kite stats)(strength- 230) (dexterity- 200) (intelligence- 260) (stamina- 300) (total = 990 stats)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost) (strength- 1150) (dexterity- 1000) (intelligence- 1300) (stamina- 1500) (total = 4950)
(Gobber stats) (strength- 1250) (dexterity- 630) (intelligence- 250) (stamina- 1500) (total = 3630)
(Gargarz stats) (strength- 50) (dexterity- 50) (intelligence- 1750) (stamina- 600) (total = 2450)
(Nargzar stats) (strength- 400) (dexterity- 1200) (intelligence- 100) (stamina- 750) (total = 2450)
(Zergnar stats) (strength- 1500) (dexterity- 250) (intelligence- 50) (stamina- 1150) (total = 2950)
(Leaf stats) (strength- 10) (dexterity- 10) (intelligence- 1700) (stamina- 500) (total = 2220)
(Lance stats) (strength- 1100) (dexterity- 350) (intelligence- 150) (stamina- 1350) (total = 2950)
(Trice stats) (strength- 100) (dexterity- 550) (intelligence- 690) (stamina- 600) (total = 1940)
(Leon stats) (strength- 350) (dexterity- 1000) (intelligence- 60) (stamina- 700) (total = 2110)
(Hilda stats) (strength- 600) (dexterity- 500) (intelligence- 200) (stamina- 900) (total = 2200)
(Sock stats) (strength- 800) (dexterity- 500) (intelligence- 100) (stamina- 1250) (total = 2650)
(Pokodo stats) (strength- 1) (dexterity- 300) (intelligence- 1700) (stamina- 600) (total = 2601)
I rounded everyone''s stats to the closes tenth for easy of comparison. Especially when numbers reach 1000, a few extra stat points wont add up to much. While my stats were far below everyone elses. My secondary stats like dodge, block, movement speed, all resource regens and some others were far above average. My fatigue were far above everyone except for Gobber and Leaf for some reason... I remember her fatigue being extremely low when we made our way to Shienta... Maybe she''s hiding something? I guess it doesn''t matter. Fatigue don''t really amount to much with her classes so I doubt having that high amount will matter. Chapter 54 Gobbers time away from the fortress Gobber''s point of view Master said I should be out training instead of watching the fortress. He''s right, I need to get stronger. If we''re going to stand a chance against the pirates, all of us need to get stronger. I''ll work on the adventurers guild quests I can do while traveling between dungeons. Me and Hilda are the strong front group. If needed, I can fall back and support with a crossbow. We have a spellthief from the demon tribe. He isn''t nearly as strong as I hoped but the mage counter makes up for it. The beast rider has a bat and wolf pet she rides. Kline is¡­ Well not the best white mage¡­ He''s the weakest healer I''ve grouped with so far. I guess I was just used to such good healers compared to him. The town of Shienta will be our base of operations for the first six months. We''ll expand outwards. We need to carry food and water with us since we don''t have Kite... Who could cook the monsters and make water out of anything¡­ For being so weak he sure was useful in other ways... It makes me miss him when he''s not their to think up strategies or solve problems in unexpected ways. Three months into the adventurers guild quests and dungeoning. Most of the group is stronger. We''re getting to a point where we could possibly do higher tier dungeons but we still have a weak link¡­ Kline is so weak he''s almost killed a few people by not healing them. Why did master give me such a weak person... That is the only thing holding us back. I''ve started training Kline on our off days. If he has higher fatigue points, he wont slow us down so much. That wont increase his slow reaction speed though. I wonder if there is something I can say to help him be better. We''ll keep this up but I really want to replace him with someone better¡­ Why did Kattie have to die, if she was alive I could be grouped with Gargarz. Dammit! Her death caused so many problems. With Kline, I don''t feel safe doing tier four dungeons. Doing easy dungeons is still much better than just sitting in the fortress all day. I''ve also been making a lot of money by doing adventurers guild quests. We''ll try to do a tier four dungeon once I feel we''re more up to it¡­ Just catching up to the general team we had the last time we did a tier four dungeon... It is taking longer than I''d like. They are all generals for a reason though. Maybe I should go ask for some knife cannons from Kite to help us cheat a tier four dungeon? No that wouldn''t help the main problem¡­ Freaking Kline needs to get stronger. I should have Kite teach him another class¡­ That won''t solve the problem, the core problem is Kline. He needs to care if we die. It feels like he puts so little effort into anything. Fine, then I''ll put Kline through the death gods realm for the next few weeks. Beating fatigue points into him with constant training. The first few days Kline struggled¡­ Struggled to do anything¡­ Me beating him with a wooden sword when he slacked off motivated him though. If we''re going to rely on this guy, he needs to be more reliable. A few days after trying and I barely have to hit him anymore. I keep up the training though, making it harder and harder everyday. He has zero fatigue points at the end of each day. This will take care of his running out of steam one or two floors into dungeons. Now I have to think of a way to get his healing time up. I''ve started having him heal practice sparring matches between myself and the spellthief. I have to hold back to keep it fair. If he heals to slowly, I throw a rock at his head. If he can''t heal me within five seconds of taking damage, he''ll take damage. He should be more concerned about us taking damage to begin with. Well a few more weeks of this and he should be ready to heal a tier four dungeon. We finally make it to a tier four dungeon. With my training I put Kline through, he should be able to do fine now. It is a warrior dungeon. Ah man, we lucked out. These are far easier than most. You can say it''s the most straightforward dungeons. We wont have to deal with any difficult enemies with complex attacks. I''ll switch to my giant crossbow for now and support. I can instantly one shot most things with this bow¡­ Kite is such a genius. Even when he''s not here, he''s helping us. We easily make it to the rest floor. Kline had enough fatigue points to not have a problem making it here¡­ I think he''s finally realizing how hard this would have been without my training. We talk that whole night¡­ Kline is far more talkative than usual. ¡°Hey¡­ Gobber¡­ I get it. I understand now¡­ If I didn''t get stronger. We couldn''t move forward as a group¡­ I''ve never really gotten close to other people. It''s always been me by myself... I''ve worked as a spy for the capital ever since I was a child. One of the things I''ve had to deal with is betraying people I''ve gotten close to... So I''ve never put much effort into healing. I never put much effort into anything... If I did I might have gotten attached to people more easily... What I''m saying is¡­ Thank you.¡± ¡°Yea no problem. It''s good to see you finally taking this seriously. A single slip-up from the healer and we all could have ended up dead. We''ll push the boss tomorrow and since you''re finally on the same page we can start clearing these harder dungeons.¡± The next day we finished clearing up to the boss room. Fighting against warriors is easy enough to deal with so we get there without any problems. Warriors aren''t very complex when it comes to fighting. Without Kite here, I don''t know which boss we''ll get attacked by. We''ll just have to wing it¡­ We enter the room, it''s a¡­ What the hell is it? We walk in and there is an old man sitting in the middle of the room¡­ He can''t possibly be the boss. I''ll have to ask. ¡°Does¡­ Does anyone know what this boss is about? If it''s just a little old man like that, we shouldn''t have a problem right?¡± Kline knew what it was. ¡°No its not as easy as that. It''s a quiz master¡­ What is it doing in a warrior dungeon? Well the gist is he''ll ask questions and if we''re right we''ll get experience and items. It''s honestly the safest boss if we''re all smart and knowledgeable¡­ If we guess wrong though¡­ I think he spawns a dungeon boss a whole dungeon tier above ours. We''re prepared for tier four dungeon bosses but not tier five, the shift is too difficult so we should just leave.¡± ¡°No, I didn''t realize until now but your actually smart aren''t you Kline. With this groups spread out knowledge, we should be able to answer the questions. So how do we start it?¡± ¡°We just get close enough to him and he''ll ask us a question. Or make us solve a puzzle or a riddle. Just DON''T ATTACK HIM! He''s a vicious fighter and will kill us all if we attack him!¡± ¡°Easy enough, yea I don''t get why he''s in a warrior dungeon though. Maybe at some point the dungeon switched to a warrior or mage dungeon and the boss or dungeon hasn''t changed yet¡­ Well no use questioning it since we don''t know.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. We walk close enough to hear what the quiz master has to say. He looks up, he has no face¡­ What the hell! It caught me off guard, this person is definitely not a human. ¡°Hehehe, so? What brought you here?¡± I go to answer. ¡°Wel-¡± Muffling my mouth with his hand. Kline cuts me off whispering. ¡°That''s our question¡­¡± Shit! Without realizing it, I almost blurted out we were here to fight a boss¡­We would have definitely been put against a tier five boss at that point when I said it¡­ WHAT IS THE ANSWER THEN¡­ Are we here for loot and experience!? I have no idea how to answer this question¡­ DAMMIT! Why couldn''t it just be a normal boss I could beat to death. I''ll have to leave it to Kline¡­ Seeing as it''s a question it could have multiple answers. Maybe mine was right? Kline cuts my thought process off. ¡°Our feet.¡± A pile of money and items forms in from of him. What! It was something that stupid? Well, at least we won''t have to fight anything. I move to pick up the items than the quiz master asks. ¡°If you wanted to cross a river with the only difference being temperature. What temperature would you want it to be to get across it the fastest?¡± WHAT! Their is more than one question!? Crap, I have no idea. Would it be faster to swim through hot water or cold water? I don''t know again! This is the worst dungeon for me¡­ I''ll have to rely on Kline. I look over at him and it looks like he might already know the answer. After a few moments of waiting Kline finally speaks. ¡°Below freezing so you could skate across the river.¡± ...Wow I''m bad at this. It''s so obvious after I heard the answer. More items and gold form in front of him again¡­ Is he going to ask another question? I wait a few moments before I move towards the items again. He waits until I do to ask the next one. ¡°Final question! If you don''t know the answer, what is the only right answer?¡± Dammit, he waited for me to move again to ask the last question! Whats the answer though? Is it a trick like the other questions? This time I look over at Kline and it looks like he doesn''t know this one! Shit, he was so prepared for the other ones¡­ It is ten minutes of silence, no one has answered. No one knows the answer! We''re going to be forced to fight the tier five boss at this rate¡­ I make eye contact so they know what I''m thinking. If I don''t know the answer the only thing we can do is fight the boss. I still have to answer ¡°I don''t know.¡± The quiz master disappears¡­ Where''s the boss at? From the smoke a ring drops where the quiz master was. The pile of items and money had gotten bigger again¡­ Wait what!? That was the answer? How would we have guessed that? Well no matter I guess. At least we finished the dungeon. I inspect the ring that dropped, it was a rare ring with the effect of mana regen...
Heavy knight level 11 to 12
Archer level 66 to 70
Scout level 88 to 90
Chemist level 50 to 55
Warrior level 68 to 71
Guardian level 61 to 66
Blue mage level 52 to 57
Beast tamer level 80 to 82
Level 90 Scout passive skill gained Lightning Reflexes- A portion of your movement speed is applied to your dodge
We leave the dungeon. We spent a surprising amount of time in the boss room for doing no fighting. Some of the enemies are respawning and since the entire group doesn''t have quick escape. We can''t just teleport to the beginning. Still, for our first tier four dungeon, things could have gone worse. We still have plenty of time to get stronger until the year is up. I just hope everyone else is getting stronger too. With Kline passing this first challenge, maybe I''ll make a trip back to the fortress. Him having another class would help go a long ways for clearing dungeons.
(Gobber stats when Kite asked) (strength- 1250) (dexterity- 630) (intelligence- 250) (stamina- 1500) (total = 3630)
(Gobber stats now) (strength- 1400) (dexterity- 700) (intelligence- 270) (stamina- 1700) (total = 4070)
Chapter 55 Leafs time away from the fortress Side story: Leaf''s point of view We''ve been adventuring for a few more months now. Leon is¡­ Well, he''s still depressed obviously. His future wife died and no one expects him to even recover from what has happened... I often console him over her, I''ve seen him cry more than I fee comfortable with. Gargarz, the gnoll white mage Kite gave us is an extremely adept healer... The healing difference isn''t noticeable between the two but he can support far better than Kattie could. Even though he is better Leon kind of holds a grudge against him¡­ Maybe because he''s the one who replaced Kattie? I''m not sure¡­ I hope it doesn''t escalate though... Every day I wake up I go for an hour long run, before everyone else wakes up. I''ve gained the early bird skill because of this. I''ve been secretly training for years now. If Kite can get so strong by training everyday... Maybe if I put in a fraction of the work he does¡­ I can stand close to him without being embarrassed¡­ I lied to him about my stats, I''ve actually gotten a much higher strength, dexterity and stamina stats then I told him. I don''t think guys like strong women though... So I tried to make myself sound more girly... I have started sword training and crossbow training recently. Both increase my stats in both strength and dexterity. I doubt I''ll ever use either weapon over magic. It is just something else to practice and make me stronger. We''ve started clearing tier four dungeons. We could before when Kattie was in the group but with a new member... We had to clear weaker dungeons until we all got accustomed to how everyone works¡­ Leon¡­ Leon is openly mean to Gargarz. It wish I could stop him but it is just him grieving¡­ Lance has started sticking up for Gargarz though¡­ So that''s good. The first tier four dungeon we did almost ended in Leon''s death. He rushed the boss before Lance could make the first attack and was almost crushed. Gargarz manage to shift the earth enough for Leon to hide in a pitfall he made. The small damage he had taken was reduced because of barkskin cast on him. We all had haste on us since before the fight started from Gargarz. To top it off Gargarz started filling the hole Leon was in with Healing water both healing him and making a potential health regen spot for later. The fight was a long and drawn out one. Leon constantly risking his life with Gargarz barely controlling the situation enough to stop his death. Gargarz had somehow managed to keep all of us alive even while focusing that hard on keeping Leon alive¡­ He is an amazing healer. After the fight Lance asked why Leon was being so reckless. ¡°Gargarz can handle this much, if Kattie was still alive she could handle twice as much danger as this.¡± Lance spoke up. ¡°No she wouldn''t Leon, she wouldn''t need to because you wouldn''t be trying to injure yourself.¡± Leon instead of getting mad at Lance walked over to Gargarz and hit him. He hit him a few more times before Lance pulled him off. Leon screamed. ¡°WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN GOOD! I can''t even get mad at your healing because of it!¡­ Why wont you just let me die...¡± This entire time, the whole time we''ve been dungeoning... Leon was trying to kill himself¡­ I don''t know what to say¡­ If he wants to die¡­ The choice is up to him¡­ He spoke again. ¡°If¡­ If you''d have just let me die, I could be reborn right now. The memories of Kattie wouldn''t be in my head anymore. If I died fighting it would be less embarrassing than killing myself¡­ You though¡­ No matter how hard I tried you just wouldn''t let me die. So I guess I''ll quit adventuring with this group¡­ I''ll join one without an amazing healer.¡± With that, Lance started walking out of the room¡­ None of us moved. Lance motioned like he was going to but he didn''t have an answer for Leon either¡­ Finally he grabbed Leon''s arm and yelled. ¡°LEON! I don''t have the answer you''re looking for¡­ The only thing I can tell you is I don''t want you to kill yourself. I can''t say it will ever get easier but... You just have to keep living Leon! Nothing will bring her back! If you want to stop anything like that from happening again, you need to get stronger. So strong no one ever wants to kill anyone close to you! Get so strong they have to change the rules of this world!¡± He let go¡­ Leon crawled into a ball on the ground and sobbed uncontrollably... I''m not sure he''ll ever be normal again... There will always be a darkness in him he won''t be able to fix because of whats happened¡­ If something like that happened to Kite¡­ I don''t know what I would do¡­ I don''t know what I would do if Kite answered my question¡­ We made it out of the dungeon and rested outside that night¡­ The next morning when I woke up to go for my jog I saw Leon still up. I talked to him instead¡­ He wants to start training with me from now on. I don''t know how I feel about that. Before I was a shoulder to cry on for him. We''ve never done anything together besides talk¡­ I don''t want him to get the wrong idea¡­ I''ll train with him for now I guess. We''ve continued to clear dungeons and train... Leon''s started teaching me some tricks to being a rogue. I feel like I can handle my sword swings faster because of that... While running I got a new skill. Secret Summoner skill gained minion power- Can now sacrifice fatigue points as well as mana points to increase the strength of familiars. Using fifty percent of my fatigue points, I can summon a greater familiar around twice the size of my previous one... My greater familiar was about twice the size of my regular familiar. I can summon greater familiars bigger than normal humans now. It works with conjure elemental too. I have a fire elemental almost twice the size of one without the aid of fatigue points. I might be able to make a bird big enough to ride on now. One of my dreams is to fly. So I''m getting closer to that dream. As a group most of our classes have started to reach rank-up. My black mage did and I switched to dark mage, my summoner already had. I chose advanced summoner over elemental lord summoner. One reason because elemental lord summoner you have to form a contract with the elemental lords by beating them in a fight¡­ Research while I was still in school made it very clear that it would take several raid groups to beat an elemental lord. Plus you would have to travel to it first. I don''t know where any are and it would be impossible for me to get an army¡­ I could ask Kite for help¡­ But I don''t want to be a burden... We''ve decided to try our first tier five dungeon. Mainly because of my new greater familiars. I can potentially increase the size of our group by five members with my greater familiars. It took almost a week to summon them since I used up so much of my fatigue points on each one every day. Doing this has reserved half of my mana but it will be worth it to have such an increased amount of group members. I summoned three normal classed looking people and an animal and my elemental. A white mage, a warrior, a bear, a warden and a fire elemental. One weakness we have going forwards, is that enemies in tier five dungeons are far more powerful. Each being of a similar strength to a whole pack of enemies from a tier four dungeon. So any help on reducing damage is necessary. That''s why I made the warden, even with short shields and shells. It will help stop Lance from dying. We make it inside, it is a water dungeon¡­ These are extremely dangerous high level dungeons because traps in this area are far more difficult to notice when they''re submerged underwater. With Trice as a scout, we should be fine with her leading the group¡­ As long as we don''t fight and step on traps that she hasn''t seen yet¡­ So I suggest to get the attention of each group and move into a room with no traps in it¡­ The enemies are far harder than normal. If I hadn''t have summoned five greater familiars we would have been wiped out¡­ Leon keeps praising me for how strong they all are¡­ I''m embarrassed by how much he compliments me. He keeps commenting on how closely they resemble humans. We keep pushing, the enemies are all weird gross things though¡­ Like a giant slime, it''s hard to kill¡­ Big lizard men, normally in groups of three to five. Some even have classes and are far harder to take down. Even as difficult as they are, our group is far stronger than it was when we started adventuring together. Everyone has put in more work to get stronger. Especially Leon. He''s gotten so strong he can fight alongside Lance without much fear of injury. Well that was in tier four dungeons, a tier five dungeon he has to be careful. We make it to the safe room on the seventh floor. Most of us are completely tired, except for me and Lance... One of my greater familiars died making it here¡­ While sad, it is better than one of us¡­ I can''t afford to waste fatigue points tomorrow on making it so I spend most of the remaining I have on making one that night. It''s a far smaller bear than it originally was but it''s better than nothing. The next day we start pushing towards the final boss room. We see a trapped pressure plate with a rare on it¡­ It''s too much of a risk to go after but Leon wants it¡­ This could end badly, he pulls it off but nothing happens¡­ Could it have been a dud trap? When I think that the room starts to flood! Lance rushes for the door and manages to prop it open with his spear. If the door would have closed we would have all most likely drowned¡­ What was Leon thinking? Lance spoke up. ¡°Close call, I hope that rare is worth it Leon.¡± ¡°Of course it is. I wouldn''t risk dying for a bad rare.¡± Not much difficulty getting to the last level¡­ On the last level we start fighting different enemies. They''re invisible so we can''t see them. You can only see the water ripple when they''re moving. Even after we kill them they don''t change back into what they normally look like¡­ That''s not how the invisibility spell works¡­ They must be constantly camouflaged then. It takes us far longer to clear this floor than any of the other ones. We have to be extremely careful and thre more of my greater familiars have died. Leaving the white mage and warden left¡­ While getting the mana reserved back is nice¡­ Losing a potential party member isn''t¡­ The warrior had taken a hit from the back line, so it might have saved someones life by being back there. We make it to the boss room doors¡­ No one has any idea what type of boss this is going to be. We head inside. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It''s a surprisingly cute giant turtle! I think they are called Terrapin turtles. As cute as it is I know it''s a threat. It is possibly a slow moving enemy, but we''re also waist deep in water. So our movement is also going to be slowed. As I think that the ground we''re standing on starts to rise. Gargarz started raising the land in certain spots to where it was only ankle deep. We should be able to move faster tha-. The turtle charges extremely fast! Lance barely gets in front of it blocking its sharp teeth with his shield. That caught me by surprise. I can''t use shock magic in here. Fireball magic wouldn''t be as effective because the slashing water might weaken it. Ice bolt magic might also cause collateral damage. I go with dark mage level one skill magic missile. It''s the upgraded version of magic arrow that shoots a giant mana arrow at the target. My moves do nothing to the turtle. Of course its shell would be too thick to do anything against. Leon ran to it''s side and managed to cut its hand. The turtle is too strong to tank so we''re going to have to run from it. Lance backed off. He jumped into the air and launched one of his extra spears at the turtle with lancet. It couldn''t pierce the turtles shell either. The turtle turned and started chasing Trice, she''s been struggling with this dungeon. The spider silk she can shoot out loses stickiness when wet. Poison spit was completely unusable on most of the enemies getting here. Even Lance and Leon coating their weapons in it only helped against the lizard men. She uses feral roar and runs away. The turtle chasing after her. She''s far too fast with the movement speed boost plus the scout class. Trice is definitely the smartest person in the group. Normally she would be shouting out attack plans to use against the turtle¡­ She can''t because she''s running though. The turtle gave up on her instead turning towards me¡­ Oh no! I quickly summon a frog greater familiar, big enough for me to get on. It jumps away once and I fall off¡­ I should have picked something easier to ride. The turtle is right over top of me! Lance comes flying down onto one of its arms crippling it. While this was happening, I felt the ground shift underneath me and start moving me away from the turtle. Breathing a sigh of relief that Lance had saved me again¡­ He saves me far more than I''d like to admit. Even Gargarz is starting to get accustomed to saving me¡­ That was certainly not the first time conjuring something has backfired against me. Finally Trice calls out. ¡°It doesn''t have any weaknesses, just focus on any part of it that isn''t covered by shell!¡± Kind of obvious but with no weaknesses targeting the only exposed body parts is what we should have been doing instead of making two attacks towards its shell. Leon runs to the side and injures the arm he had already injured. It''s in far worse shape now than before. The turtle will struggle with chasing us now. I fire another magic missile at the same leg Leon just hit and cripple it completely. Only one of the turtles front legs and one of its rear legs work now. Lance is whittling it down slowly, with quick thrusts from his spear. Trice stole it''s defenses at some point during the fight. It was after she had been chased. Weakening its defenses while strengthening hers, it is a very helpful spellthief move. She had crawled up the wall with spider silk and was in a safe position. I hate to say it but she is fairly useless this fight since the enemy isn''t the right match up for her classes. The single move she could use to help she already did. So she was just staying out of everyone¡¯s way. We managed to get the boss weakened and into its second phase. The turtle had died and it erupted a few dozen mini turtles to attack everyone from it''s belly! My stupid frog familiar got killed right away. Lance jumped into the air and Leon had run away from the group... If only I could use shock magic, I could potentially kill all of them in one go. I call it out. ¡°Trice get the walls sticky! If everyone can get out of the water I can use shock!¡± With me yelling Trice quickly covers the walls near her in spider silk. If we don''t handle it this way, the turtles might overwhelm us. I''m on the opposite side of everyone else with no silk to climb on¡­ I get an idea though. I summon another frog familiar and ride on him again. He hops me enough out of the water for me to cast shock down into it. BZZZT, frying over half of the turtles in one go. The other half should be paralyzed. After a minute of cleanup duty, targeting the remaining living turtles we''ve finally killed the first tier five boss!
Advanced Summoner level 16 to 19
Dark mage level 3 to 6
Time mage level 98 to 100
Level 100 Time mage skill gained Time stop- Able to stop time within a fifty foot area around you, drains ten percent of your mana every two seconds
Class limit broken, can learn another class
Rank up requirements met choose your rank up
Advanced time mage | Space mage
Before I pick I''ll talk with Gargarz since he''s also a time mage. ¡°Gargarz I hit one hundred with time mage, what did you pick?¡± ¡°I haven''t hit one hundred yet, what are the options?¡± ¡°Advanced Time mage or Space mage.¡± ¡°Hmm, I wonder what space mage is about¡­ I''ll pick the opposite of what you pick.¡± It sounds like he doesn''t want space mage... I''ll pick that so he can have the more normal class to upgrade to. ¡°I''m picking space mage."
New class unlocked Space mage
Level one Space mage skill gained Expand- Increase the size of any non organic thing by up to three times it''s normal size for one minute (five minute cooldown)
(Leaf''s stats when Kite asked) (strength- 450) (dexterity- 400) (intelligence- 1700) (stamina- 500) (total = 2950)
(Leaf''s current stats) (strength- 500) (dexterity- 550) (intelligence- 1850) (stamina- 650) (total = 3550)
I''ll have to experiment with expand later, to make the most use out of it¡­ It doesn''t seem like a bad class after all though... I wonder if it works on familiars? We left the boss room, making our way out with no real troubles finishing the dungeon. Leon approached me later that night. ¡°Hey Leaf¡­ Can you do me a favor?¡± ¡°Yea Leon what''s going on?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Can¡­ Can you make a familiar to look like Kattie for me?¡± Why? What is he going to do? I''ll make one for him I guess... It won''t be human colored though. Familiars have a particular color too them... I try to use the perfect amount of fatigue points to get her height right. Finally doing that I form a Kattie familiar. ¡°Kattie, I know this isn''t you¡­ But I didn''t get a chance to say goodbye to you. Just please¡­ Realize how sorry I am¡­ I wasn''t there to protect you¡­ I love you still¡­ I always will¡­ I''m going to try and make this world a better place¡­ I know you''re out there somewhere, having been reborn¡­ I''ll make you safe even in your new life¡­ I swear it...¡± Chapter 56 Socks time away from the fortress Side story: Sock''s point of view Master told us to get stronger. So that''s what we''ve been doing. We have a demon race, two beast riders and Nargzar with us. Totaling six members. We could have one more but it could leech experience off us and slow our level progression down. We''ll recruit another person once we can move up to tier four dungeons. My levels were still too low for Pokodo to feel comfortable doing tier four dungeons. Right now handling tier three dungeons, we shouldn''t need any help. The main problem is the weaker members of our group. The two beast riders are woefully under skilled and leveled. It will take the longest time to get them caught up. They both use crossbows and fight dismounted instead of mounted. I think they''re brothers. The demon tribe member is strong enough. With a few dungeons he was already strong enough to go into tier four dungeons with us. But the brothers need to catch our level so we''ll do a few more tier three dungeons. Pokodo is¡­ Far above average when it comes to healing. So she can make up for their mistakes¡­ I''ve been shot in the back far more times then either of the gnolls would like to admit. If I wasn''t wearing extremely strong armor for arrow blocking, I might have been in trouble¡­ I think Zergnar dumped the weakest two of his group off on us. It makes me angry because we could have been leveling faster without these two clowns. They''ve been leveling steadily but the amount of stray arrows that hit me is still too high. If they don''t fix that in later difficulty dungeons it might cost our lives¡­ They''re ready enough to handle tier four dungeons I think though. Pokodo doesn''t want to risk it but we should be fine with her healing. We enter the tier four dungeon. It''s an earth dungeon¡­ I have no idea what type of monsters we''re going to face. We enter and the first enemy is¡­ A snail¡­ Really? I move in close to it and attack but it retreats into its shell¡­ Hey what is this thing doing!? Is it just going to hide in it''s shell without fighting? WHAT A COWARD! Before I had the chance to even notice it poked it''s head out and shot acid at me! Shit, it hit one of my basilisk plates! I quickly take it off before it melts through. That was close! These guys are going to be a freaking pain! Will I even be able to attack them without ruining my sword? As I think that Pokodo forces water into the shell, flushing the snail out. It spits acid again but I easily dodge and slice it in one go. This should be a little easier now with her countering the snails shells. Just have to be careful of their slimy acid or I could lose more than just a plate of armor. A huge hole in my armor is now there because of that snail! I''ll have to fix it once we get to the rest floor. We push forwards, I notice a surprising lack of enemies on this floor¡­ Is it because the snails are so dangerous? We continue to push forwards to the second floor. There we see why the enemies were low in this dungeon. Another group of adventurers is in here¡­ Common courtesy says we should leave and let them finish. They didn''t see it that way, upon seeing us, a group of monsters one of them charged. He was a warrior I barely got my shield up in time to block his swing. I need to sort this out. ¡°Hey what are you doing? We''re not part of this dungeon! Continue attacking if you want to die! We didn''t know their was another group in here clearing we''ll leave.¡± Master taught me the rules of dungeon exploring. What I should and shouldn''t do if we encounter another group. The group was confused by a talking wolf¡­ They saw our group as being stronger I think and let us be on our way¡­ I think we''re going to need a human sooner rather than later if we want to avoid killing other adventurer groups¡­ Man I was really looking forwards to killing a tier four boss at that time. Disappointed we leave the dungeon. We go back to running tier three dungeons for a week. Managing to get me up to level fifty with my classes. I should have waited until then because new skills can save lives. With warrior I got cleave, monk I got palm strikes, druid I got frenzy and bear form and knight I got another increased stamina boost. Cleave is a defense breaking move. Palm strikes is a stun that deals damage to pressure points and can deactivate control of limbs for a short while on humanoids. Bear form is obvious but frenzy is another thing all together. I can use this to cut my defense in half but increase my strength by my lost defense. It fits my tanking style of kill first tank second. I''ll have to be careful though, that loss of defense could be deadly, I won''t use frenzy against bosses. We head to the adventurers guild in Merideth, most of the people who see us are shocked by a walking, talking wolf. I''ve been here before but the amount of people here, even if I lived here for a full year. New people would still see me everyday. We put in a group request looking for an adventurer that fits into the support role to join our group¡­ I put group of monsters on the request so the person joining knows we''re going to be monsters. A few people have applied but as soon as they seen the group they left. I guess they thought what I put on the request was a joke They think I''m a joke! Maybe I should put not a joke in the request? Finally someone approached us. ¡°Greetings creatures, I hear you''re on the lookout for a support mage. Well I can fill that role.¡± The man who applied wasn''t a man at all¡­ It was a tiny boy¡­ Are we not being taken seriously? ¡°BOY! WHY DO YOU WANT TO JOIN WITH US!¡± The boy pissed himself and ran away¡­ Shit was I too loud? We wait four days with no more applicants. Doing the adventurers guild quests while we wait. I''m getting sick of waiting. After I scared the kid no one else has applied. Maybe I could force a human to be my companion. Finally someone approached us. ¡°I hear you''re looking for a support...¡± Looking at the man¡­ What the hell, is this even a man! He''s a giant! I''ve never seen someone so big and strong before! I answer his question. ¡°YES! Yes¡­ Sorry um, yes we''re looking for a support class.¡± The man is not the right shape to be a support. He should definitely be a tank. What questions should I ask him to see if he''s right for our group. Pokodo responds. ¡°Might I ask which support classes you are and what experience you have with dungeons. Also your name and weather or not you can get along with non humans would also be good to know.¡± ¡°My support class is elementalist. Experience is tier six dungeons as a guardian tank but I''ve decided to quit and focus solely on support. My name is Brick and yes, I do get along well with non human races and animals very well.¡± Looks like we got ourselves a support!¡­ But Pokodo is already a elementalist, do we really need another one? I''ll ask. ¡°Pokodo do we really need another elementalist?¡± Bricks eyebrow raised up, I think that''s how he shows that he''s surprised. Us being monsters didn''t surprise him but mentioning elementalist did¡­ I wonder what that''s about? Well I guess if we continue to adventure together we''ll find out eventually. We head towards the last tier four dungeon we tried before. The raid boss should have respawned if they finished. The two beast riders also have gotten stronger, Garzar and Zargar were indeed brothers. Normally when gnolls give birth, it''s to a litter of gnolls. Four to six at a time. So they might have three or four other brothers too. After attacking them for hitting me in the back so often, they started to hit me less and less. Garzar is a blue mage, archer and Zargar is a archer, blue mage¡­ I make sure to not mix them up because they get mad when I do. It''s only been around two weeks since we''ve been here last time¡­ It feels longer though. Entering the dungeon the snail at the beginning last time was surrounded by three earth golems. Brick didn''t have any weapons or armor on¡­ ¡°Hey if you die it''s not my fault if you''re not going to wear protection.¡± I had to tell him so I wouldn''t regret it once he dies¡­ It was all for nothing though because he picked up the snail on the ground and tossed it at the golems instantly killing two of them. The third golem he punched a hole through bare handed¡­ WOW! His strength must be through the roof to pull that off¡­ Wait a second, he''s guardian elementalist, he shouldn''t have such high strength. ¡°Wait a second, did you lie about your classes? You shouldn''t be that strong with a defensive and support class.¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°It''s one of my secret skills, my body is imbued with the elements. So I''m as fast as the wind, I can endure as the earth, smart as the water and strong as the fire.¡± How can you be as strong as fire? Does that mean if he gets water poured on him he''ll die¡­ No because he''s also water¡­ I''m confused even more now. I guess I''ll drop it. Maybe that''s why he doesn''t wear armor, because he doesn''t need it? We push further in, Brick is strong enough to break through the snails shell. Blunt weapons like fists work well against enemies like that. He doesn''t normally kill them though. He tends to pick up a snail and use it as a throwing weapon. Making sure the hole is facing away from himself. When he doesn''t have a shell to throw he switches to his fists or pieces of rock pulled out of the walls. A few times the earth golems just collapsed from him soaking them in water so their bodies destabilized. We easily make it to the safe floor. I want to continue but some of our group is starting to get tired so we''ll take it easy from here on out. Brick is off by himself. Everyone else is close together. I''ll invite him over. I approach him. ¡°Hey you should come sit by us! If we''re going to be adventuring together you should join us.¡± Brick gets up and moves towards us. Most of our group like him, he gets along with everyone except the member of the demon tribe. A few times I''ve seen each other look angrily while the other one wasn''t looking. I''ll ask about it. ¡°Hey why don''t you two get along?¡± Pointing at Brick and the demon tribe member. ¡°My class is his classes weakness. If an extermination was called on demon tribe members¡­ They''d call in elementalists...¡± ¡°How are you his weakness?¡± ¡°Well, spellthieves rely on interrupting the chanting of spell casters. Elementalists don''t have to chant. They can''t counter spell us, our magic is elemental based so anti magic runes don''t work against it. You can''t spell steal a rock or water or air or plain fire. We beat them at long ranged and close range with the help of elements. We devote some of our teachings to countering the spellthieves completely¡­ So the demon tribe probably has built up resentment towards me¡­ Heh, this reminds me of school.¡± I wonder what he meant by that. Well I''ll drop it for now. I should still say something so they don''t try anything. ¡°Just don''t kill each other and we''ll be fine.¡± We go to sleep and the next morning start clearing towards the dungeons boss. The enemies are starting to get harder now. The small golems are now big golems. Almost double if not triple the amount of snails. Brick was almost hit with acid from one of the snails who was hidden inside a hole in the wall. He managed to stop the acid mid air by controlling it¡­ Or so I thought Brick did. It was Pokodo. Bricks eyes showed amazement at Pokodo. He questioned. ¡°How? Acid isn''t water. You shouldn''t be able to control that. Yet here you are controlling it.¡± ¡°I''m attuned towards nature. I can control more things in this dungeon than you. If you hadn''t noticed yet, I''ve been augmenting your elementalist powers with my own since the beginning.¡± ¡°...To be able to notice the small changes in the surroundings enough to help me¡­ You are more than just a monster. You''re a monster when it comes to skill too.¡± We make it to the last floor. There is an obvious rare trap at the top of the steps¡­ Should we risk it¡­ Getting close to it I notice something though¡­ The rare isn''t on the pedestal¡­ What!? Looking around I haven''t anything else. I guess the only thing we can do is push forwards. We make it to the dungeon boss room. With Brick and Pokodo we shouldn''t have any problems in this dungeon. We push forwards into the room¡­ And see a giant golem. Even larger than Rock at the fortress! This might actually be difficult¡­ In the corner of my eye I see something. It''s a pile of bodies¡­ A red trail of blood left by someone moving them into the corner... Was the the boss? I''ll worry about that later, boss first. I get between myself and the group inching forwards¡­ I won''t be able to take any hits without serious damage or death so I have to be careful. Brick rushes passed me. Launching himself into the air by shifting the ground under his feet. He lands on the golem and punches straight through it''s head¡­ Instantly killing it¡­ WHAT THE HELL!? THAT''S BORING!
Warrior level 55 to 60
Monk level 52 to 57
Druid level 50 to 56
Knight level 60 to 64
¡°Why!? We need experience fighting! You can''t keep bailing us out if you''re not around!¡± ¡°Yes I know that but some of the adventurers over there are still alive. I wanted to expedite the process of battle some.¡± I look at the group again¡­ It''s the group that attacked us two weeks ago! We rush towards the surviving member¡­ He doesn''t look good¡­ Even worse his friends look even worse¡­ He must have ran out of food at some point¡­ God of life, he''s been eating his companions to stay alive¡­ He''s almost terrified by the sight of us¡­ His legs have been smashed to pieces by the golem¡­ He yells towards us¡­ ¡°I had to¡­ I had to¡­ I had...¡± What''s wrong with him!? Pokodo addresses him. ¡°Hey what happened? You''re group shouldn''t have lost against a golem that easy.¡± The man responded. ¡°I had¡­ We¡­ We picked up this item...¡± He held up a gauntlet. ¡°We¡­ We were attacked by a giant when we did¡­ He¡­ He chased us all into this room¡­ Before the door closed he manage to kill all of them except for me¡­ I escaped his only attack enough to not die¡­ We¡­ We didn''t even fight the golem...¡± Oh god of life... It sounds like the demigod from the fire dungeon. If we went in before them they would have all been spared from the giant because we would have known what to do. Pokodo heals him as much as she can¡­ She doesn''t have any spells that heal mental damage though. We''ll have to carry him out of the dungeon. I loot his friends, some of them aren''t really people anymore¡­ More like goop with torn, destroyed clothing and gear mixed in. They stink, the flesh has started going rotten¡­ And the surviving adventurer was eating them as his only food source... We manage to get six upgrades out of that dungeon including the gauntlet. It''s a legendary quality gauntlet¡­ I hope this one doesn''t start talking like the person when they get knocked out like masters did¡­ I''ll just hold onto it for now¡­ This one is a left handed gauntlet, meaning it could pair with masters if he wants it. I put it away¡­ Master is the only one who can heal this mans legs, so we''ll make a quick stop back at the fortress before we continue. We still have six months left until we''re supposed to go back. If we don''t take this man to master. I doubt he won''t kill himself or become sane again.
(Sock stats when Kite asked) (strength- 800) (dexterity- 500) (intelligence- 100) (stamina- 1250) (total = 2650)
(Current stats) (strength- 1000) (dexterity- 600) (intelligence- 120) (stamina- 1500) (total = 3220)
Chapter 57 Zergnars time away from the fortress Side story: Zergnar''s point of view Me and my troop of beast riders left the fortress two months ago. We haven''t found any pets worth taming yet. Most of my troops have gotten passed the fifty mark with beast tamer now. We should be able to tame four pets now because of that. I''m not really sure what I should tame. I already have my dire dread wolf, dartwing bat¡­ Most of my troops have a wolf and bat or spider as their pets. We only need to find two more pets for everyone. I''d like to keep our pets similar so we can coordinate attacks better. I asked master where we should look for pets and he sent me towards the central region of the continent. Once we get passed the mountains we should fight stronger enemies. It would be nice to tame an animal that could be used defensively or ranged. Since that is the main problem with our troops right now. Like a thick shelled snail or turtle. I haven''t found any yet, we continue to head towards our main destination though. As soon as we start traversing the mountains we see a rare! It''s a changling. A creature that can change its appearance to suit its needs. We managed to see it in its base form or I might have mistaken it for the creature it was turned into¡­ I have to capture it for master. He made me two rare saddles with mind control on them. If I can sneak up on it I think I can jump and place the saddle at the same time. If I can''t it will change into something different and will be a hassle to deal with. With an army of over twenty soldiers hiding close by. I sneak closer to the changling. It would be awful if it got away or we had to kill it. Within ten feet of it, it is preoccupied with drinking water to have noticed me yet. I leap into the air with dragoon placing the saddle in a better position to land on him. As soon as I do he almost lurches me off. ¡°Calm down!¡± The changling stops moving¡­ YES! I''ve gotten a future mount for master! Without a fight too! This mount couldn''t fit him better. The ability to change appearance, even travel method will be critical later on. The changling can only change into something of a similar size¡­ At least for now, knowing master he will probably end up teaching it how to change into anything! I''ll let another beast tamer watch over it for now while I say at the front of the group. Another week of traveling and we''re finally leaving the region. If we were heading more towards the west, we would be heading into the region we''ll be going to war with soon. The central region is mostly untamed by humanoids. The very few populations are sparse and few between. If we get into any trouble we''ll be on our own. The central part of the continent is several degrees hotter than the southern part of the continent. It isn''t a problem for me. Some of the other beast riders need to take more breaks than usual. I hope we find some suitable mounts or pets soon so we can leave. The white mage we have with us is one of the surviving thieves. When he learned two new classes, both were magic related. The deaths of his brothers in the bandit fort was a religious experience for him. He devoted the rest of his life to serving the god of life. He''s kind of annoying to be around but I understand what he''s going through. I changed myself¡­ My whole person from the death of my pet¡­ I can understand changing for that reason. We get along because of that, my annoying friend Apotheius¡­ He changed his name when he devoted himself¡­ We approach a rock formation in the middle of the forest¡­ Getting closer we notice something. Griffins! A whole flock of them! Counting them it totals around a dozen. We''ll still need to find more but if we can tame these we can switch some of our wolf riders to griffin riders¡­ Finally we get to use our secret weapons. The perfect weapon for stopping these griffins from running¡­ The net cannons, master made the beast riders. We all charge in. The griffins notice and try to flee. Three get away but the nine left were all tamed. I passed on taming a griffin¡­ I feel as the leader I should strive for a better mount. I just hope it wont come back to bite me in the ass if I can''t tame something better. We have a blue mage reload our net cannons. We have some spare wind scrolls for them so we only need the net and poison spit to coat the tube. Almost half of our troops are now riding griffins. It should help on capturing more griffins since we can now chase them through the air. We know there are at least three more flying around. Probably more than that though. We need to look for more rock formations where they like to lay their eggs at. I already have around a dozen griffin eggs for the journey home. We need to have enough for non beast riders once the war starts. Depending on when they were laid, it might be upwards of a month for them to hatch. In that time they need to be kept as warm as possible, so we''ll be stuck in this high heat area until then. We managed to tame the rest of the griffins. They returned home to the rock formation in the middle of the forest. I send a beast rider with the scout class into the sky to look for more. He eventually sees another one. Taming the remaining we needed for the rest of our troops, besides myself. For now the troops need to level them and get used to riding their new mounts. I''ll lead the wolves on the ground until I can find an appropriate mount for myself. If need be I''ll tame a griffin as well. Finding a drake nest or a rare flying monster would be nice. It would suit me better than the griffins. They''re too smart for my liking as a pet. They make better sentinels for bases and couriers for messages, than mounts for combat in my opinion. We pass a few monsters and take them out when appropriate. For now, I should worry about everyone else getting their fourth pet. Maybe capturing another pet for master before I worry about myself. As I think that I see it. A black griffin rare, perched on top of griffin nest. It''s standing close to a single pitch black egg¡­ From that moment on I knew it was going to be my mount. No matter what I had to do to get it. I wasn''t going to tame it with a net, I was going to fight it if I could. There is no way that griffin would abandon its egg like the other griffins did. It is too powerful to back down and give up like that. I move in close, just by myself. No pets, no troops, just myself¡­ The only way I feel I''ll get its trust is by taming it this way. I slowly, cautiously continue approaching it. I have both my spears in my hands. I have a larger one and a much smaller one in my offhand. I don''t want to hurt it if at all possible. I feel it though, I feel that it knows we''re connected too. I throw my larger spear away and continue approaching it, less guarded¡­ It''s almost like I can hear it talking in my head. ¡°I won''t let you hurt my baby!¡± ¡°Don''t worry, I''ll protect your baby with all of my power.¡± It looks at me cautiously. I''ll keep slowly approaching it. Dropping my other spear, I''m completely defenseless now. I feel like that is the only way I can get this special griffin to trust me. I''m a few steps from it. I reach my hand out¡­ And touch it, slowly petting it.
Unique Black griffin bonded with you
Yes! Yes! Thank you greater god! Thank you for this gift! I''ll have to be especially careful with moving this egg¡­ Maybe I should wait for it to hatch¡­ No, we haven''t had any of the other eggs break yet. The griffins can take care of their own pretty well¡­ The griffins are comically bigger than most of the gnolls. A few have evolved but most of the gnolls are still regular gnolls. My griffin is a perfect fit for me. I guess it''s good that they''re so disproportionate though. That means they can carry two or three people per griffin. If we ever get an archer detachment from the army. It might be beneficial to ride in together. It''s been another month. We''ve slowly been leveling up. Most of the griffin eggs have hatched except my black one¡­ Maybe it''s a bad egg¡­ I pray it isn''t. We still haven''t found any defensive monsters. No ranged ones either. Some snakes can spit, same with snails and a few others. Some monsters can shoot off parts of their bodies like bomb bugs and needle birds. Some pets can get into close range instantly. Some being blink dogs and displacer beasts, we need to find them outside of dungeons though. You can''t tame monsters inside dungeons as most are mindless. Finally we find something! After months of getting here and searching. We finally find suitable pets. We come across a field with around fifty arrow porcupine monsters¡­ Too many to approach at once, we''ll have to lure some away. We could possibly beat them all and tame them but we might get casualties¡­ I''ll try to avoid that as much as possible¡­ Perhaps a night raid? Nope, too dangerous. We might get attacked by something even more dangerous¡­ Maybe I can act as a distraction while the rest tame a handful. That is the plan we''re going with for now. We''ll wait until tomorrow. The next day we go to approach the arrow porcupines but they''re in battle with a raid boss! The boss is a giant bird, big enough to possibly wipe out all the porcupines. Should we help? There is no guarantee that the porcupine monsters wont attack us as soon as we show up. This is it though, we have to tame as many as we can while we have the chance. A raid boss amount of experience would also be nice. We push the attack. I''m not good with monster names but it looks like a giant eagle. It would be big enough to carry ten troops on its back easily. If only we had the power to capture it. We rush in to help. Mounted on griffins the raid boss has lost its aerial advantage. Some of the troops push the group to protect the arrow porcupines. The porcupines aren''t dying easily. They have tough quills that protect their body. The quills could take a few hits from a sword so the eagle raid boss can''t easily eat them. The porcupines can also shoot their quills off as an attack. I think it takes around one month to regenerate the quills though. That''s why these pets are so important. They fit the tank and the ranged part of our group. I''m on my unique griffon, she flies over the eagle boss and I jump off her. I''m riding the mind control saddle down on my feet. I highly doubt it will work, so I''m also attacking with both spears in the same instant I land. Bam! Piercing through its back and a wing with my extra spear. It starts to fall towards the ground. When we crash I yell at it hoping it can possibly be tamed with this saddle. Even though it is far to big for the saddle to fit it. ¡°Calm down!¡± It flings me off. Of course the saddle wasn''t big or strong enough to tame it. I''ll have to talk with master about attempting to tame raid bosses later. It starts to get up but I''ve injured its wing. It should be grounded now. Some of the porcupines have run away, about ten are dead so only thirty are still around. Then I see something amazing. The beast riders who stayed on the ground led a charge of the arrow porcupines. What!? That should be impossible, unless the few beast riders tamed all the porcupines. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Around ten beast riders are leading a charge towards the eagle boss. We still have slightly over ten beast riders in the air throwing down rocks and other things towards the eagle. We don''t have anyone skilled enough to fire arrows while riding without risking hitting their own griffins wings. Rocks are still effective for damage though when they''re at the speed of falling. With the griffins being so much bigger than the gnolls. They can hold almost a similar amount of rocks as the weight of the gnolls with no problems. Finally the porcupines make it to the eagle boss. A few jump so their quills are facing it and explode them out towards it. Like firing twenty high powered arrows at once. It is quite effective. Some of the beast riders make passing attacks at the eagle not giving it time to counterattack. It is worrisome but I guess I should finish it off. Jumping as high into the air as I can. Landing on my black griffin than jumping even higher I fall from the sky. Tossing my tiny spear to the side I''m going to put all my weight onto my biggest spear. Bam! My spear went completely through. Only the spears handle where my hand was at the very top was sticking out of it... It falls over, dead.
Beast tamer level 97 to 100
Beast rider 100 to 100
Knight 91 to 95
Dragoon 60 to 64
Berserker 56 to 60
Level 100 Beast tamer passive skill gained Telepathic commands- Can give commands to pets telepathically
Beast tamer rank up requirements met
Beast master | Hunter
Beast rider rank up requirements met
Auto rank up to Griffin rider
Level 1 Griffin rider skill gained Aerial strike- Preform a dive bomb with your griffin jumping off at the last second to attack someone underneath your pet
¡­ I pick hunter.
Level 1 Hunter passive skill gained Bestiary- Able to see if the monster is tamable, whether it would make a good pet and secret information about pets, new information can be added and shared with other hunters
The casualties of that fight was mostly porcupines. One of the beast riders was cut in half by the eagles beak attacking it¡­ I hate to say it but one casualty isn''t that big of a deal, it would have been better to have none. We also had two wolves die in the attack. Both were unmounted being led by the ground group¡­ Still a pretty good turnout. We approach the porcupines and something weird happens. Most of my men say they''ve bonded with a porcupine! So coming to their aid made them feel indebted towards us. Meaning my men can tame one more monster. I didn''t tame one, it didn''t feel like the right pet for myself. With that we can go home though. We''ll start making our way back home. I wish I could have found more pets for master and myself. Only one for him to ride doesn''t feel like enough. I hope we find some weird pets for master. It will still take a little over a month to make it back to the fortress. In that time we can strengthen our bonds with our new pets more. Maybe find more pets to tame. We didn''t really check the mountains making it here. While making our way back I take it slower in the mountains. I''ve been checking the surrounding areas by myself while the group rested. I''ve decided to name my black griffin Bloodyclaw. It matches my dead wolfs name of Bloodytooth. Both Dreadfang and Bloodyclaw are strong pets. Without getting a porcupine monster as a pet I''m still lacking a defensive pet. My dartwing bat I named¡­ Dartwing¡­ Is pretty good as ranged, it can attack things at such a speed it most likely wont get hit. Meaning defense is what I should be looking for. We''re almost through the mountains¡­ I wish I had more time, it looks like I might have to come back here after we''re gone. Than I see it. Bestiary says it is a rock shark and something else¡­ Standing right beside it, I can''t make it out¡­ What is it? Getting closer I can see it is an imp. Slightly bigger than normal but the weird color of blue. Most imps are red or green to match their type of element. Bestiary has no information on this monster¡­ It''s exactly like Bloodyclaw. Then it speaks! ¡°Hey Sharkdar, we need to find some food. I know we don''t have a problem with water but the lack of food has been bothering me.¡± WHAT!? An imp that can speak! I''ve never¡­ What a perfect pet for master¡­ It fits in with his pets he has already. I would like that shark though. It would make up for my defense. While slower on land, it can still be helpful on both land and water. I doubt they''ll cooperate with me if I continue being sneaky¡­ The only way to bond with pets is to gain their trust so I call out. ¡°Hey! If you''re looking for some food I''m willing to share some with you if you follow me and my master.¡± The imp was frightened by me at first. Then it slowly assessed the situation¡­ That isn''t something a monster should do. I''m honestly surprised it didn''t attack out of no where. I put both my weapons down at my feet and come out of hiding so it can see me better. It talks. ¡°Huh, a gnoll speaking common. That''s something you don''t see everyday.¡± ¡°I could say the same about you. I''ve never seen a blue imp before. You also didn''t attack me on sight which is also weird.¡± ¡°Yea I guess you can say both of us are equally weird¡­ I''ve never seen a gnoll with two spears before, that''s a peculiar fighting style.¡± ¡°Yes, my master taught me dragoon and berserker. I''m also a knight, beast tamer and beast rider.¡± ¡°Whoa! That''s compensating if I''ve ever heard of it¡­ Five classes, you should be difficult to take down. But why should I believe you? You could be luring us into an ambush or something to eat us. You''ve done nothing to prove you''re a beast tamer yet.¡± I signal for Bloodyclaw with a telepathic command to come out from her hiding spot. The imp seen the black griffin and was shocked again. ¡°Wow! Well then¡­ I guess I have to believe you when you have such a rare pet¡­ I''m not really that interested in you¡­ The person who is your master on the other hand¡­ He must be a great man to have control over such a strong follower¡­ I''ll follow you for now and even let you tame Sharkdar. That is... If you can survive an attack.¡± The land shark dives into the ground ripping it up as it heads towards me. Strong enough to swim through dirt and rock it is not going very... Shit! The blue imp just boosted its speed with a water trail behind it. The shark is going twice as fast now! I barely jump to avoid the attack. As I come down I land on the shark. Pulling it out of the ground, I suplex it. "Do you still want to fight? It would be a shame to kill you so I can tame this shark!" "Wow! I wasn''t expecting you to counter... Suplexing a land shark that weights four hundred pounds should have been almost impossible. Yea you win." With that I secured another weird pet for master and a good pet for myself too. Sharkdar wouldn''t bond with me... Perhaps because I just suplexed him? It''s fine though, bonding is a very rare occurance. While heading back towards our group the imp was scared to approach the troops. With Sharkdar barreling into the group he followed behind. I just realized something, so I ask. ¡°Hey, I haven''t even heard your name yet tiny imp.¡± ¡°It''s Blue, obviously.¡±
(Zergnar stats when Kite asked) (strength- 1500) (dexterity- 250) (intelligence- 50) (stamina- 1150) (total = 2950)
(Current stats) (strength- 1700) (dexterity- 350) (intelligence- 70) (stamina- 1350) (total = 3470)
Chapter 58 Reunion after one year It''s been almost a year since my generals have left to train. They should be returning soon, I hope they''ve all gotten stronger. I''ve gotten all my classes except for a few up to level twenty five. If I keep working towards my goals I can achieve them. All the generals are slowly returning. I even told Lances group to come back around this time. Once they get back I''ll explain what I''ve been doing since they''ve been gone and our next moves. Lances group has finally returned¡­ What is with those familiars, they are giants! How strong did the group get for Leaf to make familiars that big? ¡°Alright with everyone here, lets start the annual meeting for the Nooby Army. First order of business is going over what we''ve all been up to for the last year.¡± Starting with Gobber, we all go over the past year. He tells me things I already know. Like how Kline had to get stronger for them to continue. How he brought Kline back and made me teach him another class. I taught him time mage. The level fifty skill is instant incantations. Extremely good for any caster. It''s just time mage isn''t often picked since it has very little utility when compared with other mage classes. Losing out on two skills would be a big drawback for anyone who could only pick two classes. Gobber continued, explaining how they made it through many tier three and four dungeons together. Finally how they pushed through a few tier five dungeons and killed the bosses. They showed me plenty of rares they''ve gotten. Even a pile of gold from their trip. All this will be necessary for our plans. Lance went next. He explained how they had a rocky start. After a few months of close calls in dungeons they got everything straightened out and started clearing tier five dungeons. They cleared far more than Gobbers group. I expected as much though, it''s a group of my generals, of course they''d do better than a group with a two generals in it. I asked about Leaf''s familiars and she explained her new secret skill¡­ I''ll have to learn that later and make sure I ask everyone else for any secret skills they might have unlocked¡­ Leaf also asks me to teach her another class¡­ WHAT!?!? HOW!? Well it doesn''t matter how I guess. I''ll have to figure out the best class for her. Sock went next¡­ When he went over his story I knew a part was coming up I didn''t want him to go over. When he returned with Brick¡­ I still remember everything that happened when he returned clearly. Apparently there is some bad blood between Brick and Epieoth. When Epieoth seen him traveling with my group he attacked him. Yelling. ¡°What is this demon tribe killer doing here!?¡± ¡°I''m here with my companions. They''ve said their master could treat this mans injuries. While I find that hard to believe, I still traveled with them.¡± ¡°You think I''m just going to forget what you''ve done to my people? We''re about to go to war with your region!¡± Brick started to get angry once Epieoth said that. ¡°My region? HOW CAN YOU THINK I WOULD STILL BE LOYAL, TO A REGION THAT KILLED MY PEOPLE! They called us in to take care of you demon tribe and then betrayed us the moment your numbers were too small to matter. That''s why I practice elementalist now. If I don''t use my class, it will let down all those who''ve died for nothing.¡± ¡°Kite! Let me kill this man! I fought against him when we were in school but he was too strong then. With all the practice, and my new class I think I can beat him now!¡± I had to break them up. ¡°Epieoth did you not just hear what he said? He is in the same exact situation as you. With the bigger armies forcing you to fight against your wills until both of your tribes were pushed to extinction.¡± ¡­ It was extremely hard to break them up¡­ I managed to do it somehow. Sock talked about it briefly. Brick was still with his group. I could feel the tension between him and Epieoth when their part was glossed over. They explained that with Bricks help they managed to start clearing into tier fives quickly. Brick even said they were almost ready for tier six dungeons. If we split up the groups, pulling all the strongest members together. We could definitely clear tier six dungeons. The last group went. It was Zergnar''s group, his group had spent the most time back at the base. They were only gone for a few months then returned. Bringing back some very interesting pets for me. First was the black egg. Zergnar was showing it to me and it started hatching in his hands. He set it down and we both watched it hatch. The moment the creatures head popped out it looked at me¡­ My heart skipped a beat, it instantly bonded with me¡­
Bonded with greater unique variant black griffinling
It was a dragon/griffin hybrid! I''ve never seen such a rare monster in either of my other lives. Dragons are extremely rare to find. For it to have been able to mate with a griffin must have meant it was a young dragon. Which are even more elusive. Dragons don''t die from age, they only get bigger and bigger. A thousand year old dragon would be so hard to kill, you''d need an army to fight it. The dragon must have been under one hundred years old to be a similar size to the griffin to mate with it. Meaning that it is beyond a rare pet. He also brought me an imp named Blue¡­ Who didn''t like me at all. I guess Zergnar got his hopes up and when he seen a child was his master... He was severely disappointed. He was ready to leave until I convinced him to stay, we''d even feed him for free. He could roam around the fortress unimpeded by everyone. It was hard to get him to trust me. Finally when I was making the support automaton dolls he started to get closer to me. Near the end of year long break he finally bonded with me. He already knew how to use water magic. He was a rare variant imp with the class Aqua mage which he ended up teaching me.
Class learned Aqua mage- passive skill gained Water absorption- Able to pull mana from the surrounding water, passive total mana increase Aqua mage skill upgraded Water spout--> Jet stream- Able to form a jet of water to shoot out at your enemies
I asked him if he had any secret skills. He didn''t yet, maybe if he evolves again. I also taught him three classes. Black mage, Time mage and Elementalist. I tried teaching him a few other classes before I attempted Elementalist. He couldn''t learn white mage, bard, blue mage, monk, summoner or nature mage¡­ He''s blue so I expected him to be able to learn blue mage... I just assumed he wouldn''t learn elementalist when I taught it to him. After that he said something to me. ¡°I get it now. You''re not strong, you can just make other people strong¡­. That''s why you have so many followers. That is a pretty selfless thing to do.¡± Yea I already knew, greed was talking my ear off when I was teaching everyone for free. He said they should pledge their loyalty to me for my teachings¡­ That seems unnecessary since we''re all in the same army anyways. Finally the changling¡­ What a strong mount for me. At least until the griffinling grows up. I had to tame it, it would not bond with me trying everything. It took around five hundred attempts to tame it¡­ If it wasn''t bound to not move or attack me, it would have been impossible to do¡­ I''ve been thinking of ideas of what it should be when riding it. It''s too small to be a good aerial mount so I''ll stick to the ground for now. Zergnar can handle the aerial combat. Zergnar also asked about taming a raid boss¡­ I''ll think of something later after the war for that. It would be nice to have a dragon, fly over the battlefield raining hell down on the enemies. Any raid boss would be extremely strong against most troops. I think it goes without saying that taming a raid boss would normally be beyond the means of anyone. Without my huge amount of classes and jobs. I''ve never heard of a raid boss being used that way either... Finally it got to my turn. I explained what I did the since the first few days the groups all left to get stronger. ¡°The first thing I did¡­ Was make all the poison I could¡­ Then drank it.¡± Everyone looked confused at what I was saying until I spat out six different kinds of poison. Strengthening my poison spit to the point it could be far more useful than it was currently. Not only could I spit poison, it made me immune to that poison as well. It would also make producing poison far cheaper, since I can just spit it out. I have a weak damage, numbing and hallucinogen poisons. For strong poisons, I have damage, numbing and an acid that can erode armor. It was painful to drink the damaging ones but the acid did no damage to me at all. My knives cannon is now coated in each kind of poison except the acid one. "Then I started with becoming familiar with the demon tribe members. I fought every single one of them over a few days to see which ones were noticeably stronger. I managed to beat around half with my tricks but a few really stuck out¡­ Epieoth had held back when I first fought him¡­ I couldn''t even get any attacks off on him before he rushed in and pinned me to the ground.¡± Epieoth spoke up. ¡°When I fought you the first time. I was trying to teach you spellthief to see if you could learn it from just seeing it be used. With you not mentioning it when we fought, I assumed you didn''t. When I seen you using spellthief moves against the demon tribesmen I knew you did¡­ I should have asked back then.¡± I start explaining everything I''ve been doing over the passed few months since them. How my hand grew back quickly after everyone had left¡­ It also helped me remember everything I''ve done this year. I taught the remaining demon tribe that hadn''t learned classes yet a class. Pairing some of the non combatant demon tribe with jobs that could help us in the long run. Greed made sure if anyone was staying here, they were putting in work. The next month or so was me training against Epieoth every single day. From the moment we woke up until I went to sleep was spent fighting against him. While I managed to get a few lucky hits in on him I was never able to beat him. He told me something I hadn''t known. Demon tribe members can see peoples auras. You can see peoples traits by the color of their aura¡­ Epieoth noticed something wrong with mine though and said something. ¡°Well¡­ You''re aura has changed. Before it was an extremely bright blue aura. The strongest and lightest I''ve ever seen¡­ Now it has traces of a far darker aura of red. It''s something I''ve never seen a person have before. Most people have varying degrees of three colors. Yellow, blue and red. All different shades of those three colors. I''ve never seen anyone with a mix like you have. And to be on the exact opposite ends like that. I''ve never seen an aura quite that dark before¡­¡± Epieoth could see my greed trait through my aura. I explained my trait situation too everyone¡­ Most of them had noticed I acted weird¡­ I also had to explain my gauntlet to them too. That''s when I remembered the gauntlet Sock had given me. Similar to Aegis but without the symbiotic trait. Instead it had a mana blast effect that allowed you to shoot out excess mana¡­ It wasn''t a very good gauntlet for me. I ended up giving to to Gobber, who doesn''t really use his mana often. He still has some because of his blue mage class. If I had worn it, I would never use that effect and it had the indestructible effect and anti magic runes on it¡­ Meaning I wouldn''t be able to launch full scale chi waves with it on. I pretty much need to sacrifice a hand to shoot out full scale chi waves¡­ It''s a big decision but if it will save lives, I''m willing to make the sacrifice. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Continuing to train, most of my classes hit twenty five. I finally reached twenty five with shaman. Meaning I could make my own totems, which I was waiting for. I could now make my automatons. The first ones I made were the hulking tank knight/warrior automatons. They''ll take the brunt of the attacking force head on. They each had four arms, two shields and two swords being held by them. Pairing them against the spellthieves revealed some weaknesses in their ranged... The next batch I made were thief/archer automatons. They''ll provide support for the hulk automatons, they can even be picked up and used as giant two bolt crossbows by other troops. The hulks could approach the battle with them in their hands, fire, then move into melee dropping them back down onto their feet. They have four arms. With four crossbows mounted to their forearms. After firing they can reload them all at once and fire four more bolts. They also had four hidden blades attached to the underneaths of their arms. So close range fighting they weren''t completely disadvantaged. They could also carry things in their hands still since they didn''t have anything in them. Perhaps throwing knives or bombs? We''ll see in the future. The last batch I made¡­ I wasn''t even sure I could make them. Using totem making I had just learned with the moon phases. I started making automatons out of wood. They could double as totems. I taught them shaman/bard. I gave each eight hands. They were each given four violins to play, once they learned new songs. They were each made with the eight different moon phase totems. So even if they fight as a group they won''t be useless. I only made around twenty four of these automatons. They''re very difficult to make and I could only make three during each moon cycle. Finally I''ll go over the changes I made to my equipment. I hollowed out my metal sword. I originally tried using a metal tube for an idea. It immediately blew up on my new hand, throwing shrapnel everywhere¡­ Injuring my freshly grown hand. Trying to use a tier five wind scroll to shoot out a perfectly rounded rock caused an explosion. I hollowed out my metal sword and made it so it was thicker than the metal tubes I''ve been using. It also shot a smaller projectile than my cannons. It shot it so fast that it could go through six walls strengthened by control nature magic. The knives cannon could only make it to the second one. I''ll call my new weapon a gunsword. Finally replaced my wooden sword with three totem swords. I made them myself out of special wood received from the treant. Since I''ve been keeping my promise of regrowing the trees. I asked him for some special wood to make my three totem swords. He gave me a branch from himself to make them with. Treant wood is extremely strong and sturdy and resistant to fire. It has more mana than normal wood too. I make the three totem swords, one health regen, one mana regen and one attack speed increase. I rounded the ends to points on the pommels. I can pierce the ground more easily this way and by applying control nature to them. I can make them as large as totem poles. I tried using control nature to increase the size and armor for automatons but they stop working. Over the next few months I kept increasing the automaton numbers. Having them slowly learn the common language so they could be taught classes eventually. Totaling 200 soldiers. The main problem is¡­ Only the shaman ones stay active, meaning if we''re attacked by anyone before we power them up, they''ll be useless. Finally I made an automaton for myself called Gear. After seeing how Pokodo would ride on other party members, I thought of the idea to use an automaton in a similar way. It will replace my backpack permanently. It''s head looks over my shoulder to see the battle. It has no legs and Gear''s body is tucked completely behind me. Gear has six arms, all with shields that can be used as spear tips with pointed sharp edges. They can reach all the way out in front of me. I''ve taught him a few formations for attacking and defending. The first is drill formation. He spins his arms as fast as he can thrusting the spinning bladed spears to attack. The second is flower formation. He blocks together with all his shield spears, it resembles a six petal flower. Third formation is lotus formation. He opens up flower formation enough for me to fire arrows point blank range. Finally fourth formation is shotgun formation. He aims his six arms and fires bolts from them. It is very time consuming to reload the bolts in his arm. But it fires like an explosion of bolts. Six arms with four bolts in each arm, equaling twenty four bolts fired at once. He''ll increase my combat potential tremendously. Maybe I wont get knocked out as often with his help. Gear is another guardian/knight, both increase his survivability. Automatons can''t regenerate health like humanoids. The only way to increase there survival is by boosting there total health. That''s why using them is so dangerous. Anyone who knows there weaknesses can use hit and run tactics to weaken them permanently before they attack. With Gear protecting me, I can freely shoot arrows. With the tracer skill and dual shot, I can fire four arrows. I have taken a particular liking to dual tracer snipe shot. It''s another signature move to add to the collection to open fights with. Dual tracer focused shot works well too if I''m already in combat. Firing four arrows at once I can almost fire one per second. I can always quickly pull out my heirloom sword which can be changed in sizes as well. Meaning storing it on my chest for fast draws works perfectly. Gear would be far too complicated for any of my other generals to learn how to use¡­ Except for maybe Trice¡­ If she wants a Gear mk2 I''ll make one for her. We had broken through to the other side of the mountains the first month the generals left. I was just too busy to search the other side until after all the experimenting was over. Running through the cave we could make it to the ocean two weeks faster. It still takes around a week of traveling to get there. We''ll need to build boats still but that shouldn''t be too difficult. I had to wait because Zergnar left with a lot of the construction gnolls who switched to beast riders in their spare time. He only returned shortly to drop off the baby griffins and my pets. Then he left to train the troops more. All the experience the troops are getting right now could save their lives out on the waters. I checked the coast and found a kobold stronghold. After a few weeks of reading up on them. It seems like they''re extremely superstitious and will follow anyone scary enough to keep them in check¡­ Which is any one of my generals but me. I''ll gain them as followers once we start heading towards the ocean as an army. Kobolds don''t get along with humans very well but they''ll follow anyone if they''re strong and scary enough. The last few months was spent bonding more with my pets and getting closer to everyone. If the time it took for my griffinling to hatch is an indication of how fast it will grow¡­ It will be five years before I can ride it into combat, since it took five times as long to hatch as the other griffin eggs did¡­ That''s just a guess though, griffins can be used as mounts within a year of being born. They were up and moving around mere hours after being born. I had to carefully feed my griffinling for weeks after it was born. It wasn''t able to walk for an entire month. It''s going to be so strong once it''s bigger, that will be worth any effort put towards helping it grow. I named him Darkclaw. A similar name to his mothers. Morpheus the changling can change into any animal around two hundred to three hundred pounds. The bigger end of the animals can carry me. I''ve tried out a few but my favorite so far is wild tusked boar. Morpheus isn''t big enough to be an owlbear¡­ I wish it could be though. Maybe after it evolves some more. For extreme speeds I would go with a gazelle type monster. I haven''t needed to travel quickly yet. Finally the last month I spent exploring the other side of the mountains with a small group of soldiers. The monsters are surprisingly strong, to the point if we weren''t overly careful with every new encounter we could have died. I ended up bonding with a bat. It was a normal bat in the area, the group I was traveling with almost killed it. It is just a dartwing like Zergnar''s. If it can learn to talk like my other pets, it will be a nice support that can view area''s while flying when I''m traveling by myself. I named it Purple for the tiny purple strip running down its back. I had gained two levels from fighting the monsters near the ocean. Absorbing one of each monster increased my stats the most over all the levels I gained. These monsters gave around one to each stat and sometimes even two to certain stats. Speaking of absorbing I finally absorbed a piece of the basilisk¡­ It was about to go bad so I cooked the few hundred pounds we kept in a void storage bag. It had a few freeze enchanted stones for keeping it longer. It was extremely delicious meat. To the point that once the basilisk respawns, I might send some troops back to kill it for the meat. It gave me ten stat points in all four of my stats. I also gained a skill from it.
Blue mage skill gained Bad breath- able to turn breath into a weapon, can infuse breath with any poison or harmful spell you can use
That was all I could do in the short year I had for myself¡­ I still need to keep getting stronger. Before we push the pirates we''re going to do a single raid. I need to see how much stronger all of my generals have gotten.
(Kite stats before year long training) (strength- 230) (dexterity- 200) (intelligence- 260) (stamina- 300) (total = 990 stats)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost before training) (strength- 1150) (dexterity- 1000) (intelligence- 1300) (stamina- 1500) (total = 4950)
(Kite stats after training) (strength- 270) (dexterity- 250) (intelligence- 300) (stamina- 350) (total = 1170)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost after training) (strength- 1350) (dexterity- 1250) (intelligence- 1500) (stamina- 1750) (total = 5850)
Chapter 59 First steps into the raid So the main question is, who am I going to take with me? All my generals would be fine. Making the group myself, Gobber, Gargarz, Nargzar and Zergnar. They''re my main generals. They have been with me the longest. Everyone from Lances group are also reliable. So Lance, Leaf, Trice and Leon¡­ Making nine. Gobber would probably get mad if I didn''t bring Hilda¡­ And my pets so Sock, Pokodo, Blue, the changling I named Morpheus, and my griffinling named Darkclaw. I wanted to name him something similar to his mother. Gobber''s and Zergnar''s pets which don''t count towards the max number. We have ten members so far. Who else should we bring¡­ We could bring Epieoth and Brick¡­ I''m not sure how well they''ll get along with each other though¡­ It seems like in every raid group there is always two people fighting constantly though. I''d rather it be two different people than me with myself. Kline has gotten better, we also need more healers to be safe. That bumps it up to thirteen¡­ Who else should we bring. We could just go with us¡­ I''d rather have the exact number of people though¡­ Well I guess I can count Gear as person. That makes fourteen, which is suitable to go with. It will take two weeks of travel to get to the closest tier two raid dungeon. I bring the fresh gnoll and demon tribe troops we''ve gotten. I haven''t been teaching any of the children classes are jobs when they were old enough to. We''ve gotten about twenty five new troops I''ll teach while we head to the raid. Totaling fifty gnoll troops, one hundred demon tribe troops and two hundred automaton troops. Once again only about thirty automatons are constantly active. The rest need to be started by channeling mana into them. It would take around an hour to get them all up and running with everyone helping. That''s a pretty decent response time for artificially inflating our combat numbers by over double. While I could have taught them all a mana class, it would have weakened their combat potential too much. Maybe I''ll make a few black mage automatons with illusionist. They''ll be able to get their brothers up while he hold the enemies off. What should I teach the troops while we''re traveling¡­ I also brought the teleport pad to get back to base quickly. We''ll take it once we finished and leave the new gnoll troops to carry it back. We have a very high lack of healers and tanks for our army. We have anti mage, cavalry and a few archers. Not many healers are sprinkled in to that group. While the automatons are tanks, if we''re attacked while they aren''t up and running we''ll be in trouble until they are. I''ve decided to teach guardian, knight and white mage to the gnolls. They should all be able to learn the classes since Hilda has taught them enough common. Some of the demon tribe already have the spell thief class. I''ll teach them white mage and warden. A single demon tribe was a low rebirth one. Meaning he didn''t have a single class. While normally this would make it impossible for him to ever fight. With my help he might even be the best out of them all. I''ll leave the last two classes up to the gnolls. So adding a tank/healer regimen to the army has increased our armies continuous fighting power. Before we were a hit and run army using superior movement to attack and retreat. We can''t do that on the ocean, so any fighting has to be drawn out. It will be a battle of ships before anything else. We could be boarded and will have to live through fights. Survival of almost two hundred troops will depend on these twenty five healers. I''ll bring a single healer from this group¡­ He''ll end up being the leader of the healers so I need to pick him carefully. I watch them all¡­ Maybe I should have them pick their leader. We''ll see how it plays out. We''re still making our way to the raid. They''ll sit on the outside training until we get back. It could possibly take an entire week to clear a raid. It covers a very big area. One of the healers stands out more than the rest. The low rebirth demon race. He puts in more effort than the rest. He''s probably already level ten with both white mage and warden. He even practices healing during the sparring matches we have once it''s too late to continue traveling. Most of the strong demon tribe members have been killed in skirmishes on the boarder. Epieoth is the only one with actual war experience left in his men. While some are strong he''s by far the strongest. This other demon race would add to my single demon race general. He''ll be the last member of our group. His name is Methodis. His classes are white mage, warden and druid. Demon tribe members are similar to humans. They can learn three classes and four jobs with my help. I taught Epieoth warrior when I taught all the demon tribe members. From what he told me, both level one hundred skills he gets from his two other classes help him with melee fighting. Red mage gives him a boost to his strength by a portion of his intelligence. And spellthief gives a boost to his dexterity by a portion of his intelligence. The demon tribe members who can''t fight have supplemented my job workforce though. Three to four new people working towards each job. Blacksmiths, tailors, alchemists, woodwokers, construction and gathering. We make it to the entrance of the raid zone. We split off from the rest of the group, entering it with the group I assembled. This is a tier two raid, we shouldn''t struggle at all with the number of powerful members we have. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. This is more like a leveling mission for my new pets, while I also see how much stronger everyone has become. With monsters, they can age two ways. Either naturally or forced evolution to age. A good example is all my generals. Gobber and Zergnar being the most different. Essentially evolving into stronger versions of themselves that would be equivalent to a human aging ten years. If Darkclaw can evolve at least once, he might be able to fly. Greed butts in. ¡°If he can''t fly, I bet we could sell him for a kingdoms worth of money.¡± ...I''ve started ignoring little comments he makes. Only when they''re relevant to whats happening. He talks again. ¡°You know I can hear your thought process right¡­ Kind of means you are talking to me in a way.¡± I''ll continue to ignore him¡­ The thing with raids is they don''t have a theme. Unlike dungeons the bosses here are more region based. Meaning we might end up fighting a basilisk at some point in the raid area. Which I would be fine with, I could solo one a year ago. This group could probably kill three basilisks at once¡­ I hope I didn''t just jinx myself¡­ I would rather absorb different raid bosses since I can still gain stats from them. Zergnar has taken to the air with Trice riding with him. She has scout so she can see things that Zergnar couldn''t or would have to be closer to see. We wait where we are fighting the groups of enemies that approach. Each group contains about five to ten enemies but they are easily killed. They finally return with the location of the raid boss¡­ A basilisk, we''ll kill it and collect its meat for our troops. Also the scales can be made into a very strong armor. I did struggle with it though¡­ I''m not sure what we will do since it can potentially one hit kill anyone if we''re not careful. The group wants to continue. I wasn''t that worried though. Everyone in this group is a seasoned veteran when it comes to fighting. We set up around the basilisk while it still hasn''t seen us. Me along with the other mages grouped together. Protected by three warrior familiars Leaf had made. We need her to have most of her mana. The only thing her familiars are there for is to take one hit from the basilisk before they die if he attacks us. I only buffed a few people with haste. With so many time mages it wasn''t necessary though. I gave Gobber gift of the wild. Finally the silence is broken. Gobber had taken the initiative and started to rush towards the basilisk. Followed by every other short range person. I began to observe the fight. Normally I would help but I''m here to see how strong everyone has gotten. If need be I''ll step in and help. Gobber is moving so fast he could outpace an arrow almost. A person shouldn''t be able to run that fast! Everyone else rushing behind him is also moving faster than I thought possible. Not as fast as Gobber though. Gobber makes it to the basilisk first and swings his sword¡­ Cutting through its leg as deep as the sword could go. Lance jumped into the air at the same time Zergnar had jumped off his griffin. Lance landed on Zergnar''s griffin and jumped higher as well. At this time Leon and Nargzar had made it to the other front leg, cutting it on both sides. Brick shot a rock at the basilisks eye, destroying any chance of us becoming paralyzed from eye contact. Epieoth and Sock were at either side of the basilisk at this point, both cutting through its flanks. Finally Lance and Zergnar came crashing down from the sky on top of it. Spears piercing through, making the basilisk''s head lurch up in pain. Gobber had jumped up to meet its head and smashed down so hard that his sword had broken inside the basilisks skull¡­ The raid boss was dead.
Level increased to 30
Wow! Just wow¡­ I can''t believe how strong everyone has gotten. What I just saw was a boss I struggled to kill, even with all my trump cards be beaten in thirty seconds¡­ I''m beyond shocked at how much everyone has grown¡­ The biggest problem though is I didn''t get to see any of the mages or other members get to do anything. The fight was over too quickly for them to make much of a difference. I hope we fight some stronger raid bosses so we can see them at work. We loot the items that dropped plus take a good portion of the meat and scales of the basilisk. This high quality meat will be our food while we''re here. Some people have gotten rares, none I didn''t have the tree for and couldn''t make. I already ate basilisk meat for the permanent stat boost but I can still eat it before a fight for the food buff. Which gives me one hundred of each stat for five minutes. Finally the boss dropped around fifteen gold. Not too shabby for our first boss. Higher tier raids give an increasing amount of gold. To the point where most people who hit tier three or four raids retire shortly afterwards. Fifteen gold is enough to live comfortably for your entire life. One hundred gold and you could have servants working for you for the rest of your life. Leaf has improved the most when it comes to mages. Seriously breaking through the class limit is something beyond ever hearing about. I''m still not sure what to teach her. I would also like to see how much Pokodo has improved. Our group is too balanced as it is. Normally you would have to balance around most people only having two classes¡­ By having three or more classes, everyone is above average already¡­ Gobber has eight classes¡­ My gnoll generals have five. Those extra classes adding stats and skills makes this raid area so much easier than it would be normally. We''ll have to find another boss. I send Zergnar and Trice back into the sky. With Gobber''s weapon being broken. To break a sword, especially a well made one like his¡­ I''ll let him borrow one of my totem swords. They''re stronger than steel so it will be very hard for him to break it. It would also be nice to have more fighters with blunt weapons. Maybe I''ll design everyone a unique set of gear. I should do that before we fight the pirates. We''ll take a month long break so I can. As I think that Zergnar is heading back¡­ WITH A ROC CHASING HIM! Chapter 60 Second boss and sparring Roc''s are giant eagles. It is a giant none the less, plus it can fly. Making our ground troops have a much harder time reaching it. This will be a difficult fight! As Zergnar gets closer I''ll explain this boss. ¡°It''s a Roc! Its a giant bird, make sure to avoid anything that would be dangerous on a regular bird, like the talons and beak! It might try to pick you up. If it does we''ll make a water source where you will land because it will drop you from a killing height.¡± As it gets closer and closer I see everyone getting ready. I see Lance pulling out a tiny spear¡­ I wonder wha-. He throws it, so fast it causes the air to ripple around him. Flying extremely fast it pierces one of the wings of the roc. It is still flying, just far more unsteady now. I see Leaf starting for form a magic missile. It will be too small to do anything though. She yells out. ¡°Trice!¡± Trice begins to spit poison onto it. I had some extra poison from when I gained it myself. So I let Trice have the extra. Trying to teach her different poison spit was too gross for her. So that was the only way she could gain them. After spitting the poison she coated it with her spider silk webbing as well¡­ What are these two doing? The arrow begins to expand! It gets three times the size it just was. It flies intensely fast. Almost as fast as Lance''s spear. Gobber had pulled out his giant crossbow and fired an arrow in unison with Leaf''s attack. The roc took both hits. Falling from the sky at such a high height it will be injured from the crash. BOOM! It lands with a painful noise. Dust kicking up, trees being toppled from the injury. Zergnar starts to dive bomb at the roc with his griffin. They flying almost faster than terminal velocity. Zergnar jumped off at the last minute skewering the roc with his spear. We all start to rush over towards it. We head closer¡­ It is beyond injured, struggling to get to its feet. The roc is taking in its last breaths of life. Finally Blue attacks, with a jet stream of water yelling out. ¡°Whoever is a black mage shock the water!¡± The stream hit the roc, stunning it momentarily until the mages acted on Blue''s request¡­ Frying it instantly¡­ Over killing it to the point it cooked the rocs meat¡­
Achievement gained Speed runner (raid)- Kill two raid bosses within thirty minutes of each other (speed run challenges unlocked, next achievement, kill two within twenty minutes)
Scout secret skill gained- Eagle eye- Increases range of vision when activated (great for viewing things closer from the sky)
We''ll eat that first before the basilisk I guess. I would have really liked to get its in tact claws beak and feathers. I''ll only be able to collect a few that weren''t completely destroyed by that attack. Their feathers are big enough to make hammocks from. It would be nice to have a few dozen for the boats once we made them. I collected six¡­ I guess I can make them out of spider silk but that will take a lot longer than just using roc feathers¡­ Pushing our departure time by another month or so¡­ Greed talked up. ¡°No way, you''re going to delay the departure time to fighting the enemies for bedding on your ships?¡± ¡°Yea, a well rested army is an army that can fight better.¡± ¡°Are you afraid of fighting?¡± Greed questioned. ¡°NO! I''ll fight anyone at any time!¡± ¡°Then why are you so afraid to head out and fight the pirates?¡± ¡°...The last time I led my army into battle¡­ I lost a quarter of it to a single battle¡­ What if¡­ What if that happens again...¡± ¡°Last time you didn''t have me. Remember I''ve got years of experience on the seas leading pirates to treasure.¡± ¡°How can I trust you? You were killed by your own men for stealing all the treasure you collected.¡± ¡°True, true. But you''re forgetting my other memories. The ones where I had beaten all the other pirates, guard ships and everything else I faced out on the sea. Those men could only kill me because they were alive from my leadership!¡± ¡°...That''s a weird way to spin your own death...¡± ¡°You''re paying too much attention to the minor details. With me leading you and you leading your men. We stand a much better chance than you leading yourself into battle.¡± It was quite for awhile¡­ I looked around and noticed everyone was staring at me. I must have been making faces or something while I was arguing with myself¡­ Greed spoke up again. ¡°Personally, if I was you, when into the bandit fort and Beatrice started yapping like that. I''d have put an arrow through her head.¡± ¡°Really! You would have lost two of your best pawns, two pawns that are in this group right now. My two friends Lance and Trice! You might have even lost more than that!¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I guess that would have probably happened that way¡­ Still though, I can''t believe you just let her go. Aren''t you afraid she''ll tell Lance your mom killed his mom?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I was at first. If it comes to that. I guess I''ll just accept what he does to me as punishment.¡± ¡°OH NO YOU WONT! You got to remember, this isn''t just your body anymore. You''ll get two people killed not fighting back.¡± ¡°You dying might be worth my death...¡± Aegis spoke up. ¡°Seriously you two, can you get along for ten freaking minutes. Kite, you need to go through all those memories you''ve gotten from Greed, it will help you understand him better.¡± Taking Aegis'' advice to heart. I''ll try to go through his memories¡­ The thing I''m most afraid of is seeing the dark things he''s done for money. I''ll have to be very careful not to let my emotions towards what he''s done effect the information he can give me to help with fighting the pirates. ¡°Well the first thing you really have to do is get some mana canisters made. Without mana canisters, how will you ever fire the mana cannons?¡± ¡°Mana what now?¡± ¡°Every ship should have at least one mana cannon, it uses pure mana as a weapon to attack other ships and large scale monsters out on the sea. If you''d have went through my memories, you''d know that the sea is a far more dangerous place than the land. I have no idea how they''re made. I only know that my ships were armed with them fifty years ago. Meaning that chances are, the pirate ships are going to be armed with something similar¡­ Or even stronger, so that is a bare minimum.¡± ...Is he trying to make me feel like I''m even less prepared than I thought¡­ The only person I know who might know anything is Merlin¡­ I''ll have to visit him. Hopefully I can find a way to make them even stronger with all my jobs. I would really like to have every advantage I can possibly get going into war with the pirates. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Alright, one or two more bosses and we''ll head out of here. My expectations have all been shattered by everyone.¡± We''ll call it a day for now. Most people are still fine, no one took damage¡­ The bosses died too quickly for that to happen¡­ Kind of makes me think we don''t need four healers. I guess all the healers can do other things. Most groups are comprised of three to four healers, two to three tanks, then the rest damage and support¡­ Our group has five potential healers, six potential tanks and everyone can either damage or support. I haven''t even needed to activate Gear yet, I will pitch in the next boss fights. We shouldn''t be in here for more than another day. We decide to call it an early night so the group can spar. I''ll join in once everyone has had their turns at fighting. Watching everyone spar is intense. Epieoth and Brick are sparring so intensely there is damage happening to their surroundings. Brick tossing rocks towards Epieoth, some missing, some being deflected and some hitting. Epieoth moves in closer swinging with more enthusiasm than someone sparring should do. They aren''t fighting for practice they''re fighting for real. ¡°HEY! Break it up!¡± After yelling at them they calmed down¡­ Those two are seriously going to be a problem later on if they can''t see eye to eye¡­ Reminds me of myself and Greed. Zergnar and Lance decided to fight next. They both look at each other cautiously¡­ One more reliant on defense the other on offense. Both use the unorthodox tactic of using more than one spear. Lance throws miniature spears for attacks while Zergnar dual wields them. This fight should be interesting. Zergnar makes the first move running towards Lance. Lance prepares for impact. Bam! Both use dragoon combo attacks. Thrusting the spears multiple times at the enemy. Both being slowly pushed back. Lance is the first to retreat by jumping backwards. Throwing a miniature spear at Zergnar with him dodging. He jumped towards Lance while dodging the spear. Clashing mid air, the two are designed for aerial fighting. Lance kicking off Zergnar, to get to the ground faster. He can fly up towards him and retaliate against Zergnar while he''s still helpless in the air. Lance jumped towards Zergnar but before he can reach him Bloodyclaw flies in for the rescue. As a beast tamer, Zergnar can use his pets but hasn''t needed to until now. That''s how much of a threat Lance is towards him. Zergnar only used Bloodyclaw to avoid the attack. He quickly dismounts, aiming towards Lance who''s still falling from his attack. Lance shouldn''t be able to defend himself. He pulls out his throwing knives and launches all of them at Zergnar. Zergnar defends against a few but is struck in the arm and leg. It''s enough to make it so Zergnar couldn''t attack him. They still clashed in the air and landed hard on the ground. I would say it was a draw since both were injured. Lance might have come out slightly ahead on health. They both stand up smiling at each other over the great fight they just had. Two very similar people growing closer through combat. Next up is Nargzar and Leon. The two dexterity fighters are now going at it. Before the one year split I would say Nargzar would have wiped the floor with Leon¡­ After though, it is not the case anymore. Leon is almost a completely different person. Before he seemed somewhat lazy. Never putting in the full amount of effort he possibly could. He''s changed since then. His appearance as well as his attitude has drastically changed within a year. They both rush at each other. Nargzar might be a little faster but that isn''t causing Leon to slow down at all. Both use two weapons. One in each hand, well that was before. Now Leon has a third knife in his right hand. Holding what appears to be a dual bladed sword knife. Their attacks clash. Moving far faster than the previous two fights. Not nearly as much impact in their attacks though. It''s a different fight all together. Fast attacks, swift retreats and advances. Twenty attacks have been made within the matter of seconds. The only way I could tell is by the sounds of metal clashing on metal. Leon backs up launching ten throwing knives at Nargzar. Nargzar dodges then retaliates by firing both of his wrist crossbows. Nargzar hasn''t needed to yet but it looks like he''s pulling out the hidden blades under his arms. If he also uses his bladed shoes that triples the amount of weapons he''ll be using. It doesn''t deter Leon at all. They push in closer but the advantage is now clearly in Nargzar''s favor. Leon barely dodging attacks is being pushed back. Leon has no chance of winning now. Until I see him pull out another knife. Then another knife. He''s holding three knives in his left hand now. I''m not sure how he''s going to use them. Leon runs away, with Nargzar chasing him he starts throwing the knives. Nargzar barely avoiding, he already used his two wrist crossbows so he has no range until they''re reloaded. Leon has suddenly retaken the advantage by running away and attacking ranged. Nargzar backs off. He starts to load his crossbows. He''s gotten to the point he can reload them both in one second. It''s all the time it takes for Leon to move into close range again. Leon swings at him while he''s reloading the crossbows. Nargzar dodges by rolling on the ground. While doing that he also picked up a discarded throwing knife from the ground and launched it at Leon. Leon wasn''t prepared for it. He was moving in to attack, he couldn''t avoid it. It caught him right in the chest. We stopped the match there. After some healing Leon was fine¡­ If that was a real fight, it would have been his death most likely. While everyone is using their real weapons. With so many blue mages, if that was a real fight, both weapons would have been soaked in poison. He wouldn''t have been able to do anything after that first attack. Leon knows that, he looks far more disappointed than happy. Nargzar has a big smile across his face though. He speaks up to Leon. ¡°HAHAHAHA! What fun! I finally have a rival who can challenge me! Thank you for this, if you keep getting stronger, I will have to keep getting stronger too. To not be left in the dust!¡± It seemed to cheer him up some. That''s good, I would hate for a single loss to deter Leon from continuing to get stronger. Next up is Gobber and Sock. Both move in closer¡­ Two tanky fighters. I wonder how this will turn out. Similar to Zergnar and Lance, the only difference is the extra classes Gobber has. Gobber doesn''t tend to rely on other classes for fighting though. So this still could be a close match. I gave Sock one of my totem swords. He didn''t want Gobber to feel disadvantaged since his sword had broken. I also think that if Sock used his sword, it might have also ended up breaking from the intense pressure between attacks. They sit there staring at each other for a few moments. Uncharacteristically of Sock, who is an aggressive fighter. Even he understands how dangerous this fight will be. One misstep can result in a loss. The move in closer, then closer still, inch by inch. They''re within distance for attacks to connect. Finally they both swing. Boom! A whoosh of wind comes from their attack. Both swinging with enough force to break their swords if they were made of iron. They keep swinging at each other. BAM! BAM! BAM! The attacks so heavy both of them are slowly being pushed back. Sock starts to act more aggressive. Gobber catches him moving forwards though¡­ It is over that quickly. The first attack that connected knocked Sock down¡­ And unconscious. Over that quickly¡­ Gobber is indeed too strong for anyone to fight against. I still don''t understand why he has eight classes. I feel it was partially the influence of me and the god of chaos¡­ Not understanding why Gobber is so strong still bothers me. That brings another problem, if no one can rival Gobber, he''ll stop getting stronger. ¡°You want to go a round with me Gobber?¡± Chapter 61 Revealing new trump cards ¡°Master¡­ Are you sure that''s a good idea?¡± ¡°Well I haven''t gotten to test Gear yet in a duel. Can someone add their mana too him? I know I''ll need all my mana to fight against Gobber.¡± Pokodo fills Gear up with mana. My automatons can be completely filled up by normal mages but Pokodo probably had to hold back some. Gear springs to life, I put him through some routine commands to see if he''s working properly. Everything is in order. We go over the rules. Neither of us can use our pets. Sock is unconscious and I wouldn''t want to rely on him anyways. Pokodo, Blue and Morpheus could help. It wouldn''t matter if Gobber wasn''t challenged by a single person. Well two people including Gear¡­ Three¡­ No four people including Greed and Aegis¡­ Gobber questions again. ¡°Are you sure you want to do this master? It could end badly if I can get a clean hit on you, you might even die.¡± ¡°It should be fine Gobber, just use your judgment where you think it''s necessary.¡± We stand across from each other. Around twenty feet is separating. I start going through my pre fight routine. Injecting a tier three stat potion. Activating my three harmonicas. Casting haste on myself and feral roar. Casting gift of the wild on myself and placing my two totem swords into the ground. Enlarging them with control nature to get the full buffs. I''m ready now. ¡°We can start whenever your ready Gobber.¡± ¡°You go first master, I want to see what you have planned.¡± I pull out two explosive arrows. Gobber hasn''t seen me use these arrow yet. I fire both near his feet. Thinking it''s just plain arrows, he makes little effort to avoid them. Boom! Both explode causing slight damage to him. If the totem sword he was using was made out of plain wood it wouldn''t have made it through the fire. That surprised Gobber. I rush at him while I still have the buffs. I waited to the last second to finally activate a twenty stack Aegis stat boost and ogre''s strength. I pull out my heirloom sword with my spare hand. Still holding the bow in my left and swing at Gobber. I can shrink my heirloom sword down to it being small enough for me to use both hands. I can fire arrows this way with my sword still available if needed. Gobber must not have realized how strong I would get with Aegis stat boost. He''s only ever seen me struggle in fights. Fighting Gobber I have to be completely serious though. I yell at Aegis in my head to fire a bolt. When I attacked with my right hand I positioned my arm perfectly to fire a bolt at him. I gave Gobber two of the mini wrist crossbows as well and he had the same idea. Firing at me while blocking the arrow. I didn''t have to avoid because Gear had blocked for me. He also made four attempts to attack Gobber at once. Gobber jumping backwards to avoid the attacks just in time. I didn''t want to have to rely on Gear until my stat boosts wore off. I guess it''s to be expected from my strongest general. I would have to use all my trump cards at the perfect time to fight evenly with him. I continue to push the attack yelling. ¡°Gear! DRILL FORMATION!¡± Gear''s arms started to spin fast enough for the shields to resemble drills when he did. This attack was not only strong, but armor piercing as well. I could use it to dig straight through the face of the mountain back at the fortress. Gobber hadn''t seen anything like this yet. His eyes widened at the sight of the attacking sharp tipped shields. It didn''t deter him though. Managing to rush to my right side just in time so he would only have to worry about dodging the three drills on the right side he attacked towards me between the drills. He picked the wrong side. I easily blocked with Aegis. He jumped back again right before the drills could damage him. He''s being far more cautious then when he fought Sock. Gobber prepared his sword again. His stance changed¡­ I''m not sure what that meant. He lunges towards me, shield hand behind his back. Holding the sword in front of him. Attacking with the tip of his sword. Gear barely managed to get a spinning shield in front to intercept the attack. Sparks are flying from both the drill and the totem sword. Both are the highest quality material I could make them from. Every shield is a strengthened steel shield with a mithril tip attached to it. Gobber was surprised by this again. Jumping back enough to talk. ¡°Ah, I thought the shields would break if I attacked at full strength. I didn''t want to if it wasn''t necessary. It''s good to see I can continue to go all out.¡± That wasn''t even a threat but it is still scary how he was worried about going all out at the beginning. I shouldn''t be worrying about that right now. What is he planning? Is he going to keep using that thrusting attack? I don''t want to worry about either my totem sword or shield to break. He approaches again and I yell out. ¡°FLOWER FORMATION!¡± Gear stops spinning his shields and places them all in front of me to intercept the attack. It easily works, with just enough space for me to see. Gobber was confused by the giant shield that was now formed in front of me. Covering a giant portion in front of me, it would be very difficult to attack me head on. Gobber must have realized that because he started try to run around me. Falling into my other trap. ¡°DRILL FORMATION!¡± Spinning his shields again I also spin to help move the shields with me. Both me shifting and Gear shifting increased the speed of his attacks. One hits Gobber on the side, he was too close trying to get into my blind spot while I guarded. Another portion of his health is knocked off. He jumps back again. I call for a new formation. ¡°Lotus formation.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Gear took the flower formation again. Well almost, a hole is left between the shields. Allowing me to fire arrows that I already had prepared. Firing another two explosive arrows at Gobber. This time he ran fast enough to avoid the explosion. He approached me from the side again. I didn''t change my formation this time. Pointing both my hands at him, I had prepared my double barrel knife cannons to shoot rocks for this fight. Jumping into the air as Gobber gotten close to me. He still rushed towards me, he didn''t see me use these dual cannons either. Boom! The explosion goes out. He managed to avoid one with his shield but the other one still caught his other shoulder. Right above his indestructible gauntlet. His sword hand should have been weakened from that. Another chunk of health gone from him. No damage done to me yet. Even though he was just injured, he continued to move towards where I would land from my jump. I began to channel an aqua jet towards him. Just before I was in range it launched. Knocking him back and propelling me into the air a tiny amount. Enough for me to land without him underneath me. He''s starting too look worn down from this fight. He did participate in a different fight, plus the first raid boss. He could have been tired from that¡­ Or is he doing something different? ¡°Master. I didn''t expect you to be this strong.¡± Gobber breathed heavily trying to catch his breath. He shouldn''t be this worn out yet, he might have taken forty percent damage but that is nothing for him¡­ Whats wrong. ¡°Whats wrong Gobber. You seem out of breath. We can conclude this match if you want to.¡± ¡°No it''s fine¡­ It doesn''t have to do with the match¡­ I just haven''t gotten much sleep lately¡­ We can continue if you''d like. I''ve caught my breath.¡± With that I fire another two arrows. Just plain arrows this time. Gobber must have been expecting an explosion because he ran again and was confused when there wasn''t one. I should try to finish this quickly then, for his sake. I rush to where he was running. I need to be close range for this too work properly. Once in close range I yell. ¡°Shotgun formation!¡± Gear starts to move all his hands to point towards Gobber. Gobber must have realized a big attack was coming because he started to run away before Gear could fire. I had to stop him. ¡°Lotus formation.¡± The second Gobber heard the formation change again he turned around. Charging towards me again. I''m starting to run out of time on my Aegis stat buff. Once it wears off I''ll be back to my extremely low stats. ¡°Shotgun formation.¡± Saying this again Gobber went to turn and run but I had also been silent chanting nature magic. Forcing a control nature uppercut opportune strike to knock him back towards me. He barely managed to turn around so his back wasn''t facing me just in time to have twenty four arrows shot at him. Some missed, some were blocked by his shield and gauntlet. Finally six connected, three barely scraping him, the other three sinking into him. Wounding him even further. His health is now below fifty percent health. He was knocked back towards me though! He''s going to be close enough to attack! I jumped back just before he lands his hit. Aegis stat boost wears off at that exact moment. Shit! What do I do? I have no more trumps left. I doubt I can beat him while I don''t have boosted stats. Aegis chimes in. ¡°Ten percent chi wouldn''t kill him.¡± Still, am I willing to waste ten percent of my chi on a practice match? That''s a few days worth of time meditating to get that high¡­ It is such an expensive move to use. I guess I haven''t lost a single time since I''ve used it. We''ve been making eye contact this entire time¡­ I almost forgot about one of my moves. Evil eye! It works just enough for him to trip while he is running. He continues to role towards where I am going to land from this jump. Do I not have any other moves I can use? I have nothing less expensive¡­ Fine! I''ll use ten percent. I don''t want to kill my general though, so I can only use that amount. He continues to roll towards me, he hasn''t gotten his balance yet¡­ Is he alright? Did he run out of fatigue points? If he did this attack might kill him¡­ No he still has the totem sword in his hand. I pull out my sword just in case. I start channeling chi. Ten percent! I hold the chi wave as he gets closer and rush towards him. He rolls with his face upwards finally. The entire time he was rolling like that was to throw me off! The momentum from rolling would increase his swing strength too! Shit I have to avoid his sword attack. I raise Aegis up to block it if he does, then I''ll use the chi wave once he''s closer. He swings the sword. I fire the chi wave. He launched a mana blast from his gaunlet! They canceled each other out. I just wasted ten percent of my chi on an attack that didn''t connect! The blast canceled out all of his momentum, he kicked off the ground again to get it back. Without a weapon in his hand, he landed a kick in my chest launching me backwards. Gear had gotten his six shields around me so launching me backwards with the kick had moved Gear enough to cut Gobber six times from the shield tips. A single kick knocked me down eighty percent health! I look up at Gobber. He''s almost dead, only fifteen percent health¡­ We''re both on the verge of dying¡­ I speak up. ¡°Let''s call it quits for now Gobber¡­¡± ¡°Yea master¡­ Thank you for the amazing fight.¡± We both collapse from exhaustion while the rest rush over to help us. Chapter 62 Accidental evolution Hilda rushed over to Gobber¡­ I forgot she was even here. Wait a second, I don''t remember her fighting at all¡­ I wonder what that''s about. Why isn''t she wearing her armor? She looks fatter¡­ OH GREATER GOD! ¡°ARE YOU PREGNANT!¡± I shouted without thinking what I was saying. Everyone turned to look at me¡­ I guess I was the only one who hadn''t noticed¡­ I''m a fool sometimes. I was too busy paying attention to everyone else fighting, I didn''t notice Hilda in the wings. With fourteen other humanoids plus pets to worry about, some people just go unnoticed¡­ This is going to be far worse once I have to control two hundred soldiers¡­ I still should apologize¡­ ¡°I''m sorry¡­ I didn''t realize, I w-was paying attention to the fights¡­ Congratulations.¡± Hilda was holding Gobbers head¡­ I understand why he''s tired now. He''s been worried about what might happen. Worried about his future children. I can''t believe Gobber is going to be a father. It feels like my brother is going to be a dad. ¡°Hilda, if you want we can leave. I''m sorry for dragging you along, you should be resting.¡± ¡°No, it''s fine, I still have a month or two before I have to worry about that¡­ With goblin births the pregnancy cycle is very quick. I just found out recently that I was even pregnant¡­ I didn''t realize that it was so obvious though.¡± We move on from that conversation¡­ As awkward as it was, I''m kind of glad it''s happening. It feels nice to finally see some new life after all this death. I''m not even thirteen yet and I''m already a grizzled veteran when it comes to fighting for my life. We go to sleep for the night, I had to fix some of the dents the shields Gear uses had. To swing hard enough to dent this extremely strong metal is beyond impressive. I also noticed a few notches made in the totem sword Gobber was using. With everything we''ve been through I sleep like a log that night. When I wake up, Brick is sitting next to me in the rare tent. I wonder who was on guard duty¡­ I hope Gobber didn''t take it. I look around and see him though. Hopefully he got a good nights sleep like myself. Brick motions for me to leave the tent. Heading outside I see the sentry we placed was Lance. He was starting to fall asleep so I sent him to bed. Brick asked me. ¡°Can you teach me a class that will help my elementalist abilities?¡± ¡°Sure, just depends on what you want to learn. I''m not sure you can learn every class I can teach. Also why are you asking now? You''ve had weeks to ask.¡± ¡°The reason is Epieoth... To get so strong in such a short time... It''s incomprehensible to me... The other reason is I''m the last elementalist on this side of the continent. I can''t disappoint the people the army killed after we crushed the demon tribe¡­ I still regret it, I wont say I''m innocent¡­ I''ve killed my share of demon tribe.¡± ¡°Well you have three choices, black mage, nature mage and aqua mage. I''m not one hundred percent sure you can even learn any of them though.¡± ¡°Nature mage would suit me the best.¡± With that I taught Brick¡­ The only one missing a job now is Leaf¡­ I''m still not sure which job to teach her. She could use every magic class exceptionally well. I would hate to set her up with a class she didn''t want. I''ll talk with her about it. Looking for her I didn''t see her¡­ Where did Leaf go? I guess I can hold off on teaching her. It is honestly better to for now since she''s already so strong. Picking the wrong class for her would be worse than not teaching her anything yet. Leaf returns from wherever she was. She''s covered in sweat¡­ Was she training? ¡°Leaf, before everyone wakes up. Do you mind teaching me that secret skill of yours?¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± Wiping the sweat off her face with the sleeve of her heirloom robe. She teaches me it for a few hours. Everyone is up and either sparring or collecting ingredients from the local area. Except Lance who we have to wait until he gets some sleep to continue. Raid areas have a good collection of rare plants and other items. The wood here is also high in mana compared to normal trees. It would make good enchanting paper. Maybe after we clear the raid, I''ll send some of the woodworkers back here to collect some. It would be nice to have a raid under my armies control for leveling purposes¡­ Maybe I should build another base at entrance to the area? Perhaps once my army gets bigger. Finally learning the skill Leaf has been teaching me. Secret Summoner skill gained Minion power- Can now sacrifice fatigue points as well as mana points to increase the strength of familiars. Finally! What an amazing skill! I wont use it very often since my familiars aren''t nearly as big as hers. Also familiars can''t level, so it would just be a waste of experience. I''ve spoken with my other generals about their hidden skills. Lance and Brick both have one but they''re not willing to teach me. I guess they want some things to remain to just them. Greed speaks up. ¡°You should have made them teach you as payment for teaching them!¡± ¡°No Greed, I wouldn''t force my friends to do anything they wouldn''t want to do.¡± ¡°That attitude is going to keep you weak. If you''re weak then I''m weak!¡± ¡°The decision isn''t up to you Greed. Aegis what do you think?¡± Aegis spoke up. ¡°Well, I can see it from both your points. They shouldn''t feel indebted towards you for helping them. Since they are your friends¡­ I''m just not sure why they would hold the skills back from you. Because they are your friends, they shouldn''t need to horde skills for themselves either.¡± Once Aegis finishes talking I answer him. ¡°There must be a reason for both of them to not want to teach me. Brick is probably because it is a tribe thing, maybe to get the skill you have to go through a right of passage or something¡­ I can''t figure out why Lance would hold back. Maybe he just wants to have a special move all to himself...¡± Greed immediately speaks once I''m done. ¡°That way of thinking is going to get more of Brick''s and Lance''s friends kill. Imagine the usefulness of both skills. Brick would be perfect for you. Going from a complete weakling to a strong fighter instantly.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I hope he changes his mind and wants to teach me.¡± This entire time I was talking with myself Leaf was watching me¡­ ¡°Sorry! Discussing some things in my head with Greed and Aegis. Speaking of which. If you could pick your class, which would it be?¡± Leaf turned away when I started talking. I guess she is still afraid to talk to me about anything not related to getting stronger¡­ The only human to break the class limit is afraid to talk to the person who can teach her a new class¡­ She finally speaks up. ¡°Well¡­ The group is lacking a warden and a warlock when it comes to magic¡­ Warden will be needed far more in the future. You also don''t have an illusionist high level either. The invisibility spell will be a huge boost to bypassing threats¡­ Umm¡­ Any of those would be fine¡­ You decide though...¡± I think about it. Gizmo has two of those classes. I think I could even bring Gear and as long as I didn''t activate him, the bosses wouldn''t get stronger... If not I could replace Methodis if needed. ¡°Gizmo is a warden/illusionist so we could start bringing him. I could teach you warlock if you want¡­ I don''t think it would be a good fit for you though¡­ I have a feeling like you should hold off on learning a class from me for some reason. Like you''re so special you''ll unlock a new class all by yourself.¡± When I said that she ran away¡­ I can''t even compliment her without her running away¡­ If a relationship starts between us, I''m definitely the person who would have to initiate it¡­ It still feels too soon, I''m only twelve. Greed speaks up. ¡°You should be with her. No one is stopping you, she likes you, she is strong. Why not be with her now?¡± ¡°I feel like if we get together too early we won''t last long as a couple.¡± ¡°WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! I married my first wife when I was thirteen! We stayed together for ten years!¡± ¡°What happened too her?¡± ¡°Nothing you want to here about¡­ I don''t want to remember it myself...¡± I feel bad for Greed now¡­ I wonder what happened. I''ll have to go through his memories before we travel on the sea. Greed speaks up again. ¡°The first time I mention something I don''t want you to know you think about going through my memories¡­ You''re a freaking hypocrite trying to see me going through pain!¡± ¡°Relax Greed I''ll need to know more about the oceans anyways and going through your memories will help with that.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°...I guess¡­ Just don''t judge me for what I''ve done too harshly¡­ It still hurts me to think about all the bad times I''ve had.¡± After the conversation we pick up the tent and start to move on. We brought a carriage and the only thing on it right now, is three void bags full of several hundred pounds of ingredients... Zergnar is returning from his scouting trip with Trice. Leaf looks slightly disappointed for some reason once they get back. Maybe she wants to fly? ¡°Hey Zergnar, can Leaf fly on your griffin for air support? I think having a mage with you might help think up new strategies.¡± ¡°Sure, Bloodyclaw can handle three people at once. She''s a strong girl.¡± He pats Bloodyclaw as he says that. Leaf looks embarrassed but still climbs on. Trice jumps off Bloodyclaw in a hurry to make room. They take off into the air with Leaf letting out little screams of excitement¡­ I hope I wasn''t wrong¡­ It could end badly if she is afraid of heights or something. Side story: Leaf''s point of view I''M FLYING! I''M ACTUALLY FLYING! I yell out. ¡°This is amazing!¡± ¡°Yea, I had the same feeling you do right now my first time flying! The other girl sure had a different feeling flying¡­ I don''t know if Kite knows this but Trice couldn''t even open her eyes up here.¡± ¡°I wish I could live up here. Make a little house and just stare out the window every day. The view is so beautiful¡­¡± ¡°...I guess you didn''t have the same exact feeling I had my first time...¡± ...What I just said was pretty embarrassing. I don''t care, it feels so amazing up here. We''re leading everyone else to the next boss. There it is, some type of¡­ Plant thing. Main story: Kite''s point of view We follow Zergnar''s lead, him leading us to a big clearing. We see what it is. It''s a living growth monster. I wait for Zergnar and Leaf to land near us. Then I whisper to everyone around what this boss is about. ¡°This plant can continue to regrow. It can grow other different plant monsters like mandrakes, treants, poisonous plants, anything harmful that is a plant, this monster can make. Do not set it on fire! Then we have to deal with a permanently on fire living growth monster. Ice attacks work best against it. You can cut the plant life but the boss will just regenerate it. We''re going to need the mages to focus the boss while everyone else kills the plants growing so they don''t overwhelm us.¡± I make some spider silk and drench it in water. ¡°Put this in your ears. It will deafen the mandrakes once they start screaming¡­ Please be careful with the mandrakes, they can be made into a very potent hallucinogen¡­ Be careful with all the plants if you can, we can use them all for ingredients.¡± We slowly approach the boss. This is the first one I don''t want to prematurely kill, the more ingredients we get the better so I''m playing the defensive role again. I''ll cover the area in water so anything grown will be more effected by the ice attacks. The living growth finally sees us. It''s long vines planting themselves in the ground. The monster itself isn''t difficult to kill, you can get overwhelmed by plant creatures if you can''t kill it fast enough. The mandrakes start popping up, some treants are also being formed. I see a few poisonous plants being sprout¡­ I rush over breathing in the poison¡­ Nope already have this one. Casting freeze on the barely audible mandrakes. Screams so loud, I wouldn''t even be able to move if I didn''t put in makeshift earplugs first. Freezing them whole. Gear is still active. I rush over to a treant and he cuts it apart. This wood is going to be so helpful later on. Maybe I should hold off on killing this boss? The more materials we get the better¡­ As I think that I see something very worrisome. The remaining raid boss was drawn in by the sounds of the mandrakes! Shit! It''s a golem! Around the same size as Rock. We all have earplugs in! No one will be able to hear me call for help or switch to the golem¡­ I''m going to use my new trump card! I haven''t gotten to use yet. It is the perfect time to test it out¡­ While it takes an extraordinary amount of time to make it, it should work perfectly and this will be its first test. I throw a void bag into the air over the golem. Pulling back an arrow I fire at it, ripping the bag and destroying the rare. The bag was filled with poison vials with all six of my different poisons¡­ Including the acid which should work against him¡­ WHAT!? Why is Purple there!? Shit! Purple just got hit by the explosion of poison! Pulling out a healing scroll, I rush towards Purple. The golem was beaten instantly by the explosion. That single bomb had taken weeks of preparation to use. Hundreds of vials wasted, a rare enchanting bag and more mana that I could have used for other things might have just killed my pet! While running I chant a dispel. Using the scroll to heal Purple¡­ Purple is still alive¡­ That was scary. The bottoms of my boots have been eaten through by the poison. The ground where the golem was melted down into a giant hole. I jump out holding Purple in my hands to see the aftermath of the battle between the rest of the group and the living growth monster. I turn around the see the battlefield with the living growth is completely destroyed too. Huge portions of it are frozen, other parts covered in corpses from the melee. The boss was defeated too. I pull out my earplugs just in time to hear the last mandrake''s death wails. We just beaten two raid bosses at once.
Speed run challenge beaten- Please pick a reward
100 gold | two rares | achievement
Summoner secret skill gained Summon plant- can summon a single random plant monster to help fight for you
Blue mage skill upgraded Thick skin--> Thicker skin- Skin more resilient against arrows and slashing attacks
Level increased to 31
Level increased to 32
Darkclaw ¡°baby griffinling¡± evolved into greater unique variant young griffinling
Morpheus ¡°lesser changling¡± evolved into changling
Purple ¡°dartwing bat¡± evolved into rare variant poison dartwing
Wow that is a lot of things that just happened. I say. ¡°Gobber pick the achievement, see if it gives a stat boost of some kind.¡± ¡°It gives a movement speed boost while in raids.¡± ¡°Everyone pick that then.¡±
Achievement gained Speed runner+- Kill two raid bosses within twenty minutes of each other (speed run challenge unlocked, kill two raid bosses within ten minutes of each other) ten percent movement speed bonus in raids
Damn the rewards aren''t cumulative, we would have easily just unlocked the next speed run challenge if they were. While getting over one thousand gold would have be-. Greed cuts me off. ¡°YOU FUCKING IDIOT! THAT WAS OVER A THOUSAND GOLD!!!¡± ¡°Yea, think about the future though. Tier five and six raids, we can make a thousand gold very single time we clear it.¡± ¡°That doesn''t matter! One thousand gold is so much money! Imagine all the protection you could have bought for your army with that!¡± ¡°We need the boost for harder raids later on. I also have a plan¡­ We know where the four bosses are now. In a month or two after the bosses respawn. What do you think would happen if we killed all four at the same time?¡± ¡°...Still¡­ I would''ve liked you to pick the money.¡± We''ll head back now. Once we get out of the raid we can take the portal back to the fortress and have the new troops return home the long way. Chapter 63 Doing drugs We leave the raid, heading towards our group. There is another group in a heated debate with them¡­ Another group had come to clear the raid. All humans from Shienta, looked to be a mixture of people from the boot camp and magic academy. I recognize someone I went to school with. I call out. ¡°Hey what seems to be the problem here?¡± Everyone turns to see my group exiting the raid. The leader of the new group speaks up. ¡°We''re here to clear this raid. You''re group stopped us from going in. We had our scouts here not even a week ago. They said that another group was in already clearing the raid bosses. If you''re back already that means you must have given up on the raid then?¡± ¡°No, we cleared all the bosses inside already. No reason to stick around.¡± The group looks at us, almost mockingly at what we just said. The leader speaks again. ¡°It hasn''t even been a full week since we last checked. Most of these bosses take that long just in preparations for the fight. You''re telling me, a group of children and non humans beat four bosses that quickly?¡± ¡°If we didn''t arrive here so late yesterday we could have finished it all in one day.¡± I boast. The group laughs at how ridiculous that sounds. They must think I''m lying at this point. It starts to irritate me, Greed speaks up. ¡°Instigate them so we can kill them to gain a few levels. Or let me talk, I''ll scare them so they know we speak the truth.¡± ¡°No I''m not instigating an avoidable fight... I guess you can speak through me.¡± Greed calls out to the group as their laughter starts to die down. ¡°You''re more than welcome to check, it will be a waste of time though.¡± He looks over my group again. With the strange voice that came out of me, it gave him incentive to look us over again. Eyeing everyone much closer this time. Seeing all the mishmash of races and ages must have confused him. He stops on Brick and gulps, then looks at Sock, then Zergnar¡­ Seeing the giants of our group he probably thinks they average out on how weak the young people of the group are. ¡°We''ll do a quick check to see if you''re telling the truth. Without the raid bosses up we can still collect items to sell to make up the cost of coming here. We''ll let your group go for now.¡± With that we leave with our group. With a fight almost breaking out at the raid entrance, our raid group will stick with the new troops for the return trip home¡­ Except for Hilda and Gobber, we''ll send back ahead through the portal. Side story: Raid leader''s point of view We''ve just arrived at the first boss, the basilisk. My raid group had recently come together but we have still cleared this enough to have strategies worked out before hand on how to fight them¡­ This basilisk is decimated, most of the meat and scales have been collected. I didn''t see the other group carrying anything out though¡­ Our scouts should be returning from the locations of the other bosses. Ten minutes later, the scout who was supposed to check on the roc perch came back. Faster than I expected. He yelled out. ¡°Reporting back sir! I didn''t even make it to the roc''s perch, he was dead at the base of the mountain¡­ Mostly looted but what was left was a smoldering corpse of cooked meat and bones.¡± What!? They fought the roc in the air? I didn''t think it possible. The only way for us to beat that boss with no casualties, was to get the drop on it and wound it before it could take to the air. What is going on? Is that group really this strong¡­ A few minutes later the other scout came back. He yelled. ¡°REPORTING BACK SIR! I went to the living growth and¡­ It was covered in ice magic. Still around since they had just defeated the raid boss¡­ I found the remains of the golem, near the living growth was a giant hole though. Big enough to fit ten people in and deep enough for them to not get out if it was a trap. The edges were rounded in and on closer inspection I saw that there was some type of acid at the bottom of it. Inside was the remnants of a completely decimated golem.¡± Did the fools challenge the living growth first! The mandrakes would have alerted the golem and they would have had to fight two bosses at once, guaranteeing at least a few casualties¡­ Yet that might just be exactly what they did. Which one of them was the one who killed the golem¡­ Avoiding a fight with them just saved my group lives and I don''t think they even realize it. Main story: Kite''s point of view We''re almost back to the fortress. I let anyone who wanted too go back to the base. Besides the new troops, this marching is good for them. Epieoth and Brick both returned, Lance and his entire group stayed. Zergnar stayed but was preoccupied with flying around. Leaf sometimes joined him in the air. I guess I was right about her wanting to fly¡­ To go over the changes to each of my new pets. First is Darkclaw. He aged what seems to be a few years. Meaning he can fly, he just can''t carry anyone yet. Flying is still crucial and with him evolving it means he can continue to evolve to get bigger. Morpheus easily put on another hundred pounds. Meaning he can now carry me through the air if he changes to a griffin or other flying animal. He also has enough weight to change into a owlbear. I much prefer him to be in owlbear form since it is much better at fighting. Reminds me of back when Pokodo first evolved into her current form. How she almost got stolen¡­ How I ended up killing someone for her. Greed speaks up. ¡°I would have killed him with no hesitation. You have to be ruthless when it comes to situations like that. Killing him saved the city a huge hassle of capturing him.¡± ¡°Of course you would Greed, how did you have any friends?¡± ¡°I guess once you go through my memories you''ll find out how.¡± Getting back to explaining what my pets look like now¡­ Purple is a slightly bigger bat, the biggest change is the color has changed from being a streak of purple. To a much bigger streak with green running down the middle of it. Purple didn''t get the ability to talk yet, I hope it does eventually. Purple can however use one of the six poisons to coat itself from the green streak running down its back. The same six I have thrown at the golem boss Purple was hit by. I haven''t gotten to see much of it yet. Purple is also even faster, which might make it the fastest thing in the army now. We finally make it back to base. I need to do a few things again, before we head out to fight the pirates¡­ Greed might be right, it feels like I''m stalling right now... Afraid to fight against an army that could potentially overwhelm us¡­ I want to be as prepared as possible. So I need to turn that mandrake into poison to upgrade my poison spit. I want to go through Greed''s memories. I think it might help me later on if I do. I need to make my generals weapons. The more prepared they are, the less chance of them dying. I need to recruit the kobolds. I''ll leave that to Greed¡­ Greed speaks up. ¡°You''re giving me a job?¡± ¡°Yea, I just think¡­ If you want to scare someone. It would be better to have someone scary do it¡­ I could make one of my generals do it¡­ But then the kobolds would be following them and not me at that point.¡± ¡°Don''t worry then, if I get to do it, they''ll have no chance of resisting you anymore.¡± ¡°Greed¡­ We are NOT using slave collars on potential allies!¡± ¡°Fine! I''ll just scare them into following you then!¡± I start working on the poison¡­ It is surprisingly easy to make since I have all the ingrediants¡­ The thing is, this is a hallucinogen¡­ Meaning I might have a bad time and try to kill someone or something else bad. So I have my generals lock me in the new prison I had made. I''ll take this, then have Gobber make sure I''m still sane before he opens the cell¡­ Here goes nothing I guess. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Taking the medicine¡­ I don''t feel any different¡­ Wait a second I don''t feel anything. I look down at my arms¡­ WHERE ARE MY ARMS! BOTH ARMS ARE GONE! AEGIS! AEGIS HELP ME! AEGIS IS RUNNING AWAY WITH MY HANDS! GET BACK HERE! FUCK MY STOMACH HURTS! I CAN''T FEEL IT THOUGH SINCE I DON''T HAVE HANDS! AEGIS BRING MY HANDS BACK DAMN YOU! I throw up, I start throwing up an intense amount of food. All the food I''ve eaten in the last ten hours easily¡­ I start to feel a little better afterwords. My hands are back¡­ Aegis is too¡­ Nevermind, I''m still behind me. Well my real body is behind me¡­ Did I die? It feels like I''m a ghost. I move towards the bars of the cell. I go right through them¡­ I''m moving around outside the cell but as soon as I make it out of sight of my body I feel a tinge of pain in my chest. I ignore it and continue to the main room of the mines. Everyone in there isn''t normal. They all have something weird about them. Epieoth has one giant hand while his other hand has shriveled up to being incredibly small. He yells out. ¡°I''m ready to arm wrestle you now Brick! This will be for all the marbles!¡± Brick and Epieoth both throw down a bag of marbles each. Everyone around starts to cheer for them. Brick isn''t a normal person anymore¡­ He''s like the color of the moon! The group around him is full of both gnolls and demon tribe members. All sort of blurring in and out. Getting bigger and smaller. Epieoth slams Bricks hand down. Then yells. ¡°There we go! Now you have to eat all the marbles like promised.¡± Brick grabs both bags and lifts up his shirt. Revealing a stomach underneath. He tosses both bags into the stomach mouth. Then yells. ¡°Hah, I lost on purpose because I was hungry!¡± ...I wake up back in the cell after the interaction¡­ Covered in vomit and I soiled myself¡­ The room is full of puke from me getting sick... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?
Blue mage skill upgraded Poison spit- Can now use seven different types of poisons
Druid skill upgraded Poison resistance--> Poison immunity- Can no longer be effected by most poisons
Shaman secret passive skill unlocked Spirit quest- Unlock the ability to make a special unique to you totem from going on an out of body experience
...That was a nightmare, it might not have even been worth all the new skills I gained. Greed began to laugh in my head¡­ Yea I bet that was funny watching it from the outside. He spoke up. ¡°No, it reminds me of my older days when I was addicted to drugs. Kind of a similar trip to mana crystal dust.¡± ¡°Wow! If it is similar to that count me out!¡± ¡°It is a well traded commodity. It''s more valuable then gold per pound. We''ll probably see a bunch of it if we capture any ships from the pirates. That stuff is lousy for getting people addicted.¡± Well¡­ Regardless that is one thing I needed to do out of the way¡­ I guess I should ask to be let out so I can go change my pants¡­ Aegis speaks up. ¡°Hey before that, you should make a few golems with your mana. If you''re not doing anything besides looking through memories. It shouldn''t matter that you have all of your mana reserved. It will help keep this place protected while you''re not here. Rock won''t be able to defend this place by himself. Some little brothers and sisters to help protect the base would good smart.¡± ¡°I''ll do just that... After I change my pants though.¡± The next day I start working on designing some golems. I want them to be smaller than Rock so they can fit inside the base. If we wanted to get Rock to the ocean it would take us longer than two weeks to go around the mountain. Rock can only ever be on the side that Shienta is on. I work on smoothing them out with control nature. Far more than what Rock is. I can''t enchant them with control nature so they''ll only be so strong. I decided on a gargoyle design for my sentries. Gargoyles are a real monster in the world that are extremely dangerous. They turn to stone during the day, but at night they can destroy towns in large numbers. Vampires like to use them as sentries for their bases. A similar design to mine might deter anyone from attacking. I enchant them with my conjure familiar. Ten altogether, so my mana is completely empty. Blocking off eighty percent of my combat potential¡­ I''ll lock myself in my room until I get it back¡­ In the mean time I''ll go through Greed''s memories. When I unlocked them, it only showed me a brief overview of everything. I know that Greed was a bad man. Killing many people I would have made into my friends, all for the sake of coin¡­
(Kite stats before raid) (strength- 270) (dexterity- 250) (intelligence- 300) (stamina- 350) (total = 1170)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost before raid) (strength- 1350) (dexterity- 1250) (intelligence- 1500) (stamina- 1750) (total = 5850)
(Kite stats after absorbing bosses) (strength- 300) (dexterity- 280) (intelligence- 330) (stamina- 380) (total = 1290)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost after absorbing bosses) (strength- 1500) (dexterity- 1400) (intelligence- 1650) (stamina- 1900) (total = 6450)
Chapter 64 Greeds first memories Kite going through Greed''s memories I was born and lived for five years before I even have my first memories. My childhood was normal but I always had the love for gambling and the dream of owning a ship. I started a hoodlum gang in the city I was born in. We would steal from the wealthy section for the money to gamble and buy things we liked. I started to get a crush on one of the girls we would grift with. Her name is Lindsay. I''ve asked Lindsay out. After a few months of being with her. We decide to get married, we''re both young but I don''t see myself ever being with anyone else. Things continued like usual for a few years like this. I''m sixteen now when my gang got broken up by the guards in the city we live in¡­ A few of us died¡­ All of our money was confiscated¡­ Maybe this is a sign to leave the city and travel the oceans. Everyone has slowly been working together to build up money. I told them about my dream of sailing the seas and everyone else has agreed to pull our money together to build a boat. I had already picked the jobs construction and woodworking for the purpose of designing the ship myself. I bought every single map of the ocean I can, read every book I could on sailing. I wanted to be as prepared as possible to keep my friends safe. I''m eighteen now. I figured a way to get all the money we need at once. We can rob all the money from a local manor in the area. I know for a fact that he has over one hundred gold in his house hidden somewhere. He often leaves on long adventures, we just have to wait until then to search. Most of my gang are thieves, so I take a few of the more trusted crew with me. We wait for the next time he leaves¡­ We''ll raid it that night. We break through the fence in the back of his house. It was too high to jump over so breaking a portion of it was the easiest way to get in. Without going through the front entrance. I know he has a few guards, maids and butlers here¡­ We just have to be extra careful to not get caught. The cost of getting caught would be our fingers getting cut off at minimum. If that happens I''ll never be able to follow my dream. Altogether we have four members. Me and Lindsay and two of my other friends. We approach the window. Peaking in the room, it is empty. I try to open it but it is locked on the inside. I pull out a special tool I bought for this. I had bought a few things, including a smoke bomb and some throwing knives. I also bought black cloaks for all four of us. I spent most of the saved money¡­ I think it will be worth it if we can find this treasure. Using the tool I cut a hole into the glass to open the window. We enter a hallway. I have no idea where the adventurers money is. I just know it is somewhere in the building. The two goons I brought with me are looting everything else of value. Even if we don''t find the big cache of money, we still wont walk away empty handed. This house is two floors at least and most likely has a basement. The most likely places are the adventurers living quarters or the basement. I don''t know how to get to either one though. Walking down the hallways we open every door slowly. Peaking inside for any people first before we loot. So far they''ve just been extra rooms. The maids and butlers probably sleep in servants wing or something similar. The guards probably have an outpost in the house as well. It might be beneficial to find it if none are there. Weapons could be of help later on once my ship is made. We make it to a stairwell, going both up and down¡­ Into the basement or to the second floor¡­ We''ll head down first. The basement is pretty empty. Their are some non laundered cloths. A few crates of food and some other low value items. This must be the storage room they use. We head out and go up the stairs. I''m the first up and I see someone in the hallway, whispering. ¡°Shit! Someone is up here.¡± It looks like it isn''t a guard though, maybe a maid going to get some water? She''s walking towards us though¡­ I''ll knock her out. She gets closer but then enters a room right off the staircase¡­ I wonder what shes doing. We follow behind her. Trying to make the least noise I possibly can I open the door. She''s fiddling around with a bed, making it. The room is very fancy. I see a box, that might be where the treasure is! She is cleaning the adventurers room this late at night? I sneak up behind her and cover her mouth so she can''t scream. Everyone starts going through the room. I see the maids eyes widen. She must have realized we''re here to rob the adventurer. I whisper into her ear. ¡°As long as you cooperate, we won''t kill you.¡± She nods her head then I ask. ¡°Where is the key to that lock box?¡± She points to the headboard of the bed. It must have a hidden compartment. The key is there, after using it on the lockbox¡­ Money! More gold than I''ve ever seen before! So much we could build ten ships if we wanted too. I knock her out. I would have let her go but she might have started screaming if I did. It could have given us away. We head back the same exact way we entered from. Heading towards the window I broke through we exit¡­ Not a single problem from the entire heist. Sometimes it is nice for things to go smoothly like this. Leaving. One of my own goons attacks me. I''m injured but we managed to kill him¡­ REALLY! HE WAS GOING TO KILL HIS FRIEND OVER MONEY! I can''t believe some people. He just lost his life over something so stupid. My injury would have pushed are departure back a few days¡­ If we didn''t just rob a mansion in the city and have to flee to not get caught. We leave the city, I doubt we''ll be followed. Months of traveling later, me and my gang have finally made it to a port city! Here I can either buy a boat straight out or hire the men to make it. I have some designs I would like to use, so I would like it to be built. It will take another few months to build it. While we''re hear I give each one of my men an entire gold to enjoy the city. This could be the last time some of them ever see land again. The ocean isn''t a forgiving place. The boat is finally built! All my designs should make it faster, with a better turning speed than most other boats a similar size. I painted the boat black before we leave. We name the boat the black dagger. The ship that will cut through the sea! We launch the boat with no problems again. With all my crew, plus a few veterans I hired to teach us the ropes we have a crew of twenty people on the boat. We were two weeks into traveling. We are running sugarcane stalks from this port to another port to sell for a raised price. We''re essentially a trading ship. We get attacked by a sea monster. It is massive! Easily half the size of the entire ship¡­ Four of my men die in the attack¡­ I wish I was more prepared against attacks¡­ There has to be some way to fight against these giant monsters without losing so many men. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. We make it to the other shore but¡­ The sugarcane we had taken to sell wasn''t selling for more at this location¡­ We actually lost money bringing it here. I was downtrodden. I thought this would be easier than it is¡­ The money I thought would last forever is already starting to dry up. Out of the one hundred and twenty gold we stole, only eighty gold is left¡­ We kept it up, after the first loss I made sure to check the prices of everything beforehand. A few more months of working and we''re finally making money instead of spending it. We haven''t lost another person since the first giant monster. I spent extra money on a mana cannon. They''re needed for protection on the sea. I''m starting to gain experience with trading. Lindsay has picked the merchant job to increase the money we can make. We''ve been doing this for around five years now. We''ve been steadily increasing our business size. We have a few ships for work. I''ve upgraded the defenses of all my ships. We don''t lose many men to monsters anymore. The biggest problem we have is pirates. A few times we''ve been raided and lost all of our storage. Me and Lindsay have our money stored on an island that only us two know about. We were attacked! A giant number of pirate ships raided all of our ships together¡­ One of our ships was sunk. Half of our crew was killed and they left us a single ship taking the rest¡­ Stealing the black dagger. All our work over the past three years is gone. All the effort was stolen by someone else¡­ I can''t stand for this, no matter what it takes I''ll get even with these pirates! Thankfully most of my old gang was left alive. Everyone else who was new to the crew abandoned us. I killed everyone who wouldn''t join. I wont let someone who isn''t going to help, eat our food and contribute nothing. We only had enough rations to chase them if we killed the people. We know where there hideout is now. We can leave and come back to kill them later. Hit and run tactics have paid off. Seven of the pirate ships have been sank by us. I bought far more upgrades to the ships defenses. This ship now has more mana cannons than all my other ships that were stolen put together. I will have my revenge! Seven ships is nearly half of their fighting force. We''re chased by a few of their ships. We manage to sink two of them but the last one boarded with us. More than half the crew dyed defending the ship¡­ Lindsay was one of them... I will avenge her! I will kill all the pirates! I will make the pirate leader wish he never messed with us! The crew wants to quit¡­ I killed off several of them to re-encourage everyone to continue to fight. I''ll use all of my money to kill these fucking pirates! I''ll bribe anyone who can help me, kill anyone who tries to get in the way! I''ll fucking slaughter all of those pirates for what they''ve put me through! I bought another ship. Paid a handful of guards to board it and pushed towards the pirates hideout. We are still outnumbered two ships to one. I think we still have the advantage in firepower. We get there¡­ I see a white flags everywhere¡­ It could be a trap. I see pirates all standing on one of the boats near the shore. It looks like the captain I had met with is tied up and sitting in the middle of the deck of the black dagger. Other pirates all standing around him. Him shouting out curses for his crew betraying him. One of his crew yells out. ¡°We give him up! We''ll all join your crew if you spare us! Please just let us live.¡± I send my crew to get the captain. He''s aboard my ship meaning it wasn''t a trap. I''ll have them kill themselves. ¡°Alright! Anyone who wants to live has to kill another person! You can kill more than that but you have to prove your strong enough to kill and loyal to me through blood! Get on that ship there and get an ear off of someone to prove your worth.¡± The next few minutes was a slaughter. Many people dying and killing their comrades. The numbers of pirates drops below half of what it was¡­ They''re all on a single ship from the fight. I order them to head back to land¡­ Then while they exit the water, I have them killed. Completely massacring them. Not a single pirate lived¡­ I''m finally done. I avenged everyone who lost their lives to these pirates¡­ The next few weeks I spent torturing the pirate captain¡­ It didn''t make me feel any better for what happened but he had to suffer for killing someone I cared so much for¡­ MY LINDSAY! In a fit of anger one night I beat him to death¡­ I felt empty with no one to take my frustrations out on. I gave up on the sea. Kites point of view I came out of his memories crying¡­ Just by going through them put me in the same mind set as Greed¡­ He was¡­ Is an old life of mine. I can''t believe he went through so much at such a young age¡­ He wasn''t an evil person, it was caused by other people. This world is too cruel sometimes. Greed begins to talk. ¡°Do you see now?... You, you remind myself when I was younger¡­ I''ll do anything to keep you how you are right now. I''ll kill anyone who would try to change you. You are me, that means anyone who tries to kill your friends¡­ Is trying to kill my friends too¡­ It''s just¡­ You haven''t seen all of my memories¡­ I left the ocean after that¡­ For the next ten years I traveled adventuring. Then... I can''t really remember much of when I went back to the sea.¡± ¡°It''s fine, I''ll finish going through your memories. I just need a break¡­ It feels like so much has happened in a single day. I need to think everything through.¡± ¡°I understand. You can always go talk to Merlin about the mana cannons between going through my memories. Just know Kite, I''ll be the monster so you don''t have too. I''ll try to control my Greed but it is hard since it is my defining trait.¡± ¡°No, I''ve done nothing but go against your choices. I''ll rely more on you when it comes to decisions with money¡­ I''m sorry¡­ I''m truly sorry about what happened to Lindsay¡­ Also that feeling¡­ When I avenged my parents it felt like a weight had been lifted from me¡­ When you avenged Lindsay it felt like a weight was added.¡± Chapter 65 Forming a pact I decided to spend the next day heading into town to talk with Merlin. He''s the only enchanter I think might know about mana canisters and mana cannons¡­ The enchanters hut he used to own is now a gigantic house¡­ Easily five times the size it was before¡­ I enter it. Going inside, the main room for rares is now completely different. Everything is well marked and clean. Everything is made of better materials than before. A few more people are moving around than normal. I see the two other apprentices but they''re commanding other people. It looks like Merlin might have started teaching enchanting. I call out. ¡°Is Merlin around? I need to ask him a few questions.¡± One of the apprentices takes me towards the back. Inside is a room with several students in it. Some of which are from the magic school. Others are from the slums and some are from the adventurers guild. Merlin is standing in front of everyone lecturing them on how to make the mana reduction enchant. He notices me and calls out. ¡°Ah, hello Kite, how have you been?¡± ¡°Fine, fine, I''ve just come to ask a few questions.¡± ¡°Ah of course, I heard you were going to fight the pirates head on. I was wondering when you were going to show up.¡± He gestured at the apprentice who brought me in and he ran off. We talked for a few more moments before the apprentice returned with a few books. ¡°Here''s every book I have on sea warfare and land warfare for enchanters. You''ll need these if you hope to stand a chance in the upcoming war. I know I''m trying to prepare for it the only way I can. By teaching my job to students so they can help make the canisters needed to fight evenly with other armies.¡± ¡°Something else I have to do I guess¡­ I wish I would have known to come here earlier. That way I could have read them before I needed them.¡± Merlin laughs. ¡°Even as unique as you are Kite, even you can''t predict the future. No one can see what they''ll need before they need it.¡± ¡°I guess your right. I can teach you a few enchants if you''d like as payment.¡± ¡°No, I''m far to busy with my students, you can have them for free.¡± ¡°I''ll be on my way then.¡± I''ll try to read through them quickly so it doesn''t slow my plans to leave in a few weeks¡­ Depending on how long it takes to make the canisters and cannons it might be longer¡­ It also might be longer depending on how much more of Greed''s memories I have to go through. Everything feels like I should have prepared more this passed year. I should have been ready to go as soon as my generals returned. I still have so much to do and it feels like even more things are getting added to the list. I read through the books. It takes days for of continuous reading for each book. Finally finishing them, I also absorb them for any last bit of information I could retain.
Enchanting recipe learned mana canister
Enchanting level increase 53 to 55
¡­I feel like a fucking idiot¡­ The way you make the mana canisters is with water and a metal container¡­ I can''t believe I needed a book to tell me to do that. With the mana canisters you can power objects that would require mana and you can also use them to power engineering creations. I could make a robot and power it with mana canisters¡­ That would be extremely inefficient though compared to just powering automatons. The cannon is the same thing. It is just a giant metal container you put the canister in. Then you put some type of ammunition on top of that to fire out with the activation of the mana canister. Mana canisters can also be used as explosives. Perhaps a few mana canister arrows would be a good idea? Well knowing that much I can think of a few new ideas for weapons. I should make the-. Greed cuts me off. ¡°Go through my memories first before making the weapons. You might find some new equipment you can make from the weapons my men used. It was after I started to become the leader of a pirate army. I met with someone very influential to my warfare methods.¡± Alright I guess I should worry about going through the memories first. Greed thinks the memories will help me make better weapons and I''m inclined to believe him. Before that, I have to teach the enchanters this new recipe¡­ Shortly after everyone left for the year of training. The two enchanters ranked up. The synthesis enchanter had learned advanced enchanting. He could add mana and enchant faster naturally. All stat boosts he did were also better. The tinkerer enchanter learned dungeon making. He can make practice dungeons now and we have a sectioned off portion to help get levels for people with new classes. He hasn''t found a way to use tinkerer to improve the dungeons yet, maybe I should try to think of some ways as well¡­ They learned it and I set them aside for making the canisters. I have the blacksmith making the cannons to use. They need to fit perfectly so I made a canister for the blacksmith to size them. I''ll try making some smaller ones for a gun. Imagine how damaging my gun sword would be if I a mana canister as a propellant instead of wind scrolls¡­ Maybe I can replace my wind scrolls for all my weapons. I''ve been putting this off and I''ll do it now that I have some downtime. I need to form a blood pact with one of my pets¡­ Which one should I form a pact with... I decide Darkclaw, a few reasons being he''s weak right now. Meaning the chances of us dying are lower. Forming a pact is extremely dangerous to both participants. Humans can form pacts with other humans. Unless you are around the same exact stats one of you might die though. Forming a pact with a pet is safer... Not much safer though. The margin for error is bigger though. As he gets stronger, I''ll get stronger with him. Also if one of our lives are in danger the others soul can help heal the injuries. I imagine he''ll become my strongest pet. I pull Darkclaw aside and talk to him. ¡°Darkclaw. I''m going to form a pact with you, doing this will be very painful. We''ll both get stronger doing this. I just need your blessing before I do¡­ I can''t force someone to do it, you have to be willing.¡± Darkclaw shakes his head in agreement. Here goes nothing I guess. I cut mine and his hand, pouring blood into a cup. I start the ritual. It is beyond painful! FUCK! It feels like my soul is being ripped out of my chest. IT IS! Both mine and Darkclaw''s souls are out of our bodies. Merging together, then splitting apart. Both souls being forced back into our bodies. I hear cries of pain from Darkclaw now. ¡°MASTER! IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH!¡± ¡°JUST HOLD IN THERE DARKCLAW. IT WON''T BE MUCH LONGER.¡± What feels like hours of our souls being forced in, it''s finally over¡­ Both of us are drenched in sweat. I start coughing up blood¡­ Darkclaw might have been too strong for me to form a pact with. If I did it when he was a baby, he might have died though. My body feels different.
Pact formed with Darkclaw
Extinct class learned Dragon bloodline passive skill Absorb dragon essence- any dragon killed close to you gives you a portion of it''s essence, passive increase to all stats level 1 Dragon bloodline skill Dragons breath- gain the ability to breath fire from your mouth
Dragon bloodline secret passive skill Dragon speech- can communicate with dragons
Druid secret skill gained Dragon form- Shape shift form to that of a dragon (increase to all stats)
Druid secret skill gained Griffin form- Shape shift form to that of a griffin (increase to movement speed)
I start to feel woozy then I hear Greed cry out in pain. "GAAAAAH!" I pass out shortly afterwords. Being waken up by Darkclaw. I can hear him shouting. He has tears in his eyes. ¡°Master! Master please! Please wake up!¡± ¡°I''m fine Darkclaw, sorry to worry you. Looks like we succeeded.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I take the next day off. I can now speak with Darkclaw through the dragon language. I doubt anyone else would be able to learn the language besides us. I try out the two new forms I also got. Dragon form makes me a dragon equivalent to the size of Darkclaw. I don''t look like him though. He has feathers starting around his face covering his body. I''m completely reptilian in form. In this form I can fly¡­ I can''t wait until I get the level one hundred druid skill to go half form. Griffin form is the same thing. I change into a normal griffin. No discolored skin like Darkclaw, I look like a plain. If not smaller than average griffin¡­ Kind of weak in comparison to the dragon form. It is still slightly faster at flying. I''ll stick with dragon form unless in an absolute rush. The next day, I start going back into where I was in Greed''s memories¡­ Before I do I asked him why he was in pain. "It was because you ripped a portion of me off and gave it to your pet dragon! I lost that portion of me since I couldn''t fuse with his soul." Kite going through Greed''s memories I abandoned my boat at the hideout¡­ Sailing back on a rowboat is far more dangerous but it is better than selling the black dagger¡­ The boat is precious to me. The next ten years I spent adventuring. I formed friendships with a few groups. I was only going on the most lucrative missions. Since Lindsay has died¡­ It is hard for me to find meaning in life. Money is one of the few comforts I have now. She always appreciated money more than anyone else. Another comfort I have is alcohol... I normally drink until I pass out to go to sleep. During a dungeon near the end of my adventures I saved the life of a ninja. His group had gotten wiped out and he was about to be killed by the boss. I managed to catch the boss in the eye with a throwing knife and got a lucky hit in on the boss. The ninja was a murine folk. A mouse like race that specializes in agility classes like ninja and thief. He started following me around after that saying he owed me a life debt from now on. While I thought it meant he would follow me until he saved me once. He could save my life one hundred times and would still follow me¡­ I acquired a very strong underling. murine folk can live to be a few hundred years old so he will serve me for my entire life. He also had a cute little fox as a pet. It was nice to have some type of animal around in case we ever ran out of food. I started drinking¡­ A lot. More than most people would consider a good amount¡­ I just can''t get over Lindsay¡­ It''s been ten fucking years and I still think about her every damn day... I need to go back to my passion of the sea¡­ I think it has been long enough for me to be over her. The main difference is I''m going to be a counter pirate. A noble pirate that doesn''t kill anyone and fights the other pirates. My new goal is keeping the ocean safer. I''ll amass a crew of like minded people. People willing to protect the seas from dangers while making some money on the side. I still need my old ship. With the money I''ve made adventuring I can buy more than one ship. I''ll get my black dagger first while they make my new ships. Ten years has afforded me the time to design two sister ships to the black dagger. An even smaller ship for hit and run tactics. So small it will need to be protected by bigger ships from monsters. It will be called the black shiv. Finally the bigger version of my ship. It will hold the bulk of my troops I recruit and have the most firepower. It will be used for head on fights with other ships. Once the black dagger and shiv have weakened the size of any other fleets. It will be called the black sword. We still need treasure, so sinking ships isn''t the goal this time. I get my ship and leave my first mate ninja, named Tezuna to handle the ships being made. At least until I return, I can''t allow anyone to see the location of my hidden fortress. No matter what, it still takes a week of traveling by rowboat to make it there. As risky as it is traveling by myself to my fortress, I can''t ever let anyone else see it. Grabbing my ship and heading back I''m ambushed by a monster. Damage is done to me and my ship, I killed it though. I managed to kill a boss monster by myself with the help of the mana cannons¡­ My leg is gone. I lost my leg in the attack¡­ Making it back to land, everyone their surprised by the sight of me and my ship. I guess I need to get a new makeshift leg made. Getting myself fitted for a fake leg while the rest of the ships are being made. I had a few people come up and ask to join my crew. Of course I let them join, I need all the men I can get. I recruit some more members. The whole message of being upright pirates, defending the seas and robbing from the robbers goes over well. I fill all three ships with enough members to run a skeleton crew at least. We''ll need far more in order to fill the black sword fully. The black shiv only requires a handful of men to pilot it. We''ll use it and run tactics for now until we expand at other ports. It''s been two years since I''ve started reverse pirating. Mild success so far. I guess the biggest group of pirates was wiped out when I killed them some years ago. A few more have sprouted up from time to time but it is mostly nothing anymore¡­ I''ll have to quit pirating soon because we ran out of pirates to fight. We decided to start raiding transport ships. I was against it but if I leave my position as head of the pirates. Someone else will come and fill the spot. Everyone is under orders to not kill a single person when we raid ships. It is my only rule they have to follow. I wont fall down to the pirates level who stole from me all those years ago. Five years later and I''ve been at it for that long now. I started running supplies with a few ships but my pirate army keeps getting bigger and bigger. I now have fifteen ships under my command gaining more every day. Today we were raiding a ship like normal and they killed my men and fired at a ship sinking it¡­ I killed everyone on that ship and tortured the captain for an entire week before he died¡­ I TRY TO BE NICE. I TRY TO BE REASONABLE BUT PEOPLE CONSTANTLY FIGHT AGAINST ME! My men are under new orders to kill everyone on each ship we raid¡­ We''ll skin the ships as well to keep from getting suspicious eyes on us. They don''t deserve my mercy if they''re going to defy me. After sinking a few ships I stopped. Most of my men were on the verge of leaving when I started that. Five years later still¡­ My crew has expanded to thirty ships. Slowly over time I''ve started getting more and more ruthless with pirating. I''ve become a legitimate pirate by those standards. I don''t care anymore. I numb the pain with anything I can get my hands on. Booze, drugs, women, nothing makes me happy anymore. I wish¡­ I could have been the one that died that day. I wish Lindsay would have lived. I wish I was stronger, strong enough to stop anything bad from happening to her. I went to far. Even from my standards I know that. While drinking one day we found a transport ship carrying passengers from one continent to the next. In my drunken state, I ordered the ship to be ransacked and everyone on board killed¡­ My men didn''t want to so I did it myself... There were children abroad the ship... This was crossing the line to a few of my men. The ship was also loaded with very wealthy individuals... No doubt the neighboring countries will send ships now that I''ve caused such a big problem. When I was sober enough to realize my mistake I quit drinking from that point on. Tezuna, my loyal follower was ready to leave after that¡­ For someone like him to go against the tradition they were raised to never break.... All because I''m such a bad person. I''ll change I swear it. I need to get better for the sake of my crew. "Please... Please don''t leave me Tezuna... You''re all I have left... I''ll kill myself if you leave." "Fine, this is your last chance though. I can''t keep following you if you''re always ruthless... For greater gods sake you killed a group of children." Kites point of view Every time I dive back down into Greed''s memories, I realize I could easily end up the same way as him in a few years. My previous life wasn''t nearly as dangerous as the one I lived as Kite¡­ I just went with the flow¡­ Never really having a goal in my life, I just did what I thought I should do¡­ My trait was (kind) but I barely helped anyone. I only truly started to care when my life was over¡­ I need another break from these memories. I''ll rest for a day or two then try to finish Greed''s memories.
(Kite stats before blood pact) (strength- 300) (dexterity- 280) (intelligence- 330) (stamina- 380) (total = 1290)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost before blood pact) (strength- 1500) (dexterity- 1400) (intelligence- 1650) (stamina- 1900) (total = 6450)
(Kite stats after blood pact) (strength- 330) (dexterity- 330) (intelligence- 350) (stamina- 430) (total = 1420)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost after blood pact) (strength- 1650) (dexterity- 1650) (intelligence- 1750) (stamina- 2150) (total = 7200)
Chapter 66 Goodbye my friend I spend the next day talking with everyone at the fortress. It''s been a while since I''ve taken a break for the sake of talking to people. Lance and Zergnar have been sparring ever since their first match back in the raid area. Not a single day goes by where they aren''t sparring. I''ll leave them too it. I see Kora running around with the gnolls in the mining section. She''s wearing a hard hat and directing them with a paper of recent discoveries of ore on it. Most likely looking for big veins of gems or ore. She hasn''t spent a single day lounging. Constantly busy helping anyone who needs it. Some of the demon tribe are also helping with mining now. I see Trice and it reminds me of Ashley¡­ She left the fortress shortly after her sister died to live with family in Shienta. I haven''t seen her in over a year¡­ I don''t know what happened to her since then¡­ I speak to Trice, she''s been busy going over her equipment. Making sure everything is in order and that she has some extra vials of poison on her. She seen me using them in that way and started copying me. Being able to throw poison is a far better method for using it than spitting it. Not only can you increase the distance but also the glass can cut them for the poison to work. She also asked for a Gear backpack like mine. So she''s been weight training so it wont strain her once it''s made. Once I''ve finished making everyone their new equipment, I''ll make her a Gear mk2. With all the changes I can think of and one that would suit her better. Leaf is flying around solo on Bloodyclaw. She also claimed a griffin for her own but likes Bloodyclaw more. When Zergnar isn''t searching the area''s with Bloodyclaw, Leaf is riding her. She''s up to an impressive height¡­ Maybe I should give her Morpheus to use since he could protect her better than a regular griffin¡­ I''ve started to worry about her more since I went through Greed''s memories¡­ I don''t want anything bad to happen to her in the upcoming war¡­ Maybe I should tell Lance''s group they''re not needed¡­ Brick is talking with some of the demon tribe. It looks like he''s apologizing to them. They don''t seem to be listening to him though¡­ It is an uphill battle for him to get them to understand why he did it. Both of their tribes are almost wiped out on this side of the continent because of the pre-war skirmishes. I don''t expect them to forgive him instantly but they should realize they are in the same position his tribe was in until I asked for their freedom. Epieoth is with some of his tribe too. Laughing and enjoying his time away from battle¡­ It starts to make me feel worse for Brick. He has no family to be happy with. Epieoth see''s me and we talk for a few moments. ¡°What happened to your aura¡­ It is different than before.¡± ¡°What is different about it?¡± ¡°It looks like your aura is mixed with mana¡­ I''ve never seen something like this before. It also looks like a portion of your red aura is missing... Like their is less of it.¡± ¡°I formed a blood pact with Darkclaw¡­ That might be why.¡± ¡°What!? I can''t believe this¡­ Do you know how risky that is? I''ve known warlocks who went their entire lives without risking it. Even with perfect conditions the chances of death are still high.¡± ¡°It was worth the risk.¡± We conclude our talk. I still have people to meet or check on today. So I keep it brief. He continued to talk to me about his lack of ranged attacks. Maybe I''ll implement something to make up for that in the weapon I design for him. I visit the stables next. We have far more griffins now since they hatched and are now almost fully grown. Most of my pets are in here. Darkclaw greets me by jumping on top of me. He''s around the same size as me right now. I play with them for a few minutes but have to leave soon afterwords. I bring Darkclaw with me since he was disappointed. He is still a baby when it comes to his attitude. I see Sock training with the new guardian/white mage troops. With not much attacking power, they need someone who can fight them to practice with. A few of the demon tribe and gnoll troops are mixed in with them. I feel sorry for whoever goes against Sock though. I head to the sick bay. We used to use the unending fire source to light the mines¡­ It ended badly with the oxygen levels dropping to dangerous levels. After flushing fresh air in with a few wind scrolls, I replaced the light sources with polished rocks enchanted with turn undead. It works similar to the sun and is able to light up any room without their being negative repercussions to them. I also have shades for them to make the rooms darker for sleeping in. In the sick bay I see both Pokodo and Gargarz, they''re busy treating some of the miners that are injured from a collapsed mine shaft. It sometimes happens but fortunately it has only been small cave-ins. Another nature mage gnoll fortifies the walls, they also use support beams to increase stability. Sometimes that isn''t enough to stop the cave-ins. Both look busy so I leave them. Heading to the main room of the fortress, it has the rest of my generals and pets. Blue is talking with the gnoll cooks¡­ No Ashley to cook for us anymore, food tastes different since then. Less vegetables mainly with the lack of any non gnoll cooks. Some demon tribe members started cooking but they''re all juniors compared to the gnolls. Gnolls eat far more meat than would normally be possible for someone that tiny. It would be a problem if we hadn''t worked out good methods for self sustaining our resources. I can''t wait until we get a fortress made near the ocean. That will open up new foods including fish. One thing I gained from Greed is the appetite for seafood. I also wouldn''t mind making a brewery here for the sake of our troops morale. Celebrating with some alcohol after a hard day of training would help them¡­ I also wouldn''t mind drinking if I had the chance. Kline is talking with some of the demon tribe and gnolls children. He''s a big hit when it comes to stories from a humans point of view. He''s a good storyteller. His favorite story is how I managed to defeat the basilisk. It gets more ridiculous every time he tells it though. I think how the story goes right now... I beat the basilisk when I was sick. While saving over a dozen men who ran off crying in the woods, all with one hand¡­ The gnoll and demon tribe children look at him with amazed eyes at the story. Leon and Nargzar have become fairly close friends. They often spar like Lance and Zergnar but they also compete in other ways¡­ Like races, weight lifting. Right now it''s an eating contest. A group of people are surrounding them, cheering and placing bets on who will win. Leon has the size advantage but Nargzar is a gnoll, which means he has a voracious appetite. It''s a very close but Leon barely scraps a win out of it. He gloats over his victory for a few moments until he upchucks the food he just stuffed into his face¡­ Days like today remind me why I need to keep getting stronger. Once this war is over maybe we can have a few more peaceful days like today. The next day I''m going to take off as well but Greed urges me to finish his memories. At the same time he doesn''t want me to finish them... ¡°Maybe you should just stop where you are¡­ The next part of my life¡­ I sort of fall off the wagon so to speak.¡± ¡°It should be fine Greed. With everything you''ve been through I sort of understand why you''ve done what you have done.¡± ¡°If you say so¡­ Just remember I warned you¡­ This next part in my life even I don''t remember much of it.¡± Kite going through Greed''s memories Me and Tezuna head to his island. While there I picked up a few weapons to have my blacksmiths learn how to make them. Since I was going to use them, I also tried to learn the ins and outs of each weapon. What each one was good at. It is an island in the east part of the ocean. Tezuna said it was to remain a secret to everyone besides myself for the sake of his villages safety. The least I can do for him is listen to his requests. The next few years are a blur. I barely remember anything but what I do remember isn''t good. The few moments of clarity when I''m not high on drugs is spent thinking about what I''ve become¡­ Most of the females on the ship I''ve slept with¡­ A few are claiming to have had my children. I treat them better if they do, just a little better though¡­ At least when I''m sober. While high on mana crystal dust. I struck one of my children for touching my gold. I thought he was trying to steal it but it turned out he was just looking at how pretty it was¡­ I can''t believe myself! I''m such a scumbag¡­ I need to sober up permanently. I work on getting better¡­ Before I realized it I had fifty ships under my flag. The years I spent blacked out weren''t wasted I guess... As hard as I try, I can''t quit mana crystal dust. I defend my ships against the country''s ships. I hate sinking them but it is either us or them. I hate that I have to kill¡­ Or I would if I felt anything. The only thing I care for is money. Most of these ships have nothing of value on them. Only the mana cannons which we don''t need. The country''s fleet wasn''t taking us seriously. If they would have attacked with the full force of their fleet instead of small detachments. They might have beaten us. One last big attempt. They send around one hundred ships to try and finish us off. I know the seas like the back of my hand. I employ several tricks to decrease their numbers. Hit and run tactics with traps set up if they decided to pursue. The final battle takes place between a cluster of islands. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Having forts already build on some of the islands we start to lessen their numbers. The area between the islands is also shallow, some of the ships are being stranded then blown up. The rest of the ships were outmaneuvered by my smaller and faster ships. By entering this area they sealed their fates to die. We beat them. The bulk of their fleet is now gone. A few ships manage to escape but with the heavy casualties our their side, it is a complete victory for us. We only lose a few ships and most of the pirates swim to shore. Losing only a handful of men. I decide to make this patch of islands the main base for the pirates. We loot the ships that were sunk. Being so shallow we can search the insides just by diving. We managed to get a big haul of loot, mana cannons, weapons and gold. Several hundred gold worth. Pushing the amount of gold the pirates have collected to exceed over one thousand gold... I see my men eyeing that gold now... With no rivals we will once again fall back to basic pirating. A few years later and the ships trying to stop us pirates stop coming¡­ We''ve beaten an entire country in a naval war. Through blind luck on our part and the lack of naval experience on their part. We''ve easily sunk over one hundred ships with a fleet half that size. The things I''ve done for the sake of money is terrible. I know I''m going to die soon¡­ My insides hurt any time I move. I think my insides might be going bad from all the drinking I''ve done and drugs I do... I can''t let this money cause my pirates to kill each other after I''m gone. All I wanted in life was to sail the seas¡­ I feel like I had forgotten myself, not having enjoyed that for a long time. It''s too late to change that now. I head to my island. I have to save my men from themselves. I buried the gold beside Lindsay¡­ I think she would like that¡­ I wish I could be buried next to her¡­ I''m going to sacrifice myself to my men though¡­ I sent Tezuna back to his village. I don''t want him to foolishly try to save me from the pirates. Without a target or a scapegoat they might try to blame and fight each other. Keeping the pirates together, the friends I''ve grown close to. This is the last thing I can do with my life. I head out on my rowboat towards where the fleet is positioned¡­ Kite''s point of view I come out of Greed''s memories crying again¡­ How could someone so cold, so heartless through some parts of his life. Be such a good person the other times¡­ Greed speaks up. ¡°You understand now¡­ I was an awful person my whole life. I became what I hated the most in life¡­ All for the sake of money at first... I decided to change at the end, that doesn''t make up for all the bad things I''ve done though.¡± ¡°Yea but look how many people it saved. Money is what makes the world go round. Without it we can''t buy food or weapons to protect ourselves. Lack of willingness to spend money would get men killed¡­ Even so you were willing to spend almost all of your money to avenge Lindsay¡­ I¡­ I could become just like you if anything happened to Leaf.¡± ¡°Heh... Made it... Just in time...Yea¡­ I guess¡­ This is¡­ All I¡­ Could do¡­ For you¡­ Seeya Kite...¡±
Greed dissipates into your mind
Trait upgraded Kind--> Just- Can take control of situations where you are required to be more brutal, can see from everyone else''s perspective, far stronger mentally
Trait upgraded Greed--> Fair- Know when to save money and when to spend it, better at seeing the value of everything
Thief 30 to 60
Level 50 Thief skill gained Evasive stance- Take a stance that decreases chances of being hit (Combines with berserkers stance and complete defense to make Perfect stance- Increases all stats, armor, magic defense, block and evasion)
Fighter 26 to 50
Level 50 Fighter passive skill gained Combat expertise- Able to read the flow of battle and predict movements of enemies, increases chances of dodging and getting critical strikes
Blacksmithing Ninja weapon recipes added
Ninja location revealed
Mental map expanded
Title learned Captain- Know how to perfectly operate a ship
Job level increased Burglar 15 to 50
Job level increased Woodworker 28 to 55
Job level increased Construction 33 to 65
He was probably struggling to hold on until now¡­ Goodbye Greed¡­
(Kite stats before) (strength- 330) (dexterity- 330) (intelligence- 350) (stamina- 430) (total = 1420)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost before) (strength- 1650) (dexterity- 1650) (intelligence- 1750) (stamina- 2150) (total = 7200)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 340) (dexterity- 410) (intelligence- 360) (stamina- 460) (total = 1570)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost after) (strength- 1700) (dexterity- 2050) (intelligence- 1800) (stamina- 2300) (total = 7850)
Chapter 67 Weapon upgrades I start working on weapons¡­ I''ve already started designing a few but with Greed''s help I can now make far more intricate weapons. I start making the mana canisters. I''ll need to add to a few of the weapons. After I make the mana canisters, I''ll finish the weapons that involve them first. Starting with Epieoth''s. His weapon is a scythe. I hollowed out the snath of the scythe so a bullet could be fired from it. Like my gunsword. The chamber is much bigger than mine though. I used treant wood as the snath and enchanted it with control nature. Then infused anti magic runes with control nature. Finally casting control nature on it to make it even stronger. The wood is as strong as my totem swords now. Testing the ranged portion of it¡­ IS DEADLY! The burst from using the canister launches the bullet out so fast it goes through ten walls strengthened with control nature. The blast is strong enough to knock me off my feet and pull the weapon out of my hands. Any normal person would never be able to use it. Finally, I add the scythe blade to the end. The beard and toe have both been strengthened and modified. The toe or tip of the blade is sharp and pointed to be used as a spear. While the beard or part closest to the wood has a saw blade function on it. So that if a person moves into the attack to try and avoid it, Epieoth can move it towards them for it to dig into them. His new weapon is called the scytherifle. Next is Brick. His weapon also requires mana canisters. Brick doesn''t really use weapons in his fighting style. So I made one that uses elements to his advantage. Gauntlets made from hardened, folded steel. Above each knuckle is a metal tube. That can hold either rocks or bullets. Firing one doesn''t cause much kickback. Firing all four would be very similar to the kickback of Epieoths weapon though. I doubt Brick will have any problems shooting all four at once though. His weapon will be called the hand cannon. I also make two void storage rings for him. Filling both up with enchanted control nature strengthened rocks. He wont easily run out of ammo now for his ranged attacks. The rings will also make his punches even heavier when they''re filled with rocks. I make another gunsword for Gobber. And redesign mine to fit the exact same size of mana canister as his to uniform the ammo we''ll need. This will replace his giant crossbow. I move onto Gobbers next weapon. Mimicking Gears drill formation, I''m going to make him a replacement sword similar to that. It takes over an entire day to make a giant long, thin drill. I tried to explain it to the blacksmiths but they didn''t understand what I wanted made. Forcing me to make it myself. Instead of using the mana canister for an explosion, it is used as a fuel source. The main difference is the switch activating it. You don''t use mana to set it off, you use a switch to activate the machinery added to it. The mana powers it once it starts running automatically. The engineering parts of the sword work in conjuction with being powered by the mana canister. Powering the sword makes it spin very fast. As fast as Gear''s shields¡­ I''m glad this worked or I would have had to make an automaton for the sole purpose of being a weapon for Gobber. Testing it out I use it against the wall. I can easily push the entire sword into the control nature strengthened wall. I wont be able to defend against his attacks once he activates this. I doubt Gear''s shields could stand to the drills pressure. Gobber''s weapon might be unblockable. To strengthen it even further I add a mithril tip to it¡­ I can''t wait to get adamantine to strengthen it even further. I call this new weapon a drill rapier. I make the mage staffs next. I''m going to make each of them necklaces and enchanted staffs. The staffs will use mana canisters to fire out nine arrows at once. The reason I''m using arrows is they''re slightly easier to work with than guns. Far less kickback. Meaning I can use smaller mana canisters to fire each arrow. Still firing nine arrows at once still would pack a punch. The reason I''m using necklaces is so that mana explosions don''t happen from the rings rubbing against the rare staffs. I make each staff out of several treants if I can. If not I make the top portion where the arrows will be fired from out of treant wood. The staffs look a bit silly. Thin on the bottom with a big end to it where the arrows are. It suits the purpose though. The arrows have to be loaded manually after firing though, so it is a one use per fight kind of weapon. Most of the staffs were enchanted with increased radius. Leaf''s was enchanted with improved summoning and increased radius. Finally their necklaces were all designed for the two classes they used the most. Pokodo was given a white mage necklace already, I added nature magic to it. Gargarz had a ring with two effects already. Just putting the ring on a string around his neck is enough to make it into a necklace. Casters were by far the easiest to design for. Most of their equipment is uniform and easily interchangeable with each other. Except Leaf''s¡­ Hers has the most attention to detail. I call the new weapons cross-bo-staffs. Next I designed the Gear mk2 Trice is going to use. I try to make it different from mine. The biggest thing I lacked was defense so mine is defensive. Trice''s biggest problem is offensive power. Ranged attacks especially. The automaton I made from her was an archer/fighter. I tried teaching it many other classes like blue mage. Those were the first two it could learn that would suit Trice''s fighting style. Like the other archer automatons, Gear mk2 had six arms. Sll with crossbows on them. Hidden blades underneath the arms too. The biggest difference was that inside each arm of the mk2 was hollowed out. Using some of the remaining treant wood for strength, I added guns to her Gear. Trice had thought of several formations to use as well. Starting the fight the mk2 would be holding six poison vials. Yelling "Fire!" would fire the mk2''s crossbow arms. Yelling "Throw!" would throw the vials of poison. Yelling "Shoot!" would fire the mk2''s arms. Finally, yelling "Attack!" would switch to the mk2''s hidden blades to move in to attack. Because of Trice''s classes, I made the arms more flexible and less sturdy than my Gear. It will allow the mk2 to aim while Trice is running away and swing the blades faster. I hollowed out the body of the gear and it will use that as an item holder. Adding in a void bag it can pull out an incredible amount of bolts and vials of poison. It can also reload its own guns. The way that Gear mk2 is designed, it soaks up a lot of the kickback from the guns. Moving on. I make two halberds for Zergnar. The halberds sizes can be adjusted to suit his needs. It uses a spring loaded button inside to adjust the size. Pushing the spring loaded button in you can pull the spear inside out more or less depending on preference. All the way from being the size of hatchets with spear tips on them. To being longer than the current spear he is using. Berserkers can use axes very well and it will open up even more attacks to him. His dual halberds are called twinberds. He also lacks ranged attacks. So I made him several throwing tomahawks to use for ranged. I always thought axes would suit Zergnar better. Designing weapons around that helped me pick the weapons he would use. For Lance, until he gains his heirloom weapon he''ll need a new spear. I design a drillance for him. Similar to Gobber''s drill rapier. Just¡­ The size of a lance, it is slightly different than a spear but it works for Lance. Powering it takes more than Gobber''s. Each person should carry around a few mana canisters from now on. Even without being powered, they''re still extremely deadly weapons though. Moving onto Lance''s ranged weapons. He''s been using spears with most of the handles cut off as throwing weapons. I designed spears for him that are more similar to arrows than spears. He was losing a lot of power from his throws balancing the spears. These are far more aerodynamic and lighter. Finally using something similar Zergnar''s spear. I make one specialty spearrow that expands when it''s thrown to the size of a regular spear. The parts inside auto separate as far as possible before the spear stops expanding. Sort of like a last resort if everything else fails. I make Lance a special pair of boots too. These boots have eight enchanted void storage rings embedded on the bottoms of them. Each ring has a block he can form and step on to give him extra mobility in the air. In the forming process for material from the rings they aren''t being pulled by gravity for a split second. With practice Lance should be able to use this to a tremendous advantage. I doubt Zergnar could ever use them properly so I don''t make him a set. If he complains about Lance getting special treatment I''ll make him a pair as well... Never mind, I just make Zergnar a pair anyways. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Switching to my two thieves. I design a few weapons for Leon and Nargzar. I don''t know which one will get which weapon though. It''s more of a fit their personality choice than anything else. I design four weapons. Starting with two pieces of wood. I make some chain and attach them together by it. Then affix two different types of blades to it. One is a regular pointed out blade while the other is a scythe type blade. The chain is around five feet long so you can swing the weapon to use it at range. The chain can be shortened and the scythe blade can be pointed straight upwards like the other end. By doing this you can use them as bladed nun chucks. I call this weapon the bladechucks in melee form. The ranged form is called a kurasi kama¡­ I thank Greed for me learning how to create this weapon. This as well as the next few weapons will be very difficult to learn how to use. The next weapon starts with another two pieces of wood. The wood has handles to grab onto and blades on the outside of the wood. The weapon is called a bladetonfas. While not nearly as special as the above mentioned weapon. This one would be far easier to use, learn and master. It would also pair well with the next weapon. Starting with three ten foot long pieces of thin wire. I start to wrap them together. Every few inches adding in a sharp piece of metal to it. Twisting the metal so it wouldn''t fall out. Doing this the entire length of the metal I make an eight foot long spiked whip. I name it tanglewhip. This weapon could be used together with the bladetonfas. I even added an attachment to both the tonfa handles so you could add the whip to either one. Spinning would fling the tanglewhip out enough to tangle your enemies so you could move in to kill with the tonfas. The last few weapons I made were shurikens. Many of different sized ones. Ranging from the extremely small to the size of someones entire arm. The biggest problem with throwing knives is even if you''re skilled with them. They can possibly not deal any damage because the handle will hit. I could even make holders for the shurikens that would allow you to throw multiple shurikens all at once. I''ll make one for every single one of my generals¡­ Meaning I need to make like five hundred shurikens to have enough for a few reloads for each general. The launcher will hold ten at one time. Just swinging it and pressing a button at the right time will release them. The mages will definitely need to practice but I doubt anyone else will have any problems using them. I call these shuriken launchers. Moving onto my pets. Sock is the most important to protect since he is the most likely to be targeted. I designed a set of gear with the visual distortion enchant. It will be able to change for all his forms. The gauntlet I made to replace his weapon has claws on them. It will allow him to continue to attack with a weapon even if he changes forms. He should be getting very close to ranking up druid though. Morpheus and Darkclaw have a similar set of gear to Sock. I made a miniature version of the cross-bo-staff for Blue. It could fire four crossbow bolts instead and is much smaller. I also made him a custom set of gear which doesn''t do anything special¡­ Just gives him more defense against attacks. I move onto making the new shields for my tank generals. Each shield will be uniform like the staffs for the mages. Each shield was made with the remaining treant wood. Thankfully we collected a lot from the raid boss. I knew exactly how important it was. Strengthening it with the enchanted control nature and then using regular control nature. Double strengthening each shield. I add a damage reduction gem to each shield. I shave each end down and add a mithril tip to the top of each shield. This will allow them to use the shields as a weapon if needed. If you spin the shield you can expand it up to two times. Making each shield big enough to cover more than the defenders entire body if they crouched. Finally! I get to the changes I''ve made to my own and Gear''s gear. I added something similar to the mk2 to gear. The void bag storage in his stomach to fill his hands. He''ll be able to hold one of each of the shuriken launchers in each hand. Launching sixty shurikens all at once. I''ll give Trice the same idea. My Gear will do it with me yelling "Retrieve formation!" to get the loaded shuriken launchers from void storage. Then yelling "Throw formation!" to launch them¡­ Using it and shotgun formation together would result in an intense amount of projectiles at once. I also made reloading the arrows in his arms easier and added the same function of firing them as Trices mk2. The mana canisters completely replaced the need for wind scrolls. That being said, my knife cannons have been replaced with mana canisters instead of wind scrolls too. The double barrel knife cannons, under my arms were the easiest to change. They are both attached to my body and were reinforced already. The knives cannon was the hardest to fix. The metal I was using was too thin, adding more metal made it very heavy and harder to use. Finally I decided on a similar design to the cross-bo-staffs. Attaching an expandable handle to it, I could wield it with both hands. The knives cannon is still my strongest attack. Well, my strongest attack that doesn''t use chi anyways. I made a special void ring for myself. It was a false tooth for inside of my mouth. With my new fire breath and my other bad breath attack. I need a way to use them better. So inside the void ring I can store wind scrolls. It would also help keep items hidden in situations where it would be helpful. The biggest asset to my fighting style is the element of surprise. Testing it, I could combine the fire breath with a single poison or debuff from bad breath. Using a wind scroll while breathing increased the size and damage of my fire debuff breath. I make two different matching sets of gear for each one of my generals. One for melee and one for casters. For melee, each set of gear has four layers. I make a set for myself as well. The mithril chest piece worked well until now but I''ve used a lot of it for weapon tips. First layer is silk enchanted with warding magic. Second layer is supple leather enchanted with rare self repair. Third layer is steel. It is only in area''s that need extra protection. The steel is enchanted with shell magic. Finally the last layer is basilisk scales. Only on the top portion of the armor. The basilisk scales are enchanted with both self repairing and lightweight. I had to synthesize each plate after adding the rare enchant to two separate ones. It will help keep the gear from being destroyed for longer. The gear for the mages is different. It has three layers. First layer is spider silk. Enchanted with the rare enchants for mana regen and increased magic radius. The next layer is cloth. If the magic user has an heirloom robe it is used. Heirlooms work differently than other rares. Anything indestructible doesn''t cause mana feedback if rubbed against other rares. Finally the last layer is double enchanted supple leather armor. Enchanted with lightweight and self repair. Finally I make a set of boots for each person. Depending on what they do. I add two rare effects to each pair. Every single set has the rare movement speed increase. The second enchant is the regen effect from movement that fits them best. Either mana, rage or energy. Lance and Zergnar already have special boots made so they don''t get another set. Making all the weapons takes¡­ A very long time. Over two weeks of designing and making a few prototypes of some of the harder to use weapons. Then completing each new weapon. Some of the demon tribe have been looking at me with weird expressions¡­ I''m not sure why, I''ll put all the new weapons in a single room¡­ Seeing them all looks very impressive, I go and get my generals to show their new equipment. Chapter 68 Meeting the kobolds I see a few generals and send them to get the rest. I head to the armory where all the weapons are set-up. It takes a few moments for all my generals to arrive. When Epieoth notices me his eyes widen in shock. He yells out. ¡°Who the hell did you form a pact with now!?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I ask not understanding the question. ¡°Your aura¡­ Changed again¡­ DO YOU REALIZE HOW IMPOSSIBLE THAT IS!? Imagine only ever seeing three colors¡­ A color for each person¡­ Than all of a sudden you see someone with two colors. Zero other people have two colors. You get over that then he has mana mixed in with his aura¡­ Which is almost as weird. You get over that, then his aura changes to purple¡­ HOW!?¡± ¡°Well¡­ You remember, how I had another set of memories in my head¡­ I guess¡­ I absorbed him...¡± ¡°¡­You are so weird¡­ I still don''t understand you at all. Well it looks like everyone else is here, we can go inside now.¡± Heading inside I go in first. I want to see everyone''s faces when they see the new equipment. The looks on all their faces¡­ All of them have an amazed look on their faces. They''ve seen me making weapons, they knew I was making gear since I had to measure them. They didn''t see anywhere near the full amount of equipment though. The sheer amount of equipment is incredible. All my effort, gathering materials, designing the equipment then finally making it paid off. I give a brief description of each weapon to the new owner of it. Giving each person their gear finally getting to Trice. Her Gear mk2 needed to be explained more thoroughly. Each new formation will need to be taught to the Gear mk2. Also working in unison with the Gear mk2 would be impossible for anyone else besides me and Trice. The calculations it would take to configure each formation is too much for anyone else to handle. Each person is now outfitted in their new gear. We head outside for some target practice. A lot of people who have never used throwing weapons are going to be practicing today with the shuriken launchers. It goes badly... Tons of minor injuries from the shurikens being launched wrong. Someone almost lost an eye but no permanent injuries. Still, knowing how to protect themselves is never a bad thing. Even slowing down an approaching threat might save their lives. Once that''s done, I take some time to practice magic with all my casters. What I seen from Leaf and Trice then from Blue and the all black mages can be trained for. Pulling all the elementalists, nature mages, aqua mages and black mages aside, I start the training. ¡°Anyone with control nature, I''m going to channel on this spot right here. Everyone else strengthen it with your elemental magic or nature magic.¡± Forcing a control nature into the ground I start expanding it upwards¡­ With everyone''s help, the earth moves up twenty feet easily. Sloping downwards towards us. We just made an artificial cliff. With high ground on our side. Resulting in an easily fortified location in a matter of seconds with everyone working together. It makes sense that every other spell would have a similar effect if combined. Trying it with the rest of the elements, focusing on water next we pick up the entire body of water we''re using for the hot springs. Pulling water out of a tree causes it to shrivel up and die. Fire with the help of black mages and elementalists assisting results in a gigantic explosion¡­ The size of the entire fortress could be engulfed in the flames¡­ That isn''t even with any fuel¡­ What a dangerous attack. Finally casting the druid magic regrowth as a group. All the plants instantly grow to maturity¡­ What a useful skill to know. With this I feel my generals are now fully prepared for this war¡­ My troops on the other hand¡­ I still feel we might get overwhelmed by numbers and we can''t train for that. The only way to fix it is to get more numbers for our side to fight with. I still need to get the kobolds as allies¡­ I don''t have Greed anymore¡­ I''m not sure what I''ll do to get them now¡­ Maybe I should just have my generals take them over. Well I might as well go conquer them now so I can start having ships built. Even fighting with the pirates now might deter them from attacking¡­ Even if we can''t beat them. I highly doubt that, the less their are, the easier it will be defending Shienta though. Me and a small detachment of my army move out towards the kobolds. Bringing all my generals and around fifty mixed troops to back us up. Bringing the entire army would be a mistake. The white mage troops aren''t nearly prepared enough for actual combat and bringing five hundred soldiers might scare the kobolds into attacking. I want to get more practice leading smaller portions before I lead the entire army. This small number is a good amount for letting each of my generals lead as well. Trying to command an entire army of five hundred people just by myself would never work out well. Each general will lead a different set of units when the time comes and several generals will be fallback leaders just in case. Making it to the kobolds, we go forwards with just the generals. I learned enough kobold to talk. The leader approaches us. Far different from the hobgoblin and gnoll leaders. He''s an elderly lizard, covered in a necklace of shrunken skulls. He asks us a question. ¡°Which one of you is the leader.¡± Stepping forwards I speak up. ¡°I am the leader.¡± The few kobolds around start to snicker at this. Very similar to the gnolls. No one takes a child seriously. Should I kill one of them with my knives cannon to get them to fear me? It might fall to that but they also might attack us if I do. I think of something that might scare them. I call on the part of Greed that is still in my body for what I''m about to say next. I feel in times of bluffing, I will rely on the part of Greed that is in me now. Changing into dragon form, I yell. ¡°YOU DARE LAUGH AT ME! THIS BOY IS BUT A VESSEL FOR MY GREATNESS! ANYONE WHO APPOSES ME WILL BE DESTROYED!¡± The kobolds all start shaking. I guess it worked perfectly since they haven''t attacked. I still have to continue the ruse though. ¡°WHO IS YOUR LEADER!? I WILL FEAST UPON HIS FLESH BY THE END OF TONIGHT!¡± Stolen story; please report. The elder kobold, still shaking speaks up. ¡°Please, please don''t eat me. I am the leader but I bestow my position onto you.¡± Changing back into my normal human form. That was more effective than I thought it would be. Maybe from a combination of them being complete cowards and the fact that even small dragons could cause serious damage to the kobolds village. I still need to ask a few questions. ¡°Ok, so everyone line up! I need to ask for your names. Also which classes jobs and secret skills you have.¡± Going through my routine I went through with the gnolls. I don''t remember any of their names besides the old leader Shikki. They once again all sound similar. Lots of SH and K sounding names. Speaking of which, the leader was a new class¡­ One I haven''t heard of before. A witchdoctor¡­ I''ll have to have him teach it to me later on. I get the kobolds and we head back to the fortress. They''ll need to be integrated into the army so I have to think of classes for them. Since the leader is a mage, I''ll make the seventy kobolds here mages for the army. I''ll also use them to defend the water base I plan on making away from the main fortress. Traveling back to the fortress, I found the main reason they followed me. It is because I was a dragon. They respect and revere the dragons more than any other creature. Almost to the point of worship. To serve under a dragon is the pride of any kobold. So I doubt they''ll ever betray me. If they do¡­ The consequences will outweigh the benefits most definitely. Right before we make it back to the fortress I learned witchdoctor.
Class learned Witchdoctor passive skill Melded magic casting- Can combine multiple magic skills together to make them stronger Level 1 Witchdoctor skill Disease locus- Summon a swarm of bugs that can add the diseased debuff to enemies
Wow! What a good skill for me to get. I already know a few spells I could combine to make them even better. First of all, is all my flame breath combined with every debuff I can use. The next would be the brand new spell I just got can be used the same way. Spreading all my debuffs to the enemies quickly. Flaming tracer mana arrows would be strong too. After testing it seems like it only works with magic skills. I''ll have to experiment more with this skill later. Combining skills with my breath makes the most sense. Not only is the breath instant, it covers a larger area and does more damage. It can also be strengthened with wind scrolls. The only drawback is lack of range to it. The mana cost is also very high, stacking magic skills. We make it back to the fortress with my new addition to the army. I''ll send another troop towards the ocean while I train these new troops. They have the portal with them. With new mages here, making more portals should be easier. I didn''t send the other troops because I wasn''t sure the kobolds were being completely honest. Teaching the kobolds witchdoctor. Then teaching black mage and warlock as well. The diseased locus attack would work well with warlock skills. Leaving the last two classes up to each kobold. Once again for the hope that they unlock a new class like the gnolls did with beast rider. I doubt I will unlock another one. It seems like one special class per race. After that I put them to basic training to increase their fatigue points and proficiency with weapons. Since they''re casters, it doesn''t make sense for them to use close range weapons. Meaning I either make them all staffs or crossbows¡­ It will take too long to make staffs. The kobolds complained for a few moments from the exercise until I threatened their lives with my dragon form. It seems mean but they need the training and it will re-enforce me as the leader. The kobolds have never seen a hot spring before. Most of them have taken a liking to it and every minute they aren''t training, they''re at the hot springs. Once I move them to the secondary base, I''ll definitely have to make another one there too. It''ll be a lot easier because it will be right off the coast of the ocean. It seems like Darkclaw is also a big hit with the kobolds. Some have even become his underlings¡­ A few of them have come begging me for mine and his blood. I guess dragons blood is a highly sought commodity for kobolds. They can get drunk off of dragons blood. Speaking of which the kobolds know how to make beer. I''ll trade my blood for their services as brewers. The first person who drank my blood seemed to get tipsy off of it. So my blood has enough dragon mixed in to fool them. Finally the kobolds are surprisingly good diggers. Even without the gatherer job they can mine faster than the gnolls who have passed the rank up stage. I make a few of the younger kobolds who can''t fight gatherers. The army finally makes it to the shore. I bring some of the lumber workers and wood craftsmen through with me to help build the new base. We''ll also need to build boats here soon. I have a few ideas to strengthen them when we get to making them. Now that I can think practically about everything¡­ I wish I would have bought some slaves when I was at the capital. Having a few dwarves, elves and gnomes around for certain jobs would have been a good idea. I might have also unlocked a few classes just having them around¡­ Maybe I''ll send a detachment to the capital with a portal so I can go buy some¡­ I decide to send Sock with his team to set up a portal near the capital. Having a quick station there will help later on. I''ll have to hide it though. I can''t have a back door to our fortress unguarded. Once they get it set up, maybe I''ll make another fortress or buy some land inside the city to hide the portal. Yea, buying a house inside the middle quarter should be cheap enough. It would also help me recruit new members for the army at the adventurers guild. Chapter 69 Ship building I start building the new base near the ocean. Once it is complete, I''ll move the kobolds here to defend it. Kobolds don''t get along well with most other races. It is best to separate them from other non reptilian humanoids. This base is built with a dock connecting it to the water. We''ll be able to store our boats here once they''re made. This base is more out in the open than our main fortress. It will need to have more fortified walls. I bring all my elemental/nature magic troops to help with building the base. Each earth wall is fortified together from all the troops that can. The foot thick earth wall can now stop a mana cannon blast without faltering. Building an attached hot springs for the kobolds. Also setting up a few fermenting stations for beer within a dark dry hut off the base entrance. I need to make a distillery for them as well. Sometimes having a single bottle of whiskey would be better than a dozen bottles of beer. Especially for the long trips on the ocean. A dozen bottles of whiskey would be easier to store than twelve dozen bottles of beer. If we clear out the pirates we might be able to open up the base as a port for trading. Greed drank a lot and he preferred whiskey. What else should we make then¡­ Crops would be nice, but mainly for the fact that we need to grow the plants used for making beer. Maybe it would be best to make several different types of beer. Like potato, pumpkin, corn and wheat beers for variety. I''m not even close to an expert so I''ll leave it up to the kobolds. Adding some mana cannons to some scout towers of the new base is the last thing we need to do for defense. I make sure some are also facing the ocean just in case we have to retreat back here, we can more easily defend it. This might be the first thing the pirates have to invade in order to attack Shienta. Finishing the base we still need to build ships. I move the kobolds to their new home though. It was only a few days to make the base. Making the boats shouldn''t take much longer... Unless I decide to make some extra special ones. I''m going to mimic the designs Greed had made. Also incorporating some of my own ideas in with tinkerer. Getting all my generals together, we cut the wood we need and expand it with control nature and elemental magic. The logs are now easily five times as big as when they were originally cut down. Once we cut them I''ll strengthen them with control nature. Having my generals help would be an extremely long time to do. Just working together expanding the trees to make more wood takes around five minutes per tree. Adding up the hundreds of hundreds of boards we would need to strengthen together would take too much time. Still just increasing the size of the trees for production help save time, since the bigger pieces of the ship can be cut straight out. Making the keel is much easier with a giant log. It is far easier and cheaper than making one out of metal, which we would have to do. The keel also acts as a boat stabilizer, meaning the better the keel is the more stable the ship will be. The keel is the foundation of the ship so enhancing its strength with my generals is the only piece we will do that for. After that we can build normal boats. I''ll add my extra designs after they are finished. We make two black shivs. Two black daggers. Two black swords. Finally, a new ship I created myself called turtle ships¡­ Following the black theme they will be called black turtles. Each ship is being outfitted for its intended role. The shivs have mana canister powered paddle wheels on each side of the ship. Increasing the overall speed and making it not require sails or man powered to move. Finally adding an extra large and wide rudder to the ship allowing for sharper turns. The shivs are also outfitted with a metal bowsprit to punch holes in the side of ships by ramming them. The swords are far more armed than the shivs are. The ship has the same mana canister operated paddle wheels as the shivs. The main difference is, there are also several smaller paddle wheels on each side that can be manually operated by the crew. I''ll have to train the crew to paddle at the same speed so the boat doesn''t go around in circles. Finally each sword is armed with a heavy cannon. An extremely large mana cannon that can''t be moved and faces forwards. Each heavy cannon could potentially sink a ship in a single shot. The black daggers are a hybrid version of both. Meaning a mixture of each. Ramming bowspirit, powered by both paddle wheels and manual work if necessary. More weapons than the shivs not as much as the swords. Each dagger is armed with a large mana cannon that can be swiveled to face the direction to shoot. Smaller than a heavy cannon but still big enough to out range most other ships of a similar size. The black turtles are complete defensive ships. They can be used for ramming other ships without the fear of being boarded. They can''t fight far ranged though and will be used only for close quarters fights by ramming and flank firing cannons. The ship was built as a giant automaton¡­ THEY WERE DIFFICULT TO BUILD! Each one of the turtle ships takes around the same time to build as ten of the other ships. Taking an entire month to design and build them both. They also take five black mages constantly powering them to stay active. Five mages using all their mana every single hour to power it for a single hour. The turtles can be used on land though since they''re designed like actual turtles. The turtles can be completely submerged without risking the troops lives inside the turtles. I add some wind scrolls to be used in case the oxygen levels get too low. The ports that fire the cannons are specially designed to seal completely before they submerge. My army will be fighting primarily with hit and run tactics unless we outnumber them. That is of course after the first pirate ship we encounter. I plan on taking it to interrogate the pirates for more information. The shivs run with crews of two dozen men. The daggers run with crews of fifty men. The turtles run with crews of as low as five but as many as fifty. Finally the swords run with crews of one hundred and fifty men. More than the number of soldiers I have if you don''t include the automatons. The reason I went with man powered and mana canister paddle wheels is because, learning how to operate a normal ship would be far to difficult for the crew members to learn. At least to the competence that I feel they could fight evenly against pirates who have done it for years. With the paddle wheels we can go full speed with no dependance on wind currents. The turtle ships can be used in surprise attacks by approaching from land or appearing close from underneath the water. The entire time we were building the ships my men have been learning how to swim... It was a hard going process. A few actually drowned while learning but when there are close to 500 people learning to swim at once. You are going to have some accidents. Two or three deaths now could be the difference from a ship being sunk later and causing the entire crew to die. The kobolds are above average swimmers but nothing outstanding. I''m the fastest swimmer in the army right now because of my blue mage passive water affinity. I would like to get some type of longer breath or something from monsters but until we''re out on the sea we wont be attacked. I feel my army can fight against an army of similar size with no problems with these ships now¡­ We can leave towards the pirates at any time now. I build eight more portals first. Attaching one to each ship and a return portal to our main base. I would like to make one single trip to buy some slaves first. I''ll set them free under the promise that they serve me for a single year as payment. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Heading to Merideth from the portal Sock had moved. He set up camp on the outside of the city and I brought enough money to buy a home while I''m in town. As well as enough for a few slaves. Buying the house first I let Sock''s group rest inside. Picking a middle quarter house was smarter and far cheaper than buying an upper quarter house. It is still fairly well sized. A family of five could live comfortably here. We head to the slave auction next. Entering the open market you can smell the stink of poverty. At least it doesn''t smell like shit anymore. Approaching the crowd of people watching as a human female was auctioned off. She must have collected a huge debt or was sold by her parents to slavers. I hope the best for her but I''m looking for different races to buy. You can''t pity every single person¡­ If I still had the kind trait, I would have most likely tried to buy every slave here to set them free¡­ The auctioneer spoke up. ¡°Next up we have a group discount sale! A family of dwarves had recently fallen into debt from their father. He fled the country, fleeing to our rivals land after racking up a huge debt. His wife and children are being sold at a discount price to pay some of it off.¡± While he was talking the family of dwarves were being pulled out by chains. Altogether there is five of them. A mother, two daughters and two young children, hard to tell their sexes since they''re so young. They''re all completely naked, seems like a poor business practice to me. It would be a waste if they died from cold weather. Someone bids on them. ¡°Fifteen silver!¡± Wow, I might be able to get them for cheap. I wait until the bidding is almost done. The man who was bidding found himself a competitor and the raised the price up to fifty silver. The one who initiated the had given up though. I take his place. ¡°Sixty silver!¡± Everyone looks back towards me¡­ With my very irregular group of non humans¡­ They must think I''m a collector of non humans with the ones behind me. The other competitor has also given up. Dwarves aren''t nearly as attractive as other races. Very plain women, the only people bidding on them are those who would use them for work purposes. I win with my first bid. I walk up to talk to them. I speak in the dwarf language¡­ I learned it when I was little and haven''t gotten to use it yet. ¡°Please stay by my group until I''m finished here. I''ll explain my conditions for your freedom at my house.¡± The bidding continues. While it does I send Brick off to buy a few sets of cheap clothing for the slaves I''m about to purchase¡­ You think they''d cloth them but they were just handed over, as is. A few more humans go up for sale¡­ Thinking about it, it might be beneficial to buy a few... If humans weren''t so racist towards other races that is¡­ No, I''ll avoid owning humans for now. The auctioneer speaks again. ¡°We have another big sale folks. We have some captured elementalists from the skirmishes against the country to the north. You can do with them as you like once you buy them. Even kill them as they stand in front of the crowd here. They are technically war criminals.¡± Brick isn''t here! I have to buy them at any cost, they''ll most likely be expensive though, I can see the blood lust in a few of the participants eyes. Their are twelve of them being sold separately. He brought them all up at the same time to show that they are all from the elementalist tribe¡­ Brick might start killing people if I can''t buy them all¡­ He needs to get back here quickly¡­ Is there any way to save them without spending all of my money¡­ The bidding on them is as insane as I though it would be. Reaching upwards of a gold for every single elementalist¡­ I managed to buy them all so far but one of the craftier bidders keeps continually raising the price¡­ If he keeps it up I might not have enough money to buy them all¡­ Brick comes back from purchasing the cloths and drops them on the ground when he see''s the elementalists on the auction block. He looks towards me and notices that I''ve been buying them. He approaches me and whispers. ¡°Get them all¡­ If you can''t, I''ll make sure everyone dies here so I can free them.¡± I whisper back. ¡°I''ll do my best. If I can''t go berserk until I try something else first.¡± We continue to win every single elementalist. I only brought around fifteen gold. The house was a gold piece and as the price has risen per elementalist it is now over a single gold coin per one. With three left I don''t think I''ll have enough money by the end¡­ Brick will kill everyone who gets in his way if I can''t get them all. For the sake of his tribesmen, he''ll risk his life a hundred times over. ¡°We''re slowly closing down folks. Only two left! Will the generous bidder in the back get all of them! Or will he run out of money first!¡± Shit the auctioneer is provoking the crowd. The next one takes almost all of my money to buy! I''m out of money I can''t buy the last elementalist! This is going to end badly. ¡°Only one left! Will he get her as well?¡± People are bidding a gold piece already¡­ Waiting for me to bid. I don''t have anything¡­ FUCK! WHAT DO I DO? ¡°I¡­ I BID... MY ABILITIES AS AN ENCHANTER FOR THE LAST ONE!¡± The crowd goes silent¡­ I don''t think they understand what I just said. The crowd starts to look strangely at me. Some start to laugh. I don''t care though, if I don''t win them all Brick will kill everyone here if he can. The auctioneer speaks up again. ¡°We only accept money at these auctions. It would be un-businesslike to barter for slaves young man.¡± ¡°I can make slave collars. I can make cursed collars. I can combine them to make cursed slave collars. It would be a mistake to not do business with me!¡± I plead. Please just take this you fool! ¡°We can''t, even though that is such a gener-.¡± I cut him off, turning into a dragon. Calling upon the bluffing powers of Greed I yell. ¡°YOU FOOL! DO YOU NOT REALIZE I AM THE DEMIGOD OF LIFE! I COULD KILL EVERYONE HERE ON A WHIM WITH NO NEGATIVE EFFECTS TOWARDS ME! IF YOU DON''T GIVE ME THE LAST ELEMENTALIST, I''LL KILL EVERYONE HERE!¡± The crowd went silent. Please let this bluff work. If they do attack, I doubt we wont have any casualties¡­ Why didn''t I bring Gear with me!? PLEASE WORK! ¡°...If¡­ No one else¡­ Wants the slave still¡­¡± Someone from the crowd speaks up. ¡°Yea! I bid one gold twenty silver!¡± I shift back into human form, aiming my double barrel knife cannons as quickly as I can and blow him away. Injuring a few people around him. Instantly killing him with immense force. I speak up again. ¡°The auctioneer asked if anyone else wanted to bid more than my single copper. Does no one else want to bid?¡± The crowd has fear showing in their eyes. Some of the crowd has already started screaming in an effort to rush the exits to leave. I speak again. ¡°ELEMENTALIST I THINK I WON THE AUCTION! Get over here so we can leave.¡± Like that, we calmly walked out of the auction house¡­ I still wanted to buy more slaves but I guess I''ll have to buy them with a proxy so as not to cause another scene. We head towards my house¡­ To not cause a scene I''ll have to go talk with the king before I leave. I wish I wouldn''t have brought Brick now. Oh gods this was a knockout punch to the army coffers. Almost twenty percent of the armies wealth was just spent on a few troops... Chapter 70 Second meeting with the king Me and my group approach the castle. I have been given permission to come and go from the last time I''ve been here. I still request and audience to meet with the king. Brick stayed behind, he wouldn''t have helped our case and it gives him time to get reacquainted with his tribe. He is also watching over the dwarves. I doubt they''ll attempt to run seeing as I just attacked a crowd of people to free a single elementalist. They''re probably still struck with fear. Waiting for an audience with the king, I start to get nervous. If he decides to attack me because of my attack on a citizen, I don''t have one of my strongest fighters. The group consists of me, Sock, Pokodo, two gnolls and a demon tribe. The demon tribe member is probably the only demon race who gets along with Brick. Seeing as he was adventuring with him for so long, Brick must have saved his life multiple times. We are called forwards and enter the audience room. The king is still sitting there with the bored look until he sees who entered. He sits up in his throne and looks far more attentive now. I can hold his attention now that he thinks I''m a demigod. I kneel and wait for him to address me. ¡°So, what might I owe this visit to? Come to request more troops to help in the war against the pirates again?¡± ¡°No your majesty, I''ve just come to tell you myself before it gets back to you through other means what I''ve done.¡± His eyebrows perk up, then he asks. ¡°Oh? What might that be?¡± ¡°While buying slaves at the auction. I was forced to kill a person to acquire some needed elementalists for my mission to slay the pirates.¡± He gave me a look, like. ¡°Is that all?¡± Then he spoke again. With a laugh in his throat. ¡°You kill one person and expect me to retaliate? You''ve easily saved a thousand lives already in town. You could kill two dozen people, every day for three months before I would act against you... Just don''t do that and we''re fine.¡± ¡°Thank you your majesty. I just didn''t want their to be any miscommunication between us. Accounts could get mixed up from exactly what I''ve done to that person¡­ Fear tends to distort facts.¡± He looked excited again. Then spoke up. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well your majesty¡­ I killed him with a single attack while I was a dragon. I would just like to clarify that, so if you here anything different than that it wouldn''t be distorted from what I actually did.¡± The king stands up out of his chair, then yells. ¡°Wait a moment! You can turn into a dragon?!¡± ¡°...Yes your majesty¡­ I was trying to keep it a secret from the enemies but it might get out that I am indeed a dragon.¡± He sits back down¡­ Thinking for a moment. Then speaks. ¡°Can you show me...¡± I turn into a dragon, even as a tiny dragon I am still impressive. It makes me being a demigod more believable. I speak again in my dragon form. ¡°The man I killed was trying to stop my goal the god of life put before me. I can''t allow anyone to get between me and saving almost extinct races.¡± The king looks at me surprised again. This is the first time anyone in the kings throne room have ever seen a dragon, no doubt. I hope none of them get jumpy. The king speaks again. ¡°I''ve heard¡­ That dragons can take the form of humans. To think you would take the form of a child though.¡± ¡°It is far easier to fool enemies as a child, it also helps conceal my true power¡­ I hate bringing out my dragon form unless absolutely necessary since armies might seek me out to kill me¡­ Of course this doesn''t mean I wont honor our agreement to help the army after I''m through with the pirates your majesty.¡± ...He sits there for another moment¡­ Absorbing all the new information given too him. He speaks again. ¡°I understand. Thank you for the information. I would of course not believed anyone who said you were a dragon except with proof. Now that I have proof I hope you''ll become an asset in the upcoming war.¡± As we''re about to leave he speaks again. ¡°I''ll send a few of my men to get some gold for you. I haven''t paid you for your work on the sewer lines. Everyone loves the new system in place and all the quarters are far happier with how it is now.¡± We wait in the waiting room for his men. They bring a sack of gold with too many coins to count without dumping out the bag! I''m going to guess around one hundred gold coins easily¡­ It seems slightly cheap, considering the fact that I saved so many lives and money from the changes I''ve made to the city. It is fine though, the king is just a copper pincher. It is a good habit for someone in power to have. Breathing a sigh of relief, my group leaves the castle. Heading back to my house, thanking our luck the occurrences that just happened were taken care of without anything repercussions. Making it back in my house I see the elementalist and dwarves scrubbing it down. The elementalists making water to clean the floors with. The dwarves on their hands and knees cleaning the floor¡­ Where is Brick at? The dwarves and elementalists see me. I see fear in their expressions. Why didn''t Brick explain what just happened¡­ Seriously where is Brick!? I call out of the few in front of me, I address the elementalists first than the dwarves in their language. ¡°Elementalists, where did Brick go? The giant elementalist I left to guard you.¡± One of them, most likely the leader of the captured squad spoke up. ¡°He left to buy us food. We haven''t eaten in days.¡± ¡°Ahh okay¡­ So why are you cleaning? He must have told you I''m not strict.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You just freed us from being killed in front of our comrades. We feel indebted to you.¡± I address the dwarves next. ¡°Do any of you speak common?¡± None of them answered me. Ok, so they didn''t understand the conversations that Brick had and have been cleaning out of fear I might kill them if they didn''t. ¡°You dwarves are free now. I only ask that you serve as my armies blacksmiths for a single year to pay off your debts. You''re more than welcome to stay with us after the year is over though.¡± The mother of the dwarves whimpers out a few words. ¡°You¡­ Killed that man so easily¡­ How do we know you won''t kill and eat us?¡± ¡°Well, I killed that man because he tried to buy that elementalist there just to kill her. It didn''t seem fair to me so I killed him instead. If you were strong enough to do that wouldn''t you do the same thing?¡± ¡°...I guess so¡­ You were talking about an army though¡­ I don''t see an army¡­ We¡­ We also don''t know how to be blacksmiths.¡± ¡°Ah we''ll head there after we eat. I''ll teach you all blacksmithing once we get to our fortress. If none of you have any talent for it, I can have you mine to repay your debts. ¡± A few minutes go by. I introduce myself to both groups and talk with them. Hearing their names, I almost immediately forget them¡­ I''m bad with names and dwarves have weird names¡­ The elementalists are all named after nature. Twig, Branch, Pebble, names like that. The main female who spoke up was named Leaf¡­ That is going to get confusing¡­ I ask a question. ¡°How important are your names to you? I have a friend named Leaf as well, it might get confusing later if you both have the same name...¡± ¡°Names are very important to us. I can''t change my name but you can call me whatever you like.¡± ¡°Do you mind if I call you Green then?¡± ¡°Not at all, you just saved the lives of a dozen elementalists, you can call me Shitface for all I care.¡± ...She is far more foul mouthed and talkative than Brick. I almost laughed when she said that. I managed to get out. ¡°We''ll stick with Green for now.¡± Brick enters again. He''s carrying a few pre-packaged meals. It would have taken to long to cook anything, so he bought meals for everyone with the rest of the money. I have under a gold left. The five silver I didn''t spend at the auction was used and he only spent twenty copper to buy the food. I ended up with more money than I started with on this trip. After we eat we all head to the basement. Sock heading through the portal first. When he does I hear the dwarves start to cry, then one speaks up. ¡°He is going to kill us! That rune their must instantly kill you!¡± I laugh at the situation. Then speak to Brick. ¡°Can you head through and come back? These dwarves think that rune is going to kill them.¡± Brick head''s through. A few minutes later he reappears. I didn''t expect the portals to be instant, to travel two weeks worth of distances and a matter of minutes is beyond impressive though. I speak up to comfort the dwarves. ¡°This is a teleport rune. Not a rune that is going to kill you. Please just trust me. If you don''t believe me, one of you can go through and come back to prove it to the rest it wont kill them.¡± The mother goes through next. A few minutes later she reappears¡­ Now with that out of the way, we all continue to go through. Waiting around thirty seconds in between for the portal to recharge from the mana in the surrounding area. That might be the time it takes to transfer the person as well. I''m not exactly sure how they work. There aren''t any experts on teleport runes, since they are an extinct enchant. I just have to be thankful for my luck at acquiring them. I leave a single elementalist at the house. She''ll act as both a maid and a guard for the house. I''ll send a few troops to help guard the house as well. Hilda gave birth recently. Her entire pregnancy was barely four months. She gave birth to six children. All goblins but¡­ They aren''t normal goblins¡­ They''re as cute as Gobber is handsome¡­ Normal goblins are as ugly as you can get¡­ Even when Gobber was a goblin he was no different from normal goblins¡­ I wonder if my presence around him made the babies different than normal¡­ With Gobber becoming a new parent, I''ll leave him to father the children. I don''t need every single one of my generals for the first few missions against the pirates anyways. I approach him, he''s holding all six babies, he is crying happily at the same time. He has a big dumb smile on his face like old Gobber would have. They''re all sleeping, I whisper to him. ¡°Those boys are going to grow up to be strong troops aren''t they?¡± ¡°What do you mean? All six are girls.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Are you sure?¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡± ¡°Yea, why wouldn''t I be?¡± ¡°Well¡­ It''s just that, I''ve never heard of or read about a female goblin¡­ For you to have six children, all females¡­ I¡­ I don''t know how to even answer that. That is as weird as Hilda giving birth to six griffinlings.¡± Gobber laughed loudly at what I said. Waking up his babies. I retreat away just in time to hear Hilda yell at him to not get caught. As I ran for my life. I knew that soon our troops would be in the ocean. There isn''t anything stopping us now and we need to do a few more things once we''re seaworthy. I need to capture an enemy ship. Then make another ocean base on Greed''s island. Getting his hidden gold will be a huge benefit to our armies. Also heading to the ninja''s island to try to gain them as an ally might be a good idea also. Chapter 71 Maiden voyage We set out on our maiden voyage today. Normally, I would be yelling commands at my crew members. ¡°All hands on deck! Batten everything down! Set sails to the west to catch the winds! Once all preparations are done weigh anchor!¡±¡­ Seeing as it would take too long for my crew to learn all the terminology I just decided to use easy commands. ¡°Alright, make sure everything is secure on the ship and all the mana cannon port hatchets are closed. Someone raise the anchor and whoever is steering the rudder, please face us towards the exit. Make sure to replace the mana canisters when the paddles use them up.¡± Without sails we can travel across the ocean far faster than most ships. It is only slightly faster than a normal ship traveling in good wind conditions. Without the need for fair winds, we can fight far better other ships. Also without giant sails to aim for, our ships are also much smaller targets. The only drawback is the consumption of mana canisters. Each boat eats through two an hour. The black swords use up four an hour. Even so, this was definitely the correct decision for the ships propulsion. The black turtles are something to watch. They haven''t been in the water yet, I was hoping they wouldn''t slow us down¡­ How wrong I was. The black turtles moved faster than even the black shivs. It looked like a giant turtle swimming. I had them dive for five minutes then resurface. They continued moving forwards in that time and ended up surfacing almost out of sight of our ships. What a great success. The giant amounts of mana it consumes is a very big problem though. Limiting them to two was a smart decision. A few days of sailing and I leave the boat through the teleporter on the ship. I waited to see if we would have any problems with sailing but everything is going smoothly. Some of my generals are leading the ships, some have stayed behind at the fortress. Trice and Shikki (the kobold leader) are the captains of the black turtles. Epieoth and Zergnar with guidance from Gargarz are the captains of the black swords. Nargzar and Leon command the black shivs. Finally, what was supposed to be myself and Gobber leading the black daggers. Have ended with Lance and Sock leading them. I fly between the ships, giving the fleet orders. Lance leads the fleet without me around. He is the most well rounded general after Gobber. Gobber has children now. It will be hard to separate him from them. Which is fine, if he wants he wont have to participate¡­ He''s strong but one person can''t win a war by themself. I''ll only call upon him for large battles. Most of Lance''s group are controlling the ships but Leaf has stayed behind. Brick wanted to spend time with the new elementalists. Which was also fine. I go to talk to him first. ¡°Brick¡­ Now that you have some new elementalists to talk to¡­ Can you please teach me that secret skill for elementalists.¡± ¡°I can''t Kite. It isn''t my place to teach you that.¡± ¡°Why? After helping your people so much you still wont help... Is there any way for me to learn it?¡± ¡°There is a way. You must go through a series trials to gain this skill. Only the bravest, oldest and strongest of our tribe ever complete it. Each trial of each element, adding up to four. First, you must temper your body by taking contentious hits from wooden swords¡­ This is the test of earth. Next you must run for three entire days straight. This is the test of wind. The next test you must burn the symbol our of people into your skin. This will be your test of fire. Finally you must cleanse your body and mind with water. This last test will require you to drown yourself to pass¡­¡± ¡°...Is that it? That doesn''t sound too ba-¡± ¡°You must do these trials several hundred times to acquire each elemental strengthening¡­ This is the true trial. The trial of resolve. The trial of time. The trial of patience most people will not succeed against.¡± ¡°...That means even if you take each trial every day it could take years to finally unlock the skill...¡± ¡°That is indeed correct. I don''t believe it can be taught either. There are no shortcuts for this secret skill.¡± Brick showed me a very scarred section of his shoulder from the test of fire. That also means he''s drowned himself multiple times...Well¡­ No shortcuts that Brick knows about at least. If I kill him, I might be able to acquire it¡­ I wouldn''t do that for a skill though. I still want that skill, while I''m on break from leading the ships I''ll start working towards each of them. I get him to show me the symbol of his people before I head back to the ships. I make myself a branding iron. I''ll brand myself every morning I wake up. The first time sends me rolling around on the ground. The pain is extreme, it is hard to do this myself. A notification pops up.
Strength of fire learned 1%
I check my stats and notice an increase in my strength stat by ten. Healing myself and casting regenerate¡­ Doesn''t heal the scarring¡­ But I can rebrand myself. Burning myself again, I start to get used to the pain. The second time I burn myself, I also get another percent. Amazing! I can chain these together to unlock them faster¡­ Drowning and running is still going to be difficult¡­ I''m not sure how many sword hits I''ll need to take to unlock the stamina of earth. My men are supposed to contact me when they see a pirate ship or start to get close to Greed''s island. I doubt it will be anytime soon. It might take an entire month to get to the hideout, another few weeks to get to the ninja island. Then another month on top of that to make it to the pirate base. I''ll continue to train and prepare for the fights to come. After testing, it takes somewhere around one hundred wooden sword hits for every percent. I burn myself ten times a day then get struck 1000 times with swords every single day. I''ll be max in both strength and stamina in the next ten days. This will raise both stats up 1000 each. Meaning I will no longer be weak. Aegis has said that with my new higher stats. He''ll only be able to give me double my stats from boosting from now on. Even so, once this is done, being permanently stronger is better than relying on a five minute window of power. While getting struck with swords, I need to have two healers constantly healing me as to not pass out. While my body is going to be permanently scarred from the brand, it is by far the easiest trial¡­ I''m not looking forward to drowning myself or running continuously. I will still have to do it eventually¡­ After my normal trials one day, I head to my base off the shore. There are only a few kobolds and most are small children or those who can''t fight. I went over the plan to revive me after I drown myself. It might show me as weak to these kobolds so I have also brought the elementalists to oversee the event. Most have had practice with reviving other elementalists who have also done these trials. After sitting in the water for over a minute, I realized how difficult this challenge would be. Salt water poured into my lunges with stinging pain. It was all I could do to not swim to the surface to catch my breath. Panicking, I pass out.
Intelligence of water learned 10%
I''m revived by Green. My first kiss was the revival from drowning¡­ I''ve seen her naked when she was a slave. I thought my first kiss would be more romantic than me coughing water into a girls mouth. Most of the elementalists are in good shape. She''s the most beautiful of the elementalists, beauty rivaling Hilda''s. The elementalists have sun tanned skin from their homes in the arid desert to the north. She is easily ten years older than me, so I doubt their are any feelings from her towards me. Still ten percent, that isn''t as bad as I thought it would be. I only need to do this another nine times to max it. I''ll have to ask Green a few questions. ¡°How long does this normally take to finally get?¡± ¡°Well, I''ve been doing the trials for years. I''ve drowned myself over fifty times and still haven''t unlocked intelligence of water. After running for an entire year, every day, three days straight then resting. I finally unlocked dexterity of wind.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°I''ve already unlocked ten percent of intelligence of water.¡± ¡°WHAT THE SHIT! YOU CAN TELL!?¡± ¡°...Hmm, I might be able to teach you elementalists a way to increase the speed you unlock elemental strengthening from.¡± I drown myself the remainder of the day. Nine more times, I''ve been pushed unconscious by drowning than revived. Finally unlocking the skill. Checking my intelligence, it has improved it to 1000 more than it was before the trial. Instantly unlocking that much power feels unreal. I explain to Green how I looked more towards the skill mathematically than the elementalists would. It isn''t a special passage that tribes would view it as. After explaining it Green spoke up. ¡°You look at our rituals with such a scientific viewpoint¡­ It makes me angry you can unlock something so spiritual with less effort that way. It goes against our teachings.¡± ¡°Do you think your dead tribesmen would look at it the same way? How many elementalists would still be alive if it was easier to unlock these skills. They aren''t special, they''re the means to power. Power you could have used to save more of your people¡­ You can see it any way you want to but putting rituals above progress isn''t going to do any good for you...¡± She sat there, thinking for a long time¡­ Then dove into the water. Her body shortly after resurfaced with her drowning. I pull her safety rope so she heads towards shore. I revive her. She speaks again. ¡°I¡­ I already learned intelligence of water from a single time¡­ If¡­ If I was just stronger when they betrayed us¡­ If only I was stronger when they forced us to fight¡­ I feel so fucking stupid right now. I might have not been captured. We elementalists might have never been forced to go to war... DAMNIT, DAMNIT, DAMNIT!¡± She sat there for another few minutes. Crying, how many lives could she have saved if she was just stronger when it happened? Would the elementalists have been forced to go to war if they could have fought back? I still don''t know everything about it, the skirmishes between them and the demon tribes. I spend the rest of the week maxing out the other two trials I''ve been working on. Maxing out three of my elemental stat boosts. I only need to work on running for three days straight now. Some of the other elementalists have taken after Green and have been doing the trials. Their mindsets were limiting the speed they were acquiring the skills at. Without the restrictions in their minds and looking at it as just getting stronger. They have all been advancing as fast as me. Some have even taken to using the same methods as me to learn the skills more quickly. Getting beaten with swords while healers where casting on them. Having regenerate cast on them so they can brand themselves multiple times per day¡­ I''ll have to have some of my other generals with elementalist learn through these methods as well. I start running. I''ll only do this once, then I have to go back to the boats. They should be getting close to the island now, at least within a week or two of traveling. We might start seeing pirates soon. Spending three days running in a row¡­ Is just as difficult as it sounds. Having a few gnolls check on me every few hours as I run circles around Shienta like the old days. Eating and drinking are very difficult and I normally end up covered in food or whatever I''m drinking. Even with my insanely high fatigue points, I still struggle to stay awake the three days.
Dexterity of wind learned 10%
The year Green spent mastering dexterity of wind, I could learn in almost a month if that was the only thing I did. Still more time consuming than the other trials but also easier than it should be for the stat boost it gives. During my training over the passed few months. Also since I''ve been doing the trials, my new classes have reached level ten. Aqua mage gave me buoyancy, which because of elementalist changed into water walking. It does exactly what it sounds like. I can walk along water for five minutes when I cast it. Witch doctor reaching ten unlocked raise zombie, which turned into summon greater undead. Using the skill made a skeletal fighter appear. Depending on which class I was thinking, he would transform into it. I could form several different types of skeletal mobs at once as well. My limit was three instead of one now. Increasing the total number of creatures I could summon again. I haven''t used summon plant very often. I don''t really summon that often anymore. Summons don''t level so them getting a killing blow would only subtract from the total experience I could get. Finally, the dragon bloodline. When it reached ten, I unlocked the elemental alignment skill. Another passive that set my alignment to a certain element. Thus strengthening it. I was aligned with water when I unlocked it. Then once I mastered each element I also unlocked that alignment. I''m aligned with fire, water and earth at the moment. Once I unlock wind, I''ll be able to strengthen every type of element. Each element is strengthen once it is unlocked. Increasing the damage, range and effectiveness of the element selected.
(Kite stats before elemental strengthening) (strength- 340) (dexterity- 410) (intelligence- 360) (stamina- 460) (total = 1570)
(Aegis 20 stack stat boost) (strength- 1700) (dexterity- 2050) (intelligence- 1800) (stamina- 2300) (total = 7850)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 1340) (dexterity- 510) (intelligence- 1360) (stamina- 1460) (total = 4670)
(Aegis new double stat boost) (strength- 2680) (dexterity- 1020) (intelligence- 2720) (stamina- 2920) (total- 9340)
Until I strengthen my dexterity, it will be my lowest stat. Aegis can''t give me the huge stat boosts anymore. Only doubling my stats. I can hold it for five minutes still, the biggest difference is instead of only being able to use it once a day. I can now use it four to five times a day without risking my health. Finally, after all the practice with elementalist. It has reached level forty, it is my highest class besides the ones boosted by Greed. Scout will reach level forty soon, it will unlock another skill. Scout is a special class that gains a new skill every single ten levels. Scout hitting level thirty unlocked the skill escape. Which allows me to jump backwards further than normal. Add in dragoons leap passive and dragon form and I have the perfect retreat moves. I head back to my ship that day. Just in time because that night we find our first pirate ship. Chapter 72 Pirate fight, first sea creature We hear a bell ring from the black sword in front of us. Shortly after, the scout in our crows nest yells out. ¡°Ship ahead! Ship ho! Slightly port!¡± Looking forwards, I see it. In the distance, it is barely visible on the horizon. I''ve been waiting for this moment. Yelling out to my crew. ¡°All hands on deck!¡± The crew I designed for this mission. As we get closer, we get ready. The gnolls with griffons have been waiting for this moment. With the twenty griffins we''re going to steal this ship. I need it for future plans. We can also interrogate the crew to find out more information about the pirates. We slowly get closer to range. I don''t want them to notice our attack until it is too late. I yell out once we''re almost in range of the cannons. ¡°Everyone deploy!¡± We launch together. Me riding on Darkclaw, everyone else riding on their mounts. I had prepared a few special void satchels for this. They contain vials of both numbing poison and numbing poison gas. A few hundred vials of both are inside the containers. We''re far to high up to hit with the cannons. Ships aren''t designed to fight against an aerial force. The members on the pirate ship might outnumber the assault group four to one. These numbing satchels might be the difference between easily capturing the ship or losing a much larger force. We''re straight above the ship. I can see the panicked pirates underneath us waiting for our attack. The number of pirates on deck look to number forty. I jump off Darkclaw and cut the satchel while also turning into my dragon form. I don''t want him to accidentally get hit. Covering a large scale of the ship, most of the pirates on deck have been incapacitated. Our troops land after the poison clouds fade. Only a few were unfazed by the vials. Either not getting hit or avoiding them completely. They''re quickly killed off by being outnumbered. We dismount and split into two groups. One heading into the forecastle of the ship and the other following me into the captains cabin. There he is, the captain of the ship, hold up in a corner of the room with his sword pointed at us. He yelled out. ¡°STAY BACK!¡± I pull out my new weapon. I made it specifically for this mission. We need to take him alive over everyone else. With him we could kill the rest of his crew without fearing for loss of information. I aim my blow dart gun at him. The dart is covered in my numbing poison. I aim at his leg, hitting his chest might stop his heart or him from breathing. He topples over after it hits him. He put up no fight whatsoever. We exit after one of them covers him in spider webbing from a net launcher. Most of the crew still hasn''t used theirs. The more pirates we can capture the better though. Eventually we could turn them to our side. If not, they can always be used as slave labor, if they have collars made to force them to fight. Most of these pirates seem cowardly. I doubt they''ve ever fought against another ship before. Let alone one as special as ours¡­ Wasting weeks of preparation on these void satchels is worth every saved life. We only have the hold to check now. With the amount of pirates on deck, there might be a similar number of pirates below deck. We open the hatch and I''m the first to enter. Five swords are swung at my head all at once. I pull up the spare void satchel with the poison vials. Their swords cutting through it, sealing everyone down here''s fate. An explosion of vials covers the entire hold. Either killing them or numbing them to the point they couldn''t move. With that we defeated the first ship we''ve fought. My blue mages struggled to tie up the knocked out pirates. The sheer number of captured pirates is the main problem. With one hundred men now captured, I send a scout back to tell my other ships to board this one. One person also goes back to the fortress to send word of our new captives. Our ships board this one. We now outnumber them four to one. When they outnumbered us, we managed to beat them without a single casualty¡­ They are beyond demoralized. A few have been begging for their lives. I had them spider silk gagged. No reason to kill potential profits. Prisoners of war can always be sold into slavery or used for labor. I attach one of the mind control collars onto the pirate captain. He has remained silent this entire time. ¡°Get up.¡± He stands up. I want this to be a show of power to the other pirates as well. ¡°Do not attack my men or you will feel pain. Do not try to kill yourself or you will feel immense pain that will cripple your arms. Do not try to run or your legs will go numb. Nod if you understand.¡± He nods his head. Finally I can begin to ask my questions. ¡°If you lie at any point. You feel pain. Now, first question. How many pirates and ships does Gold have?¡± ¡°You know her name? That is surprising¡­ Only a few lieutenants of the pirate army know her real name. She is more of a legend than a-.¡± Finally his rambling is rewarded with immense pain from avoiding the question. ¡°Answer the question I asked or the pain will be doubled.¡± ¡°The army has over five thousand troops. Over one hundred active boats with the majority remaining at a hidden base.¡± I pull out a map and point to a spot on it. ¡°Is the hidden base still here?¡± He eyes widened in surprise at my knowledge. Greed''s influence on my memories shows clearly from the amount of knowledge I have. ¡°Y-yes it is¡­ How do you know about that?¡± ¡°I already interrogated another captain. He wasn''t as cooperative as you, so we cut his arms and legs off then threw him into the ocean. Then pulled him out afterwords to revive him after he drowned. Then tied him to the ship to use as bait to lure a raid boss who ate him. That time, only I fought the pirates. I killed them all myself¡­ They were delicious.¡± I said the last part as I turned into a dragon. He started crying. I think interrogate mixed with Greed''s powers of bluffing might be too strong together. I interrupt his crying to continue talking. ¡°He didn''t tell me everything I wanted to know. I need more information, some about your pirate class. Any other information you can give about the pirate fleet and bases might also save your life.¡± He spilled everything he knew. Positions of every base. The larger clusters of pirate fleets roaming the ocean. Some of the spots where they have their treasure hidden. As well as locations for potential pirate traps. It lead to him teaching me the pirate class.
Class learned Pirate passive skill gained Treasure finding- Can find more items and gold than normal, gives you a feeling when hidden gold is around Level 1 Pirate passive skill gained Ship fighting- remove the penalties for fighting on ships, also gain a dexterity stat boost while fighting on boats
With that learned, I now don''t have to be afraid of killing the pirates¡­ Before that I should ask each pirate which classes they are. I have them all line up, asking them which jobs/classes they have. The first person who back talked me had his throat cut. I did it myself for the experience.
Pirate level 1 to 5
Hidden treasure location revealed
Secret Pirate passive skill gained Swashbuckling- increases dexterity by a portion of your charisma
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Level increased to 33
That was the first mate who acted up. It might be worth killing a few more of these pirates for their levels. If anyone else acts up, they''ll die in the same way. Everyone else has already learned their place though. Each person meekly barks out their classes and skills which from using my interrogate skill, I could tell they weren''t lying. Nothing special came from the rest¡­ I should kill the leader just to be safe... He provided the information I needed. He didn''t have any secret skills either and he is severely under leveled, compared to other pirates on the boat. It might be better to keep him alive for more questions later. ¡°Alright, so everyone is going to be sent to my fortress. If ANY of you act up, they will throw you in a jail cell and once I come back. I''ll fucking kill you, then eat you... So don''t act up. We don''t have all the slave collars needed to collar all of you, so you might have to sit in jail cells until we can have them made.¡± We slowly start the process of pushing pirates through the portals. I went through first to warn some of the troops still at the fortress. The enchanters have been busily making mana canisters and slave collars for the trip on the ocean. We only had thirty five mind control collars. It was enough to get some of them started. Putting around sixty people in a few jail cells is going to be too much. So we''ll have to keep some outside until we expand and add in more cells. I head back to the ships. With the success of the first mission, we still need to make it to Greed''s island. I had the pirate ship attached to the back of one of the black swords. We''ll pull it along so I strip the sails off it for now. We''re only a few days away now. We get attacked by a monster during night. I need to get an attack off on him! I shoot a few explosive arrows at the sea monster. It is hard to tell what it is with it being mostly submerged. I hope it doesn''t run. It finally surfaces. It is an octoshark. I yell out. ¡°KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!¡± The octoshark is a shark with octopus tentacles attached to it. It''s body is easily the size of a ship. It is very dangerous because of its sheer size it can easily sink a ship. Dammit, the first monster we fight is an extremely difficult one. I cast debuff locus swarm first. It will weaken the octoshark. Then cast all my buffs on myself, including Aegis stat boost. I turn into dragon form and help with suppressive fire from the sky. Flying and casting my flame breath mixed with some other spells as well. Ignite and hex to keep its defenses low. We need more help though. The position the octoshark is in is bad because he is between two ships. We can''t go all out against it for fear of friendly fire. The other ships haven''t noticed it yet either. So it is only the two black daggers that are fighting against it. The octoshark is moving very nimbly, with its tentacles attached to both ships, it has a far easier time moving quickly. Each time it pulls against both ships they start to tip towards it. If I didn''t reinforce the ballasts on each ship to make them extra stable, both ships would''ve been tipped by now. I change back into my human form mid air above it. Firing my double barrel knife cannons at it. When I was changing I was flying upwards. So I was in free fall as a fired. I started to fall towards it, barely getting out a few poison vials before changing back into a dragon and flying away. My gear can''t be used in dragon form. So until I make some changes to him he''s sidelined. It swings two of its tentacles at me. Shit! It almost hits me. Nargzar was finally woken up though. He managed to get his kurasi kama around it. The sickle dug into the tentacle enough for him to pull it away just as it was about to hit me. I manage to avoid the other tentacle. Escaping its reach, I notice Leon jump from the other ship. Landing with both his bladetonfas first. Piercing into the octoshark¡­ Leon started violently stabbing the octoshark. With extreme ferocity, Leon pounds into it, punching as hard as he can. The weapon is the perfect for his aggressive fighting style. He normally doesn''t use the barbed whips unless he is training with Nargzar. I yell out. ¡°Get off him, I''m going to use a trump!¡± Leon knowing better, immediately jumped into the water. While he was doing that I pulled out a vial of flammable liquid into my mouth. Crushing the vial with my teeth, the glass cutting my mouth. The blood is only temporary. I then pull out as many wind scrolls that will fit into my mouth. Four scrolls is all I can manage. I use my flame breath mixed with every volatile attack I can think to mix with it. BOOM! A giant flamethrower attack comes out of my mouth. Covering the entire surface of water between both ships. SHIT it''s too strong! One of the ships catches fire. I should have tested this before using it! The attack is easily four times the strength I thought it would be. It must be because of the new stat increases. I''m not accustomed to being this strong. The attack is strong enough to burn every part of the octoshark that isn''t concealed by the water. Both ships are set free from his tentacles grasp. This lets the guns aim better and both sides open fire. Five cannons open up on him all at once. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The octoshark is torn apart. My fire breath weakened it to the point that its skin was as weak as paper.
Blue mage skill upgraded Water affinity--> Improved water affinity- movement is faster in water, improved lung capacity
Blue mage skill learned Ink spray- Spray out ink to cover your presence in water
Level increased to 34
¡°Get some ropes around it before it sinks! We can use it as food!¡± I yelled out. I rush over to where the boat was on fire and put it out with some water pulled from the ocean with elementalist. I could have used aqua jet but it might have damaged the ship. I cast a heal and regenerate on myself to heal my cut mouth from the vial I broke. I get to the deck of Leon''s ship and help pull the octosharks corpse aboard. Leon was thankfully under the surface of the water when my attack went off. He''s still in the water and is going to ride the bosses corpse to the ships deck. As soon as we get it aboard he lets loose all of his ink. Even in death, this boss is an annoying asshole. I started collecting trophies from each boss we''ve recently beaten. I started with the previous raid bosses. Looting a basilisk fang, rok claw, golem rock and the living growth vine. From this octoshark I collect a tooth, which is almost the size of a person. I get some ink and part of his tentacle as well. I absorb a portion of the octoshark. It was an above average stat increase because of the difficulty of the boss. All my stats were raised by 20. Learning pirate and the new skill swashbuckling also raised my dexterity some.
(Kite stats before fighting pirates) (strength- 1340) (dexterity- 510) (intelligence- 1360) (stamina- 1460) (total = 4670)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 1360) (dexterity- 570) (intelligence- 1380) (stamina- 1480) (total = 4790)
I''m going to omit Aegis stat boost from now on. He can just double my stats. The other ships didn''t even notice the boss until he was dead and we were pulling him onto the boat. Chapter 73 Meeting the lizard men After that boss fight, the next few days were uneventful. I spend most of those days cutting up the octoshark and putting it into void bags loaded with enchanted freeze magic stones. Once done, I send people through the portals to take some of the meat back to the fortress. I took the first three satchel fulls back to the fortress myself. Some of the pirates helping with cooking noticed it. The old pirate captain spoke up. ¡°WHAT THE DEATH GOD!? YOU DEFEATED THE SHARKTOPUS! I can''t believe it! That shark destroyed the other two ships we were traveling with!¡± ...I guess it was named sharktopus. I spoke up. ¡°Yea, I was testing out some of my attacks against it. It almost tipped over a few of our ships, so I didn''t hold back against it.¡± He looked beyond shocked. I lie to him because a single person being that strong will make them less likely they''ll revolt against me. It is the same premise as the kobolds. Most of them as well as a few of the pirates I take pieces of the octo¡­ Sharktopus to feed it to them, I tell them I defeated it by myself. A few of the pirates have acted up. They were tied outside. The three who attempted to escape or hurt someone started crying out in fear once they see me. I just simply cut the first two''s throats. I then called all the other pirates outside to watch what I''m about to do to this last one. The first two tried to run. This last one attempted to kill someone. He deserves what I''m about to do to him. It takes around thirty minutes to get everyone outside. The enchanters have been working around the clock to make slave collars. Forty still don''t have them. They''re tied together with spider silk around their hands. I speak once the crowd of people stops coming out of the fortress. ¡°I brought you all outside to see what will happen if you try to fight against my troops. Remember, the first two died quickly because they didn''t try to fight. Only run, I won''t go too hard against you for that. You will still die¡­ BUT THIS ASSHOLE TRIED TO KILL SOMEONE!¡± I changed into my dragon form. Using the same attack I used against the sharktopus. I pull a vial out inside my mouth and break it. Then pull out multiple scrolls. Finally unleashing my dragons breath against this person. BOOM! A giant fireball forms in front of me. The ground is scorched barren. The only thing left was the smoldering corpse of the pirate and the now on fire pole he was tied to. The attack was so big it burned all the features off of his face. He did not die instantly.
Pirate level 5 to 10
Pirate skill gained Plunder- Attack an enemy with the attempt to disarm them and take weapons and armor from them
Thief skill upgraded Mug--> Stealing strikes- All melee attacks have the passive chance to steal gold, items, weapons and armor from the enemy
Some of the pirates have started crying in fear. Even a few of my troops look worried by my attack. I speak again. ¡°THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO TRY TO KILL MY MEN! MY FAMILY!¡­ This show of force is over. Just don''t try anything like this person and I won''t have to kill you. Once I finish wiping out the pirates, you can earn your freedom by serving in the army against the north country.¡± ...As easy as I make it sound. It is still going to take a long time to fight against the pirates. They almost outnumber our army ten to one. The single ship I captured, is only a very small fraction of the army. From now on, we can sink each pirate ship we see without needing to worry. If I get more troops, it might be better to capture a few more ships. It just takes a very long time to make those satchel bombs. I head back to the ships. It won''t be much longer before we make it to Greed''s island. I doubt that they found the treasure he hid there. He buried it deep enough to not be found from treasure finding. It is a passive feeling that happens near treasure. Especially treasure that doesn''t belong to you. The boat we captured had a hidden treasure room that made me excited as a got close to it. After a few more days of traveling, we make it to the island¡­ It is occupied though. Scouting reveals that they are lizard men. They aren''t hostile but they might attack us because they are territorial. I don''t know much of their language, this could go poorly because of that. Our ships all group together. My generals all jump towards the black turtles. We have a meeting to form a strategy. ¡°Does anyone speak their language? I only know parts of it.¡± Shikki spoke up. ¡°I know some, kobolds get along well with lizard men. We sometimes form groups together with them since they compliment our small stature and mage classes.¡± Shikki has been trying to do everything possible to please me. He scolds the other kobolds that act up against my other troops. I haven''t had to kill a kobold yet, it has come close though. Word of my attack against the sharktopus should get back to them. Making them less likely to ever betray me. Undying loyalty in troops might be helpful. The few generals head to shore to talk with the lizard men. It goes similar to the other meetings with new troops I gained for my army. Shikki had to translate for us. Then the question came. Shikki instead of translating got mad. I already knew what the question was without understanding their language. ¡°Why are you serving a child?¡± I calm him, we could easily beat them with our army, that wouldn''t solve anything. Having lizard men on our side would increase the size of our army again. I ask Shikki. ¡°What do we have to do, for them to follow me?¡± ¡°It isn''t going to be easy master¡­ You have to pass four challenge against them. Each being very difficult, I''ve never heard of anyone passing all four. The few times we''ve made peace with them in the past was with their leadership not ours.¡± ¡°What are the rules, do I have to do each challenge or can I select a champion.¡± ¡°Y-yes master. I don''t understand why you wouldn''t do it yourself though. No one could be stronger than you so it would only be putting weaker people in your place. If you do, people you have to pick different people for each challenge. So you either do them all yourself or a pick a single challenger for each challenge.¡± ¡°I don''t want to reveal my full power every chance I get. Having some hidden skills left to reveal in case of emergency is always the best way to go.¡± ¡°Ok, so the first challenge looks like a test of strength.¡± I relay the message to my generals. Zergnar starts waving his hand like crazy when I asked for a volunteer. He goes forwards. They take us to a circular pit of sand. Inside, is the biggest lizard man I''ve seen yet. Lizard men are larger than humans. This is the largest lizard man. Zergnar is almost as big as him though. Only slightly smaller. It might be close. Shikki explains the challenge. ¡°Once they say Makki en shin danno, that means the challenge starts. Listen for those words before you do anything. If you start before then it will be a forfeit and you might get attacked if you hurt the other person.¡± We wait and watch. The crowd of lizard men circling the sand pit are cheering loudly. A smaller lizard man enters into the middle. Shouting in the lizard men language. He raises his hand and says it running out of the middle. ¡°MAKKI EN SHIN DANNO!¡± It starts. Both combatants are bare handed. Zergnar had to disrobe and he is only wearing a loin cloth. Most of the lizard men are also wearing only loin cloths. Some are completely naked though. The name of their race is also confusing, because there are lizard women as well. Zergnar is¡­ Too fierce. He is easily beating the lizard man I thought would be a challenge for him. Each punch lifting him off the ground. Even allowing the other combatant to get swings in against him. He easily beats him down. The lizard man is knocked out and the crowd cheers even louder than before. They all start chanting. ¡°GNOOLO DANNOA! GNOOLO DANNOA! GNOOLO DANNOA!¡± I ask Shikki what it means. ¡°It roughly translates to strong gnoll fighter.¡± I guess that is accurate. ¡°The next challenge should be the challenge of speed.¡± ¡°This is definitely my category.¡± I follow the group again. I see a white sand line drawn on the beach. Two poles on either side of the white sand showing the starting line. In the distance, I can see another two poles. That must be the finish line. The crowd gets both near the start and also near the finish. Very few people aren''t at either end. ¡°Same thing as before, wait until he says makki en shin vatta to start. You can also trip or slow down your opponent during the race.¡± ¡°Can you explain the rules further? Can I use skills and shape shift forms?¡± ¡°I''ll go ask.¡± Shikki disappears into the crowd then returns. ¡°Skills yes, shape shifting no.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I wait at the start until someone approaches in front of us. They didn''t make me disrobe, they did take my weapons though. The person I''m racing again is a much smaller than normal lizard man. Most likely dedicated to increasing his movement speed and dexterity. The lizard man in front of us holds up a makeshift flag. He waves it while yelling. ¡°MAKKI EN SHIN VATTA.¡± The race starts. He starts running as soon as it is said. I walk while chanting haste on myself. Using feral roar and activating sprinting as well. Finally he is about ten feet in front of me. I shield charge him. Without a shield I only hit him with Aegis, knocking him down. I use blink strike to gain another ten feet in front of him. I don''t even look behind me. I just run as fast as I can. It would have been nice to turn into a griffin to fly the distance. It would have been completely one sided at that point. I finish the race before I turn around. Turning around, I see he isn''t even half the course yet. The crowd starts cheering for me. ¡°HUUMAN VATTAA! HUUMAN VATTAA! HUUMAN VATTAA!¡± I don''t ask what that means. I''m going to guess human racer is what they''re chanting. It is getting late. We''re offered to stay the night and Shikki urges us to agree. Lizard men would have seen us not staying as a sign of hostility. I keep trying to learn their language the entire night. Most of the lizard men are standing close to a fire. A giant bonfire was started with us circling around it. Their is singing and dancing that night. Lots of cheerfulness from both sides. Some of the lizard women have started flirting with Zergnar. Their race is entirely about overpowering your enemies. Even with the language barrier, it seems to not matter. A few hours of them flirting and playing with each other. Zergnar finally leaves with three females. Leon and Nargzar have pulled in a crowd. They''re sparring in the circle where Zergnar fought. Only with pants on. No weapons or armor. The fight between them is far more even than Zergnar''s. They are intensely acrobatic in their fighting. Both lunging and retreating after a few attacks. One pushing the other retreating, then they switch. The fight was drawing more and more amazed expressions by the strength and speed of both combatants. Both fall over, out of breath. Their fight was a draw. The crowd starts cheering again. They both get up and leave the circle. A lizard man enters it. He is looking directly at me. I turn around to see if he was looking at someone else. He waves me forwards to fight against him. I notice who it is though. It is the lizard man I raced earlier that day. He wants a rematch in the form of a fight. I shouldn''t do this. Shikki was also watch and he urged me to do it. ¡°Refusing a fight is a sign of weakness.¡± I guess I have no choice. I strip down to just wearing pants. I even remove Aegis and put him on top of my clothing and gear. These fights didn''t look like anyone using any skills. It was only fist fights¡­ Am I strong enough to beat him? He is an entire head taller than me. We both engage. I cast every speed increase I can without using spells. All the buffs that don''t give off an aura or visibility towards them being active. I''m so used to being weak I still think I need to rely on these tactics. I charge him. Straight forward with my attack it still catches him off guard. I catch him with an uppercut while also retreating back. He swings at me but I''m already not there. As soon as his hand swings around I push forwards again. His attack was so powerful it rotated him backwards. I grab his arm and swing him to the ground. Within seconds I''ve won the fight. The circle around me was cheering even harder. The crowd wasn''t as big as Leon and Nargzar''s fight. It did draw attention from potential fighters though. The next person to challenge me was the biggest lizard man. The one that Zergnar beat. His height is daunting. He''s far bigger than me. I use the same tactics for this fight. Charging in and swinging than retreating out of his reach. I misjudged his arm length and his attacked clipped me. Almost knocking the wind out of me. I have to be far more careful against him. I use my superior speed and fighting tactics to slowly weaken him. Targeting joints and weak muscles on his body slowly chopping him down like a giant tree. My fighting style is angering him. Every attack he misses makes him more and more angry. I jump above him, landing a multiple series of attacks against his head and back. Finally being in range I kick the back of his head, knocking him down and out. He is dragged out of the circle and the lizard men continue to cheer. A few hours later and almost everyone is asleep. I stayed up and continue to speak with the lizard men. The large lizard man has finally woken up from being knocked unconscious. He approaches me yelling. ¡°MEKI SHREKA DANNA NATA VETA! ¡°I-I don''t know what you''re trying to say.¡± ¡°SHREKA! NATA VETA!¡± He swung at me. I easily dodged it but I might be in trouble. If we are attacked while resting or sleeping. There are going to be many casualties in my men. Shit! What do I do? Should I kill him? I put back on my clothing after my previous fight, so I have my weapons. I could easily finish him off but it might start a war with the lizard men. SHIT! Either way, if I do decide to kill him. I should do it with a large, loud attack to wake up my troops. He continues to swing at me. I''m avoiding every attack he makes towards me. I continue to dodge but it is starting to get annoying. I start throwing punches at him as well. The noise has started waking people up. Also some of the few still awake lizard men left to wake up the chief. Thankfully Shikki also woke up. He can translate. The lizard man spoke again. ¡°MEKI SHREKA DANNA NATA VETA! ¡°He''s saying. It was an unfair fight and now he wants to fight a death match with you.¡± I speak up. ¡°He doesn''t have a weapon though.¡± ¡°Lizard men primarily fight bare handed. There isn''t much iron to make weapons for them, the most complicated weapon the make are pointed sticks.¡± I did notice he had a leather stretched shield in his hand. If he wants to fight a battle to the death, I''m in agreement that we should. I don''t give him a single chance to fight back. Aiming both my arms at him and fire both of my double barrel knife cannons at him. They''ve both been strengthened with mana canisters. He might have survived wind powered knives. He doesn''t stand a chance against these ones fired out with the mana explosions from the canisters. He dies instantly.
Lizard man language learned
Class learned Barbarian passive skill gained Unending rage- rage continuously rises even without being in combat, all the way up to max Level 1 Barbarian passive skill gained Rage empowered strikes- All melee attacks consume a portion of your rage to increase the strength of each attack
Everyone woke up from the attack. The chief came rushing over towards us. He spoke in the lizard man language. ¡°WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!¡± I speak up. I no longer need Shikki to translate. ¡°He attacked me and asked for a death match after I had beaten him earlier.¡± The lizard chief looks surprised at my newly acquired language skills. He looks at the corpse of the lizard man. Falling to his knees near the corpse. He picks him up and hugs him. ¡°You foolish son of mine¡­ I knew the first time someone came here who could challenge your strength that this would happen¡­ To think, such a tiny person could beat you in a fight. What an embarrassment you''ve suffered in your final hours. It is against our beliefs to attack someone who has beaten a lizard man in a death match... But I can avenge my son by requesting a death match with you myself!¡± The chief stands up and picks his sons shield up. He had a wooden spear as well. He is going to challenge me to a fight to redeem his son. I speak up against him. ¡°Think this through elder. I just beat the strongest of your village. You wouldn''t stand a chance against me.¡± ¡°This doesn''t make sense to me... How can a mere child beat the strongest of our people. It is incomprehensible.¡± I change into dragon form. Both the shield he picked up and the wooden stick in his hands dropped. This trump card of dragon form has saved me many unnecessary fights. He falls back down onto his knees. Looking at the ground again. He speaks again. ¡°It makes sense now¡­ I-I can''t believe this. We have a dragon in our presence and we''re treating you as a challenger. If you fought at full strength from the beginning, you could have easily subjugated us. Forcing us to fight for you.¡± ¡°That isn''t my goal though. Having an army of slaves is far different than an army of comrades. I wished to gain your cooperation in the fight against the pirates.¡± He was defeated without a single attack. I should have just gone into dragon form at the beginning of the fight with his son. That would have saved his life¡­ His death was necessary to strengthen me and allow me to understand his people far better. His death will not go unused. Chapter 74 Two confessions I stayed up the rest of that night. After the original scare from the fight, everyone else went back to sleep. The lizard chief stayed awake for a long time as well. Then he went to sleep. Another reason for staying away, I wasn''t sure they wouldn''t attack me while I slept. We still had two more challenges to pass. Waiting for everyone to wake up, I take a trip around the island. It is bigger than I remember from Greed''s memories. It had a crescent shaped beach. We could dock our boats there. Close to one of the edges of the crescent was a stone tower. It could be used as a defensive position, I''ll add a mana cannon once we finish the challenges. I move to the section of the island slightly off the beach. This is where Lindsay was buried. Her grave is overgrown with weeds. The tombstone is the only indicator that someone was buried here¡­ I sit there for a few moments. I still had feelings for her¡­ I should say that Greed still regrets how things played out. Greed is a part of me now though, so I do miss her. She isn''t very similar to Leaf¡­ She reminds me of her though, the feelings for Lindsay have started to transfer to her¡­ It hurts thinking that she could die from my mistakes. The spot where the money is buried is right next to her grave. I clear her grave site with my heirloom sword. It keeps expanding every time I gain a few levels. It can now transform into a sword long enough to be called a sword. Cutting the vines and making a new grave marker. I etched her name into the new wood. Strengthening it, so it will remain here longer. I start to dig after fixing her grave. It takes a few hours for my treasure finding passive to start going off. Greed had buried it to an almost impossible depth. I continue to dig with my control nature magic. I move small portions of the dirt as to not lose any gold in the process. It was all inside a chest and a few bags. It had taken me five trips to move all the gold from my boat to the location. Some of the bags might have broken open. So until I find the bags, I''m being careful. I continue to dig until I pull the dirt off the big chest. I start to get excited, the feeling is something I could easily get addicted too. THIS AMOUNT IS THE MOTHER LOAD!
You feel a spark in your soul
After a few more moments of digging. Everything is revealed. I head towards the living area of the island. It is the deepest part of the island. The side the village is on, is blocked off from the ocean. A huge cliff is the cause of the blockage. I ask one of my generals for help. Waking up Zergnar who hadn''t woken up from the my attacks on the lizard man the previous night. He got a full nights sleep. Carefully stepping over the nude lizard women inside the hut he was sleeping in. We head towards the spot and pick up the treasure. Moving it all to my boat and transferring it to my treasure room. We should be done before everyone wakes up. Zergnar is the only person who knows about the gold now. Having that much money might tempt people so the less that know the better. Even with myself and Zergnar carrying it, we barely manage to carry it all. It is over 1000 gold! I set-up a few more traps in my treasure room. Hiding the most of the money in hidden panels with just enough money shown for it to be believable that was the amount we actually had. This is all just a precaution. We both head back to Greed''s island. When we return, almost everyone is awake. Lance has gotten in on the sparring. He is fighting against three of the lizard men. Trice and Gargarz are watching him fight. Even three against one he''s still winning. Epieoth has set up on the beach since we first arrived. I think he is just enjoying his time off the ship¡­ He was very sea sick the first week on the ships. Any rough tides we hit also made his sea sickness flair up. It might be smart to leave him at the fortress for the rest of the trip. I''ll have to replace him as a captain of one of the black swords. The next voyage once we''re finished here will have different troops and generals leading the ships. Allowing them to get more experience sailing and leading. Once the lizard chief see''s me, he rallies everyone around him. With my return, we can continue to the challenges. He yells out. ¡°Let''s move to the challenge of courage.¡± We follow him. He leads us behind the village and up the cliff side. I already suspect what the next challenge will be. It was slightly different though, everyone circles around a hole in the cliff. It leads down to a source of water. The drop into the water would be too high to get back up from. The leader speaks again. ¡°This is the test of courage. The person who takes this test will jump into the fierce waters below and try to make there way out of the cave through underwater passages. The cave will be pitch dark, it will be very hard to map the area... This challenge will most likely end in whoever takes it''s death. Just attempting the challenge counts as completing it. Who of you will take the challenge?¡± I step forwards, he looks at me then says. ¡°You can''t participate in more than one challenge.¡± ...Shit, and I chose the easiest one for myself. I would have had the most advantages in our army for this cave. Extended breath, better movement in the water. Night vision to help see. Air scrolls for breathing. I could have done this without any difficulty at all¡­ Which one of my generals will do it. I explain the challenge to them. Epieoth, Lance, Leon and Nargzar all step forwards. I guess they are all getting impatient since yesterday. Which one is the best swimmer. I''m not sure, they were all fairly good. Especially Lance and Leon, humans take to the water better than most races. Epieoth and Nargzar were good swimmers as well though. Epieoth just can''t ride on ships without getting sick. I ask the question. ¡°Which one of you can guarantee me that you will return from this challenge alive?¡± It goes quite for a few moments. Lance steps forward out of the four generals. ¡°I can.¡± I hand him a wind scroll just in case. An extra mouthful of air might save his life if he hits a dead end. This one is complete as soon as he jumps in the hole. He''s proven his courage at that point. Living or dying is just a consequence of being courageous. The crowd starts chanting again, like they have for all the other challenges. ¡°Brave human! Brave human! Brave human! Brave human!¡± Lance''s wastes no time. The lizard chief leads us down a spare path. It exits on the opposite side of the village, towards the ocean. We wait for him. One minute passes¡­ Then two minutes pass. Three minutes pass¡­ I ask a question I don''t want to know the answer for. ¡°H-How long does this test normally take?¡± ¡°It depends, if he picked the right passage, it could be over in under a minute. If he picks the wrong passages. It could take anywhere for up to seven minutes for him to resurface.¡± Another minute passes. I can only hope he completes it. Trice had started to look worried. She can''t hide her fear well. Although she hasn''t told Lance her feelings yet. That doesn''t just make her feelings for him go away. This test is as hard for her to deal with as it is for Lance¡­ Another minute passes. Trice turns to me and starts yelling. ¡°WHY!? WHY DID YOU PICK HIM! YOU HAD FOUR VOLUNTEERS AND YOU PICK LANCE!¡± ¡°He volunteered Trice¡­ Let''s just hope he can finish. Lance has never turned down a difficulty before. He''ll overcome this in some way and grow stronger from it.¡± She continues to stare daggers into me with her eyes. I look at the surface of the water¡­ Hoping for something to surf-. I SEE AIR BUBBLES! He must have used my scroll! Trice must have realized what had happened too. We both jump into the water at the same time. Lance is unconscious at the bottom of the cave. The exit is holding him at the bottom. It looks like his equipment might have gotten stuck. I pull on it but can''t get it lose. I pull out my heirloom sword and cut the loop on his belt that was caught on a rock. We rush him to the surface than to shore. Trice desperately tries to revive him. She keeps trying to revive him but it isn''t working. Lance might be dead. I WONT LET HIM! If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I shove a wind scroll into his mouth and activate it. All the water in his lungs has been forced out. At the same time, it might have burst some of his lung air pockets in the process. I cast regenerate on him and heal. Finally I slam my fist into his stomach forcing the air out. His eyes shoot wide open. He struggles to catch his breath. But at least he is alive. Trice is furious with him. She screams at him while punching him as hard as she can. ¡°YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU ALMOST DROWNED! EVEN AFTER YOU PROMISED KITE! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN''T DIE!¡± Lance just lays there and takes it. He must be in incredible pain but that is the last thing he''s thinking about. Trice is heavily crying. Sobbing on top of him. She hugs him tightly. Then speaks again. Almost as quite as a whisper now. ¡°You''re not allowed to die Lance¡­ I love you¡­ I''ve loved you my entire life. You''re not allowed to go where I can''t follow you... I''m done chasing you. I want to stand beside you...¡± We move onto the next challenge. Leaving those two to be by themselves for awhile. They need some time to talk. I still have shivers running down my spine over what just happened¡­ I almost lost one of my childhood friends to a stupid challenge. If this next one is another challenge putting someones life on the line. I might have to voice my protests against it. We move to the lizard chief hut. It is him, me and all my generals in his hut. Well, the generals who are with me right now. We form a circle around a table. He begins to speak. ¡°This last challenge is the challenge of peace. We will smoke from the pipe of peace and after that we will all be brothers.¡± I''ve never heard of something like that before. Smoking some type of grass out of a pipe sounds off to me. I know from my memories as Greed, that one of the best ways to consume mana crystal dust, was to ignite it and inhale the fumes. You could eat it as well. This must be something similar to that. I tell my generals that it might be a drug. We will still take it for the sake of peace though. We pass the pipe around, inhaling than exhaling. While the taste isn''t bad. I expected to get a feeling off of smoking it. It burned my lungs slightly, it didn''t have an unpleasant taste though. It tasted of medicine. Maybe that is what it is. A sort of cleansing medicine. I ask him what the name of the herb is called. He said it was called mint. We continue to pass it around until it is gone. I ask a few more questions. One being, this seemed like a very easy challenge. Why was it the last one. ¡°If you couldn''t complete one of any of the three challenges, you would have been put through the challenge of sacrifice. You completed it all the challenges, so there is nothing to worry about.¡± It is scary to think about what the challenge of sacrifice could have been. We leave the hut. The village elder starts another chant with the lizard men. Shouting. ¡°We are brothers now! We are brothers now! We are brothers now!¡± We spend the rest of the day celebrating. The lizard men don''t have much in the way of anything besides food. They are experts at catching fish. So we have plenty to eat. No booze or anything else special. Until I head through the portals to get some and grab my other generals to meet the new troops. Gobber is the only general who couldn''t come with us. I start cutting myself open and using my blood as wine for everyone once the beer runs out. I see Trice and Lance have paired off finally. I''ve been waiting for over a year for them to get together. They are sitting beside each other, staring into the bonfire that was set-up even during the daytime. I brought Leaf here¡­ Maybe I should make a move¡­ It just doesn''t feel like the right time. Maybe after the war with the pirates. Or after the war with the other continent¡­ No! I can''t keep putting it off like this or something will always come up. I walk over to Leaf. She is sitting over by herself with some type of drink in her hands. It isn''t my blood, I don''t think she has ever consumed any type of alcohol. I sit right beside her. She is nervous at first but starts to calm down. I have to ask a serious question now. ¡°So Leaf, I know this isn''t the clearing you expressed your feelings to me. Do you want to hear my response right now?¡± Leaf tries to get up but I manage to grab her hand. I make my best effort to not hurt her. I don''t want to force her to stay here if she really doesn''t want to know. ¡°When we first met. I didn''t think much of you. I only remembered your name because you were a summoner and you could teach me something I didn''t know yet.¡± She looked at me depressed, it was like she already knew I was going to say that. I continued anyways. ¡°Even when we were making our way to Shienta, I still didn''t have any feelings for you. Or any until you declared your feelings for me at least. When you did though, I started paying more attention to you. The clumsy girl who almost got herself killed by falling off a cliff. Changed into one that could shoot a roc out of the air with a single attack. It seemed like the leaf had become a beautiful flower. Like a rose that could hurt you if you didn''t handle it carefully.¡± ¡­She continued to look at me. No words were spoken by her. I continued what I was saying. ¡°Frankly, I don''t understand what you seen in me. I was weak, I was always weak. People still came to me, through sheer luck I managed to build an army. These people were only my armor at first. I would have sacrificed any of them to save myself¡­ It''s funny how you can justify things in your mind even though you are supposed to be a kind person... I can''t think like that anymore. I''m going to put my life on the line to save my men any chance I can get¡­ Are you really willing to stick with someone as pathetic as me...¡± Leaf could only look at me as she collected her thoughts. She finally spoke. ¡°I¡­ I know it will hurt if you die. It will hurt worse than death. I¡­ I don''t think I really care about that. I just feel useless to you right now. I don''t want to be sidelined like you''ve been doing to me. If¡­ If I could have done something to prevent your death and I wasn''t there! I would constantly think if I was there, would I have been able to stop it!? That would make me feel even worse than you dying in front of me. Just, rely on me more. I won''t ever be a burden. About the confession.¡± She sunk her head. I could see her face blushing red now from embarrassment. ¡°We should wait. At least until we''re closer in size.¡± ...I guess our sizes don''t match up. I''m still only twelve, while she''s fifteen. I won''t catch up to her until I''m around fifteen though. I don''t think I can sit by with someone who has feelings for me. There isn''t anything I can do about it though. ¡°We can at least hold hands... I don''t mind the size difference either¡­ In my last life as Greed, my wife was always taller than me growing up. Even once we were fully grown.¡± Leaf looked at me slightly confused. I guess she didn''t think about the memories of my previous lives. Leaf might think I still have feelings for people that have been dead for over fifty years. She asks a question. ¡°W-what was she like?¡± ¡°She was strong, brave, never backed down from a fight. She could drink me under the table and was very good with finances. When our boat was stolen, she was the first to start the fight that ended with her death¡­ She''s actually buried on this island if you want to see her gravestone.¡± Leaf looked surprised by this. I stood up and started walking towards it. She followed. We get there and I introduce the two. ¡°Hello Lindsay, I''m back again¡­ I''d like you to meet someone.¡± ¡°...Hello, my name is Leaf. I hope you don''t mind. But I''m in love with your husband. Please forgive me.¡± Leaf bowed to the grave. Chapter 75 More upgrades The next day after the party. I started working on the defenses for the lizard village. From what I''ve heard. The lizard men have been attacked by the pirates several times. If they attack again. They''re in for a big surprise. The village doesn''t have enough wood. It is very difficult to make anything strong without that or dirt. So I started getting dirt but it was taking too long. I went back to through the portal to collect some wood in a void satchel. I could only carry a few dozen planks of wood. That won''t be enough. So I make a few trips. I let some of the lizard men help me. They are amazed at the portals when we use them. It is better they learn about them and get accustomed to using them. When they see a few of the pirates, they almost attack them. I have to explain they are slaves for now. This further confuses the lizard men with me. Why would a human enslave other humans but work hard to win over lizard men? We get enough wood to build two towers on each end of the beach. One side already has a rock formation so it is extra fortified. I also add a mana cannon to the top part of the cliffs, overlooking the lizard village. Stationing three lizard men for protection of the village should now completely overwhelm the defenses of the entire village before. Lance approaches me once we''re finished. Apparently that test of courage boosted him to unlocking his forth class. He picked warrior to further compliment his tanking nature. He immediately gets to work on leveling it through training. I send a few more lizard men through the portals by themselves to collect some weapons and armor for them. Most aren''t accustomed to equipment, so letting them get used to it before fighting will be a good idea. The lizard men are an unusually large type of humanoid, so their new gear will have to be custom made for them. We''re going to take a few weeks off here. It will let us get closer to our new allies and allow me time to re-purpose the ship we captured. I was originally going to use it as a trap ship to lure in other pirates. With our new troops another boat will be needed¡­ Maybe it can serve as both of those things though¡­ I''ll have to think of a different propulsion method for this ship then. With giant wheels on the sides of the ship. The fact that we are enemies would be a dead giveaway. I don''t know any way though to keep the speed without relying on a visible method¡­ Perhaps I could gut the ship and add an internal paddle wheel¡­ No, that would take up too much space, leaving no room for troops¡­ I''ll have to think of something later. I can''t think of anything for the entire beginning of that day¡­ Most of the lizard men our now armored and have equipment. This factor improves their survivability. I''ll teach them a few classes today¡­ Which ones though. Aegis chimes in. He hasn''t really spoken in awhile. At least anything worth mentioning. ¡°Besides the automatons. You have no real ground troops who can fight in melee. Some warriors would make a great addition to your army.¡± ¡°Yea, I had the same thought. It rounds out the army again. The only thing we''re missing after this is a stealth unit to preform night attacks. The few gnoll thieves I had before have all been incorporated into other troop units.¡± ¡°Hmm.. Perhaps you should try to gain the group of ninjas as your ally before you head in for the assault on the main base.¡± ¡°That''s a pretty great idea. Murine folk live a long time. Tezuna might still be alive. He was by far the strongest member in the army... Back when I was the captain of the army we''re about to fight.¡± ¡°That¡­ Just sounds weird¡­ You''re a weird person Kite.¡± I laugh internally. Some of the lizard men are looking at me like I''m crazy because I was making faces while talking with Aegis. I still can''t get used to talking with people inside my head. I gather up the lizard men. They all seem confused by what has been going on. None of them have complained about my help though. ¡°I''m going to teach you all some classes to help with your fighting. Think of it as a gift for helping me fight against the pirates.¡± The lizard chief speaks up. ¡°We don''t need any gifts to help fight against the people who''ve been terrorizing us. If the cost for teaching us is too much. Please don''t.¡± ¡°It isn''t that bad. The cost can be recovered in a matter of days. We''ll have to spread out how much I teach you though. So I can only teach everyone one class a day. If any of you wish to learn a job or different classes then the ones I''m teaching. You might want to get out of ear shot of my teachings.¡± I teach them all warrior to start. Which other class should I teach tomorrow¡­ Fighter or berserker most likely¡­ Maybe I should teach both. I would like to let them pick two of their classes like my other troops¡­ I don''t know whether I should teach anyone else the dragon bloodline class. Or even if I can¡­ Only my generals know about my special class... If any of them ask for it, I''ll try to teach them. The next day, I teach them all barbarian. Most of them didn''t have it so teaching the remainder who didn''t the class helped even the classes again. All of them should have two classes. I can''t do much because of the huge strain on fatigue points from teaching. I''ll lead the troops in an exercise in water combat. We haven''t had to fight while in water yet. But that won''t stop us from needing too if our boats get sunk. Each of the lizard men pair off and start sparring. First waist deep, then they get progressively further out. Finally to the point where their feet are no longer touching. The lizard men are definitely the best swimming troops in my army now. My generals get in on the combat. Pairing off in their normal fighting groups. I group with Sock. His training partner still is preoccupied with fatherly life. It would be too unfair for me to use magic¡­ As I could just cast water walking and kick him in the head¡­ Or use freezing dragon breath to instantly win the fight¡­ And all my other attacks I can also do... With my improved water affinity I''m already at an advantage¡­ So we quickly end our session after I beat him soundly a few times. This allows me to watch the fights. Leon and Nargzar''s fight is fairly even. Both are out of their element with this type of fighting. Nargzar''s kurasi kama loses most of it''s range. It wouldn''t work well in water so he is just holding the bladechucks in his hands like he would two swords. Leon''s weapon has the advantage in this fight. He is clearly going to win and does each fight. Zergnar and Lance on the other hand¡­ Both are doing exceptionally well in the water¡­ Zergnar is using his halberd''s ax head to paddle to attack... BUT LANCE IS GLIDING THROUGH IT WITH EASE. How!? What is he doing? I don''t see his weapon¡­ He''s using it as a propulsion system! That''s brilliant! I think I might have found a solution to my ships problem. If I can make a few drill type mechanisms to power the pirate ship. It would be a completely unnoticeable propulsion system. At least unnoticeable from a far distance. I''ll start working on a solution right now. After testing out some different types of drills. I settle on a short drill tip with spread out wings. Mimicking those of a paddle. The blades are slightly bent to help catch the water better. I attach the whole thing to a stick. Holding onto the stick and powering it in the water, it goes faster than the speed of my ships. Propelling me through the water. Making smaller versions for my troops and larger versions for my ships will help increase the speed we travel at. As well as the capabilities of water fighting of my troops. This new invention will be called propeller sticks. I decide to design a special one just for myself. While I have improved water affinity. I think I can make a faster version of the propeller stick with my magic. I hollow it out. Casting jet stream through the center of it while activating the propeller blades increases the speed by almost 50%. I can move almost as fast as flying through the air while in water. There still might be ways to improve this¡­ Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Leaf is still here. She called out to me, which is unlike her. Maybe she''s gotten over her shyness towards me now. She asks a few questions about what I''ve been making. We talk for a few minutes then she starts to talk about what she really wanted to. ¡°I think I''ve picked which class I should learn...¡± ¡°Oh? Which one do you think?¡± ¡°Well, I want to learn white mage¡­ It doesn''t exactly suit my other classes¡­ I just¡­ I want something to remember Kattie by¡­ It feels like I''ve been forgetting about her more and more. We were in a group together for so long. She meant so much to us. To just forget about her is...¡± ¡°I understand. Of course I''ll teach you white mage¡­ You don''t have to justify it to me. I¡­ I feel the same way you do. She was such a big part of my life before I moved to Shienta. Without her, I doubt I could have left my village when I did¡­ I owe so much to her...¡± Leaf learns white mage. I teach her regenerate as well. It doesn''t really suit her¡­ But I understand. It will also help her stay alive... What I said about Kattie, I meant every single word. I would most likely still be at my village when the bandits attacked it. Or I would have died making it to Shienta. So many things could have gone differently without her. I was weak¡­ I still am weak¡­ You can''t save everyone¡­ Just trying to lower the number of casualties is all I can do. We''re using the remaining time on this island to continue to train. Normally one or two people stick out for each new race I get¡­ This time it''s four. These guys love battle. Four have non stop been fighting. They are all brothers. Their father is the village chief¡­ So I just killed their brother, or half brother. I guess the village chief was very strong in his younger days. It makes sense that he would have many children seeing as his race loves the strong more than anything else. I''ve been¡­ Asked once already¡­ I told them humans tend to stick with one mate. I''ve already fought with one of the brothers. The small one that was the fastest in the tribe. His name was Fast like wind¡­ All their names are similar to his. Swift like water, Strong like bull and Tough like steel. I haven''t learned if any had secret skills yet or there names¡­ I figured out a problem I might have been creating for myself. When they learn and level up their classes. I''ll ask them again in a few weeks. I''ll need to make them specialty weapons once they get the rest of their classes. I teach them berserker. They all have four classes now. All the lizard men do, with one open spot each. I''ll let them divide up and pick their last class tomorrow. After teaching the lizard men the class they all wish to learn. I head back to the fortress and call a meeting. I ask the crowd there if anyone has gotten any new skills. Three step forwards.
Archery passive skill upgraded Dual shot--> Triple shot- Shoot three arrows at once
Secret Spellthief passive skill Magic damage reduction- Permanently decrease the damage taken from magic attacks
Secret Witch doctor skill Sacrificial doll- Make a doll that will take one attack that would kill the person it is attached to
...THAT DOLL! What a strong skill!¡­ I can only make one doll. I need to take something of value of the person in order to make it. A strand of hair would work. They also need to hold onto the doll in order for it to work¡­ If the doll is injured in any way, the person will feel it though. Not take any damage but the pain could cause them to fall over in the middle of a fight. So it could end badly if not used correctly. The benefits outweigh the risks though. I...I know it''s selfish¡­ I know¡­ I don''t care though. I''ll do anything to guarantee Leaf''s safety. I ask the troops I''m traveling with for their secret skills¡­ Lance steps forward. Also another person¡­ Trice steps forward with him¡­ I guess they''ve both decided they can teach me their skills now.
Secret Dragoon skill gained Lancet- Fling a spear with more force than an arrow
Blue mage skill gained Acid production- Can produce acid the will burn the skin of people who come in contact with it
Blue mage skill upgraded Poison spit- can now spit a new type of acid as well as other poisons
Blue mage passive skill gained Assimilation- Able to more easily learn languages, cultural traits of other races
Blue mage passive skill upgraded Assimilation--> Osmosis- Passively learn languages, cultural traits of other races (Learned because of master of learning)
Blue mage skill Repulsion- Use a burst of air to force opponents away
Blue mage skill upgraded Repulsion--> Wind wall- Form a wall of wind that will continually block and force opponents away (Learned because of elementalist)
Blue mage skill Scan- Check the monster to see if you can learn anything from it
Blue mage skill Flash- Forms a bright light in an attempt to blind an enemy
Blue mage skill Healing breeze- Heals allies that come in contact with it
Blue mage skill upgraded Healing breeze--> White wind- Forms a giant gust of wind that heals those who come in contact with it (Learned because of elementalist)
...Well¡­ I guess she did have over a year to gain blue mage skills¡­ But still¡­ WHAT THE DEATH GOD! That was a lot of skills I just learned¡­ Sometimes I forget how amazing my friends are¡­ Safe to say, I''m over the fact that she didn''t tell me she had this many skills. Chapter 76 The new Blue We''re about to leave towards the ninja''s island. I''ve outfitted all my ships with several of the propeller sticks. They also work as extra rudders. The propulsion can be used to help steer the ship for tighter turns. Making it even easier to avoid attacks. The generals of all the ships have been replaced besides for Lance and Shikki. Brick and Leaf are now commanding the black swords. Lance and Trice lead one black dagger, while Strong like bull leads the other. Fast like wind and Blue are leading the black shivs. Shikki and Kline are leading the black turtles. The troops who were originally on the ships have now switched with the troops in the fortress. Some who have volunteered also stay as crew members. Almost all the kobolds have volunteered. While they''re traveling to the next island, I''ll make my four new generals who''s names I''ve shorted to Fast, Swift, Strong and Tough specialty weapons. I also need to redesign Gear so I can use him while in dragon form. Each of my new generals is fairly different. Fast is, well fast. Posing the highest movement speed out of all the lizard men. Once he levels up his new classes, he might be even faster than me. He avoided learning any of the ones I was teaching the other lizard men. Instead, opting for the dexterity based classes. Thief, bandit, pirate and scout. He didn''t want to use his last class slot until I had a better dexterity class. The other dexterity classes I could teach didn''t suit his fighting style. Designing a weapon based on speed would go good with him. Perhaps two swords after teaching him ambidextrous. He could learn it himself but I doubt he wants to spend more time learning it. The swords are made with some carbon steel. Using this type of steel would make the blades sharper than normal. Both have a damage gem attached and have been enchanted and infused anti magic runes with flare and freeze magic. The swords are called Flame and Chill. Swift isn''t exactly swift, he''s more of the village mage. He learned some defensive magics. White mage, time mage, warden, druid and blue mage. He couldn''t learn elementalist or paladin¡­ I tried teaching him paladin because I have no one else with that class. His weapon will be the cross-bo-staff all the other mages use. While I haven''t seen any mages use them yet, besides for practice, they should be strong enough to kill. Strong was the only one in the group who went full offense classes. Picking the pirate class for his fifth. Which is fairly smart. I had some of my troops request treant wood from the local treant and have used it to make some of the new weapons. While normally, a big sword would be too unwieldy, with the weight making it impractical. The weight of a giant wooden sword is far less than metal. I enchant and infuse anti magic runes with control nature magic. I add metal rings to it, with sword edges, every few inches. The sword rings added are enchanted and infused anti magic runes with debuff magic. Making it deadly to anyone sliced by it. The rings are spaced out though. It is almost more of a bludgeon weapon than a sword. Most of the weight will come from these pieces. The swords weight would normally be too much for most people to use. I expand the sword slightly to lock all the ring blades into place on the sword. Finally, I add a mana canister to it that will allow the blade to move up and down a few inches while it''s being held. Making it much more like auto cutting saw now than ever. I name the new weapon reciprocating sawsword. Tough decided to let me decide his classes. He already had barbarian. I once again tried teaching him paladin to no avail. I tried teaching chemist, spellthief, beast rider and witchdoctor¡­ None work, it seems it might be very difficult to teach race classes to other races. Besides humans who have the knack for picking up classes. We settle on full defensive classes. Guardian, knight, shaman and monk. Tough doesn''t use weapons. It is against his code to fight armed. I design a tower shield for him. It is big enough to block his entire body. Also blocking some people close to him. There is a mana cannon mounted underneath¡­ Normally, anyone using a cannon would have to have it mounted to something to not get knocked back. Shooting a mana cannon without it being mounted might even kill some people if done incorrectly. I take it outside and test it out. Firing it at a tree¡­ The kickback is still too strong the mana cannon launches me backwards and it dislocates my arm¡­ FUCK, THAT HURTS! I head to the medical bay to get my arm put back into place. The person inside right now is Methodis. He''s the leader of the healer squad. He slings my arm back into place than asks an odd question. ¡°Hey, do you know if¡­ Leaf is seeing anyone?¡± ¡°Well... I think we''re together.¡± ¡°...I see...¡± He looks defeated¡­ I didn''t know he had feelings for her. He''s never made any indication of it before. ¡°She¡­ She was in here a few hours ago and was flirting with me. I wasn''t sure if she was making fun of me or not.¡± ¡°...Wait what!? Leaf is with the ships right now.¡± ¡°That can''t be possible, she was just in here.¡± ¡°...Do you mean the girl with green hair or the women with black hair?¡± ¡°Black hair obviously.¡± ¡°Okay, so there are two people named Leaf. The green haired one I was talking about.¡± ¡­ I knew this would happen. If someone starts to talk about Leaf I''ll have to clarify from now on. That is why I call the elementalist named Leaf Green. I get fixed up and tell him she is an elementalist¡­ The group that is constantly at war with his people. I leave after that, I restart making the mana cannon on the shield. The kickback was still too intense. I try to counterbalance it more towards the front. I dig the tower shield into the ground this time and fire it slightly upwards¡­ It works this way... It will be hard to use in combat without hurting yourself and will also be very hard to aim. At least how it is now. I attach two sticks on either side of the long cannon that is behind the shield. Digging the two sticks into the ground in front of me. Then firing¡­ It knocks me down but doesn''t dislocate my arm this time. The kickback being distributed through my body made it so I barely felt anything besides the kickback. Tough should be able to hold it without falling down. I feel like if I continue to work on the cannon attachment, I could make the kickback less than now¡­ I try a few more things. Finally cutting the back part off of the cannon to ventilate the cannons discharge, it removes the majority of the kickback. Tough is now my most well armed general¡­ At the same time, having a single attack isn''t very balanced. I remove the stabilizing sticks since they''re no longer necessary. This new weapon might be the strongest I''ve ever made to be used in combat. I called it the rock-it-launcher. I might make myself one to use without the shield portion. I make him a wooden gauntlet with some of the treant wood. It is enchanted with warding magic and has infused anti magic runes of shielding magic on it. Finally strengthening it with control nature cast on the wood itself. Making both his punches stronger and his arm less likely to be injured while attacking. It resembles Aegis, I don''t give it any special name since it is so plain in comparison to the other weapons. I make myself a new totem sword with the remaining treant wood. I have a new totem I can make now. I''m not sure which type of totem it will be. I gained it from spirit quest and haven''t had the time to make it since then. I make it¡­ It is an extremely weird sword¡­ The sword almost splits in two, I read the effect. Dosing sword, can lead you towards water, metal, classes and jobs¡­ That is¡­ Fairly weird but fairly useful at the same time¡­ I continue to hold onto it. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Redesigning Gear to be wearable doesn''t take that long. I exchange the straps that would go around my shoulders to hold him on with a much more stretchy and resistant to tearing set made from my spider silk. I design some new headgear, made of glass, I''m going to attempt to use it to increase the time we can spend underwater, it can also be used to capture air made with an air scroll. Finally, I make a few fishing nets out of spider silk. Bigger nets that can be dragged with the ship, they will take longer but I''ll start making them now. I take the cross-bo-staff and the weapons I just made for Tough through the portal to Greed''s island. I removed it from one of my ships and left it there. Some of the lizard men are still on the island, around fifty are piloting the stolen pirate ship. The lizard chief who''s name is Powerful like ocean. Nicknamed Powerful, he is beyond his years when it comes to fighting but he can easily lead a ship. I broke the mast of the ship off and removed the sails. I can use it as a decoy ship against the pirates. Luring them in thinking it could possibly be another pirate ship in trouble. I explain the new weapons to both Swift and Tough. Swift understands it immediately and begins practicing. He is using it proficiently after a single use. I have to show Tough how the rock-it-launcher is used¡­ Then have him use it. The backfire from the cannon burns someone standing behind him. While I quickly heal them, I realize that having Tough use the cannon might have been a mistake. He''ll have to continue to practice and learn procedures before he can fire without risking allies. He has to make sure the cannons discharge won''t hurt anyone. I take the teleporter back to the main base and then take one to the ships. Giving both the generals there new weapons. I have the boats tie together for a night. Watching Strong swing the reciprocating sawsword easily makes me feel better¡­ The sword could honestly be a little bigger with him still using it proficiently. We''re near a reef right now. I want to do some underwater exploring to search for fish and other things inside the reef. Large boats might have been sunken here. I take a few of the lizard men with me underwater. This will also be a field test of the new helmets. I head back through the portals to get Zergnar and Morpheus. Zergnar brought his rock shark, named Sharkdar with him. Blue also volunteers, saying that he can breath underwater. We all jump into the water. Using the propeller sticks, we easily reach the bottom of the ocean. I''m by far the fastest, with my special propeller stick, improved water affinity and Gear using his shields as paddles. Traveling through the reef we see some very amazing things. Jellyfish are lighting the entire reef up. I had seen them from the ships and we managed to avoid hitting the reef because of this. I have a few of the lizard men catch them with nets I prepared in advance. We continue to collect them, I send the lizard men back to the surface after they''ve collected two or three each. They could prove to be useful later on. While I can see perfectly fine in the dark waters, my troops cannot. From Greed''s memories, I knew that they were dangerous to touch and have warned everyone else. I collect some of the coral and a few of the rocks. As we venture further into the reef we notice a sunken boat¡­ I motion to rise to the surface. Everyone heads up, I send all the lizard men back to the ships to deposit the jellyfish and collected items. It is just me, Zergnar who is riding on his rock shark, Morpheus who has shape shifted into a rock shark and Blue. Still a strong fighting force. Blue can cast underwater since he can breath/speak. My other caster generals wouldn''t be able to fight underwater because of this¡­ Without the new helmets I designed anyways¡­ I doubt there will be any monsters inside the ship. They wouldn''t be big enough to be a threat if they were hidden inside anyways. We enter, there are a few jellyfish monsters in the way. We avoid them or push them out of the way with weapons or Aegis. He clarifies that he doesn''t like being underwater, he''s been saying it since we''ve been here. I''ll feed him a few gemstones afterwords to make it up to him. Nothing of any real value is found yet. We search the entire ships hull, forecastle, finally stopping outside the captains cabin. Treasure find starts going off. I tap Zergnar, once he faces me I give him a thumbs up. There is definitely treasure inside. I open the door, inside is a pile of treasure! On top of the treasure, is a naked women¡­ It is a siren¡­ ¡°SHIT IT''S A SIREN!¡± I call out¡­ No one can hear me since we''re under the water. SHIT! I feel something prodding my thoughts. ¡°You know you want me. We both know you want me. There is nothing you can do to resist.¡±
Sharp mind activated
The image of her breaks. The beautiful naked women that was standing before me changes. Her features rot away, she starts to turn more disgusting and grotesque as the image fades¡­ OH MY GOD IT''S UGLY! She looks far more like a fish now. I turn around to check my grou- FUCK! Zergnar is swinging his halberd at me. I block with Aegis, the impact is enough to spin me in a circle in the water. I kick off him, I need to kill this siren before Zergnar kills one of us. She opens her mouth wide. Wider than a person could, her face opening up, some skin stretching and ripping as she opens it. The water in front of her starts to ripple. Pushing me backwards¡­ MY HELMET SHATTERS FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF HER SCREAM! Zergnar makes another attack at me, Blue pushes him out of the way with a sneak attack jet stream. Morpheus is attacking Sharkdar who is following the mental command of his master. FUCK I NEED TO BE FASTER! I change into dragon form. Kicking off the wall I was just slammed against with all four hands. I spin around corkscrewing through the water¡­ It isn''t fast enough though! She''s going to get another siren scream attack before I reach her! With a few seconds remaining I aim my head away from her and cast jet stream and wind wall out of my mouth, propelling me faster. I pray that Gear doesn''t squander this chance! Zergnar kicks off the wall towards me. I make it to the siren right as Zergnar kicks me in the stomach. Forcing all the air out of my system! I get a wind scroll in my mouth from my storage tooth and activate it, barely before I pass out. I guard myself against Zergnar''s next attack. It doesn''t come though. It looks like the clouds are lifting from his vision.
Blue mage skill learned Charm- Charm a dimwitted enemy for one minute
Blue mage skill Sirens scream- Scream loud enough to break glass and shatter ear drums if close enough
Blue mage skill upgraded Sirens scream--> Flash bomb- can now throw an attack out that is bright enough to blind and loud enough to deafen
Blue (water imp) has evolved into unique variant True male siren
Level increase to 35
I try to turn around but I can''t¡­ I''m pinned to where I am. Zergnar has fear in his eyes looking at me. He pulls his helmet off and puts it over my head, he points at the straps on my shoulders before making his way towards the entrance. I take off my Gear to turn around. He has impaled her with all of his shields. Holy life god that was close! She isn''t even a raid boss, just a regular rare! The position we fought her in, plus only having male members of the group¡­ This could have ended worse... If I didn''t have sharp mind... I pull Gear''s shields out of the siren one by one. I start collecting all the gold and items, loading most into a chest that had spilled over. Loading it into Gear, I probably collect a lot of water also. I even take the siren''s bloated disgusting corpse... I''m looking less forward to absorbing a piece of her than I did to absorbing a piece of the golem raid boss. I resurface where Zergnar is waiting. Blue is up there with him¡­ WHAT THE DEATH GOD! He''s a cute blue boy now. ¡°What the! Blue! Why are all my companions getting more attractive than me! It feels like I''m doomed to be the ugly one in this group!¡± Chapter 77 A bottle of dragons blood We rest that night. I make a dredging net that night. In the morning, we dredge the land close to the reef. With the collected oysters from the dredge, I head back to Greed''s island and make an oyster farm inside the crescent beach. Once we collect more fish, I''ll add a net to cut off the crescent beach from the ocean. We don''t have enough fish to make a fish farm yet. The measly amount of fish we''ve been collecting from the kobold village hasn''t been enough to sustain an entire army. I''ll have to re-adjust the fishing net to trawl instead of dredge. We continue to travel to the ninja island. I''ve shown the net''s to my tailors and they''ll be making at least the same number as the amount of ships I have. Once I kill the pirates I will most likely continue to run fishing/trade ships through the oceans. Keeping the sea''s clean of pirates from then on. We can''t afford to have pirates retake the waters afterwords and it will help¡­ Make trades... To the country we''re at war with¡­ Well, I guess opening up the ocean would allow for easier attacks against the other country. Another few days of traveling and we''ve gotten enough boats with trawl nets to catch fish. A few hours of ship jumping, giving commands and re-adjusting the ships paths closer towards where my dosing sword is pointing. It is most likely pointed towards the ninja village. I''ll have to check the navigation from the stars later once it gets dark. I hear one of the ships yell. ¡°Ships ahead!¡± They''re far enough away to have not spotted us yet. I call my troops to retreat on the other ships. All the generals jump onto the trap pirate ship. The turtles sink, readying for the surprise attack... As they get close I count the ships. One, two, three¡­ Four ships¡­ Maybe we should have just fought them normally. I''ll be the only one on the deck, when they get closer they''ll only see a child and lower their guard. I''ll say everyone underneath is sick and our captain has died in an attack from a monster. When they head underneath to help my crew we''ll kill them then, open fire on their ships if they''re in range¡­ As the ships get closer I notice they look slightly different than this ship¡­ Maybe this one or theirs are an outdated version? Their ships are much closer to the water. They are also single level ships. With the top portion open¡­ The ships are also very narrow, they look more like rowboats than anything else¡­ That is also their method of transportation, the magority of the crew are rowing towards us, with no sails on top. What a weird look pira-. THEY OPEN FIRE. SHIT! I barely get a wind wall up to make their shots miss. The trajectory of each shot goes above the ship, if we had sails they would''ve hit them. I scream. ¡°ALL HANDS ON DECK THEY''RE NOT PIRATES!¡± It should take them an entire minute to reload the six shots they just fired. It looks like that was all of the attacks they could make. The mana cannons they have are all at the front part of the ship. I''LL SINK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS BEFORE THEY GET ANOTHER CHANCE! I change into dragon form and fly at the closest ship. They all look on amazed at me. I use my staple attack of taking a vial of explosive out of my mouth crushing it. Then filling my mouth with wind scrolls. I mix all my fire attacks and also mix in wind wall to increase the fires strength. A ship is instantly engulfed in flames. Each one of these ships contains around 20 people¡­ My fire is being broken apart by something... But the men on board have still died.
Class learned Viking passive skill gained Energy Empowered Strikes- All melee attacks consume a portion of your rage to increase the speed of each attack Level 1 Viking passive skill gained Lust for battle- The longer the battle goes on for the faster your energy returns
Viking level 1 to 13
Warrior level 37 to 38
Level 10 Viking passive skill gained Cold Resistance- Less likely to be harmed by freezing magic attacks and cold weather bothers you less
Secret Viking passive skill gained Ax specialization- Know the ins in outs of the ax, better throwing with less chance of ever missing your attack
Level increase to 36
Level increase to 37
Level increase to 38
I just killed 20 people in a single attack. I thought this would deter the vikings but this only encourages them more. They all start screaming and hollering¡­ WHAT! They all start throwing things at me¡­ I don''t see any archers but the amount of axes and potions being thrown at me is incredible. I manage to fly out of harms way, back towards my ship before I get hit. What! The potions they were throwing froze the top layer of the ocean. I head back in for my second bombing run. I can only do my explosion attack one more time with the amount of scrolls and vials my void tooth can hold. I''ll save it for when it is needed. Some of the vikings have gotten off their ships and have started to run towards our boat. There are still around one hundred vikings but only around twenty have started running on the ice. My lizard men troops aboard and my generals are now outside the greet them. I fly high into the air. Diving into a tail spin with Gear''s shields spinning in front of me. We pierce straight through a ship and into the water. I change back into a human. The wings get in the way when trying to move around in the water. They aren''t very good paddles compared to using my breath. I would do that type of movement but I don''t have my helmet, it would be too dangerous if I used all the air in my lungs to propel myself. I am under the ships. I start puncturing holes into the bottom of every single one, they''ll either need to start bucketing the water out of their ships or have them sink. I jump out of the water with escape. Transforming into a dragon form mid air. My turtle ships have finally resurfaced. This is the first thing to confuse the vikings. The turtles broke straight through the thin layer of ice that would have restricted a normal person from resurfacing. I start loading up another breath attack. I hear a viking yell out before I crush the vial. ¡°WHAT!? STOP MY BROTHERS! THESE ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES! DYING IN BATTLE AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES IS NOBLE. We know not who these people are! Let us first try to speak with them before we continue.¡±
Osmosis activated
The man is a well dressed viking. He is wearing a horned helmet and has a giant red beard. He must be the leader of the vikings. I land and speak with the jarl. ¡°We are not your enemies. This was a trapped laid to kill pirates. Since you attacked it on sight, it would seem you also are at odds against the pirates. We do not wish any harm to your drangs and thegns. Please speak of your mission here jarl.¡± ¡°I am not a jarl, I am a skeppare sent in our jarl of failing healths place¡­ You speak as if you know of our culture young one. Perhaps you are from the forgotten isles to the far south of here?¡± ¡°I''ve met several of your people before while traveling the seas. You seemed like a rowdy bunch but not willing to travel this far before¡­ At least without the tinges of exploration nipping at your boots.¡± ¡°HAHAHA! You''ve got that right, while we are known for our exploring, we did not come this far north because of that. The pirate leader has been continuing to expand their hold on the ocean and it is starting to get too close to our homeland. They''ve attacked a transport ship holding a few ceremonial pieces of equipment, forged several hundred years ago. We have come to get it back.¡± ¡°...You''re force is far too small to engage with the several thousand pirates you are going to fight against.¡± ¡°...I see¡­ It has gotten that bad has it¡­ We have to head back to tell the jarl about this¡­ We thank you for your help strange one. We''ll be more careful on our approach of their base now... Sorry about attacking your ship... ¡°No, it was my fault, I should have noticed your ships were different beforehand and adjusted my strategy¡­ Now let''s get down to business¡­ I notice your swords seem expertly made, I would like to see the ceremonial pieces if the normal army equipment is this good. Also you used strange potions that froze the waters quickly. Can you explain those vials too me?¡± ¡°Hmm, I can teach you both things but what do you have to trade for them?¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°...What would you like?¡± ¡°We''re fans of fighting, fans of alcohol and fans of women. Any or all of these things can be used as currency.¡± I cut open my arm while pulling out a few cups to catch my blood in. I begin to speak again. ¡°My blood is a strong wine, give it a taste and see if this is up to your standards. If not, I can always grab a few casks of beer for your long journey. I can''t give you either of the other two things though.¡± I sips the blood wine. Then drinks the rest in one gulp. He licks his lips enthusiastically. My blood is around one hundred proof¡­ But it tastes like plain blood to most people, well that is what the kobolds have said. Some races are more likely to crave my blood after drinking it. Becoming addicted to dragons blood is a very easy way to get yourself killed. He licks the remaining blood out of the cup. ¡°This is the most delicious alcohol I''ve ever drunk... Bring me five bottles of this wine and I''ll teach you everything about ice potions and our swords.¡± ¡°It will take a days worth of time to get that much blood wine. If you wish, we can tie our ships together and head to a nearby island until I get the payment.¡± We tie our ships together. They patch the few holes in their boats and head through the portal. They''re all amazed by my portal¡­ Maybe showing them this is bad but they don''t know where it is linked to. So, being outnumbered 3 to 1 and with us not showing any signs of betraying them. They would have no reason to betray us. I also use this time to bring up the nets of fish. I''ll store them inside the crescent portion of the beach. This will keep the fish fresh until we decide to eat them. The skeppare brings forth one of the swords. It is cold to the touch when I grab it. He begins to speak. ¡°This is a sword made from cold iron. It is different in many ways than regular iron. First, it is far stronger and tougher. Second it absorbs fire completely. It is strong enough to soak up fire from a dragons¡­ Well¡­ If you made a shield out of it anyways¡­ HAHAHA I can''t believe you are a dragon, it doesn''t make any sense! Don''t worry about my men either, it is an honor to die at the hands of a strong enemy.¡± ¡°How do you forge the metal then?¡± ¡°Ahh, I see you do know something about blacksmithing. Well you see, it had to be forged in a cold forge. The only way the blade can be tempered is by dropping the temperature low¡­ Forges like that would be impossible to make around here. The temperature isn''t low enough to temper the iron. Our islands are almost constantly in winter, so using ice water to chill the iron is possible almost all year around. The colder the temperature you can get the blade when forged. The stronger it will be." ¡°...Hmm, can we try something? I''d like to try cold forging a sword. Perhaps I can help make it better.¡± ¡°...I don''t see how that is possible but you can try.¡± I make a makeshift forge. The way it sounds they make swords, is equal to the temperature of ice saltwater. While I could just add more salt to water then continue to use my freeze breath to drop the temperature. I think using my breath to cool the sword itself down would be far better. Using freeze and bad breath in conjunction with dragon form and wind wall, I can make winds colder than water can get. I place the sword into the makeshift forge. And begin breathing my freeze attack towards it. Everything is adding to me being the only person alive able to do something like this. So many different skills are being used here. Even my improved water affinity with my increased lung capacity. The skeppare''s eyes widen as the color of the sword changes. It starts to glow light blue, than it continues to get darker and darker in color. Finally settling on a blue almost turning black. It takes five minutes of breathing to get it this color. The skeppare pulls it out and starts to beat on it with a hammer. Forging the blade far sharper, thinner than it was before. The original color of the sword was a light blue¡­ It settles on a color similar to what it was when I was cold forging it. ¡°T-this sword is the same color as our ceremonial weapons.¡± His hands are trembling with the weapon in them. ¡°SOMEONE BRING ME A SWORD!¡± He yells at his men. One of them rushes over a sword and the person holds it. The skeppare swings the sword and it cuts through the other cold iron sword an inch¡­ WHAT THE HELL! The original cold iron was harder than my steel weapons¡­ To be sharp enough to cut through something stronger than steel¡­ I bring out a regular steel sword and it cuts a jagged edge through it¡­ These swords are extremely sharp. The skeppare continues to shake. He finally speaks. ¡°Y-y-you know h-h-how valuable this is to us? We have a total of six swords of this quality. The king uses one. Two of his jarls use them. Lastly, three were stolen transporting them by the pirates¡­ I-if you can mimic what you''ve just done with all of our weapons¡­ I can guarantee a strong relationship with the vikings as well as an enormous reward.¡± ¡°...Truth be told¡­ I think I can make these swords even better if you give me a few moments.¡± The skeppare can''t believe what I just said. It doesn''t register in his mind. To be able to make something even stronger than the few ceremonial pieces from hundreds of years ago. It does not register with him. He doesn''t know whether to laugh, get angry or cry at what I just said. I start preparing. I get around fifty wind scrolls that I had built up. I enchant the makeshift forge with freeze magic. Then add two bellows to each side of it, enchanting them with wind wall magic. I test them out and they made a tremendous amount of wind. Enough to not need to meld my wind wall into my spell¡­ I still will to make it as strong as possible. I coat the next cold iron sword in my blood. It is the strongest alcohol we have right now. Meaning, it should have a really low freezing temperature. Plus if it''s my blood, it might have cold resistance properties from the viking class. I begin to go through the same method I had done before. This time adding in wind scrolls to keep my breath more consistent. Having to catch my breath drops the power slightly. With all the additions I made to the forge the sword begins to change color. Just like before it changes to light blue. Gradually getting darker, finally settling on pitch black. The metal is midnight black compared to the dark blue. It should be even stronger but we will need to test it again.
First ever created black cold iron sword Unique enchanting effect added
WHAT!? I cast detect on the sword. Rare quality, it now has the absorb heat, absorb cold enchants on it¡­ What an amazing sword. Only a rare quality though, meaning it can be strengthened far further than it is right now. I grab the other sword I had made. It had no effects on it but just the superior quality it was made it valuable. It had the same properties as iron when it came to enchanting. ¡°I''ll make these swords.¡± Holding the black cold iron sword in my hands. ¡°But what will you give me in return? How much cold iron do you have and how much do you mine each year?¡± ¡°We collect around 1000 pounds of cold iron every year. We use it for everything, most of the heavy armor we wear is made from it. We aren''t wearing it right now because heavy armor and oceans don''t mix¡­ We''ll trade half of the swords made right now for your abilities to make these swords for us¡­ That is all we have to trade... Once we make it back to our king... We can talk about a more suitable reward.¡± ...That is a pretty bad deal. It comes from the point that they don''t have much on them. This is planning for the future though. If I make these swords and send them back to their homelands. Word will get back to the king and it could hold a valuable ally from my abilities to make these swords¡­ Also the sheer amount of equipment I can make after they supply me with the cold iron. ¡°I''ll trade you 20 of the black swords for my abilities to make these and also iron swords to replace the ones I take. Considering that these swords are higher quality than even your ceremonial equipment¡­ Ceremonial equipment you were willing to send 120 vikings to get. And I''m the only one who can make them, I feel I should get the larger portion of swords.¡± That trade off is over three fourths of the swords I make will end up in my hands. He agrees¡­ I honestly don''t think he could have turned me down, even if I had only given him one of the strengthened swords to return with. I figure it is better to keep them armed in case they are attacked on the way back home. ¡°It will take us over a year to make the return trip home...¡± ¡°I can make improvements to your ships to cut the return trip to your homeland down¡­ That is a discussion for another time though. I''ll continue to make these swords.¡± I upgrade the rest of the swords for the remainder of the day. None of them are enchanted after the first one I made. I''ll definitely make sure that the special one is one I get. Trying to deconstruct it would end with a 5% chance at learning the enchant¡­ Not worth it. Going to sleep that night with the feeling of gaining a new ally. With my knowledge of their culture. I know they won''t attack me in my sleep. Chapter 78 New evolutions, new looks The next day I remember the ice potions. I want to learn that before they leave. He says. ¡°Oh that is just a vial with some crushed white leaf in it. It freezes water when it comes in contact. It is a naturally growing plant in the forgotten isles. Only works with water though, so we can''t use it to strengthen our swords.¡± I''ll have to get some of that plant. The amount of vials they have is very limited. Using half attacking me and my men, they only have ten left¡­ I''d rather not take what they have since it is a thing I can''t replicate. It might help save their lives making it back home. I''ll just have to remember those ice potions once we start trading. I give them a portal from one of our ships. It leads straight to our base but I''ll have them take it to a different part of the fortress. I cage off a section and put the portal into it so they can''t sneak attack us. But they can still come through to ask for help if they need it. It will also add to another portal to a distant land later on. One of my end goals is to have portals connected to every continent. Then every major city. I improve their ships. Attaching two man powered paddle wheels onto each side of each ship. They can be powered by their feet, so they can also continue rowing with their arms. The paddle wheels are smaller than normal. Even still it will increase the speed they can make it home by hopefully a few months. We send them on their way. One hundred people traveling back home¡­ Well¡­ With that interruption out of the way¡­ I now have a new sword. Having a weapon like this will only get in my way though. I''ve become more of a shape shifting fighter now. Fighting with a sword is far more fitting of single, one against one fights¡­ I still don''t trust my strength when compared to my other generals. At least fighting one against one¡­ Who should I give this sword too? The only one it makes sense¡­ Is Fast¡­ I give him this sword and another one of the black swords. Enchanted and infused anti magic runes of freeze. I test them both out¡­ Striking the two swords together seems to ignite them both in freeze magic for a short period¡­ This replaces his swords and the new swords are called flame and chill mk2... I''ll just call them flame and chill still. The rare sword steals the magic temporarily from the other sword. I cast fire breath on it. The sword ignites into flames as if it was enchanted with a powerful flame. The magic is too strong to even hold the sword correctly. I cast flare magic on it.the flames are less than when I used my breath and it could be usable as a weapon. I''ll have to make a few flare and freeze scrolls for Fast to apply to the weapon. We set sail again. It should only be a few more days to the ninja village. As long as we''re not attacked again or don''t notice another island. My map doesn''t show any land masses between us and the village though. So most likely it will be an easy trip. I tend to stay on Leaf''s ship but also visit and run messages between the other ships. I''m sitting outside on the deck of one of the ships, making a big net for it. When we''re attacked by fish. Jumping through the air with swords attached to their faces. A school of swordfish! Hundreds of fish are attacking us! I yell out. ¡°MAGES PROTECT THE BOATS! Burn them before they can kill anyone! Their swords become brittle when attacked with fire!¡± I jump ships. The ship I was on was Leaf''s, she can handle her own ship. Jumping to Strong''s ship. He''s the only one without a strong ranged person on the ships. His ship would be the most vulnerable. Thankfully my pets are all spread out through the ships. Darkclaw has begun circling the ships, casting fire down on them with his dragons breath. He is still part dragon, even though he hasn''t seen much combat yet. Purple and Morpheus are also helping. Morpheus taking the form of a rock shark, jumping into the water to stop them before they can even attack. Purple is spreading his poison right above the surface of the water. When they come out they''ll be paralyzed and fall right onto the boat. I''m standing right at the edge of the bowspirit of Strong''s ship. Casting my breath attacks to weaken their swords. They travel in pacts of over five hundred fish! Strong''s ship is near the back but we''re still getting attacked. These fish are extremely weak by themselves. But clustered together like this and they''re as deadly as a raid boss. We continue to lower their numbers. We kill over half of them before they retreat. Or so I thought they were retreating. People on one of my ships cry out. ¡°WE HAVE A HOLE! Something pierced our ship from under the water level!¡± I call out to my men. ¡°Anyone with an air helmet jump into the water! We might have to fight a raid boss!¡± I take my helmet out of my void satchel and put it on, jumping into the water at the same time as my generals. WHAT THE HELL!? A giant mind eel is the leader of these sword fish. The name eel is very misleading. Only its body has a resemblance to that of an eel. It is a few thousand pounds in weight. It''s face is completely featureless, besides the giant mouth that covers most of the front of the monster. With no features it finds its way around in the water by manipulating other monsters psychically and seeing through their eyes. For one to have control over a school of swordfish¡­ It must be a few hundred years old to get this big and strong. The closest boat to the mind eel has a giant portion missing from it. The eel must have used it''s teeth pointed outwards to cut straight into the boat. Spinning to make a somewhat cylindrical hole. I need to patch that before we it sinks. The eel still has control over a hundred swordfish. I''ll leave my generals to fight the-. WHAT THE HELL IS LEAF DOING DOWN HERE!? She isn''t going to be helpful at all with her magic being restricted by the water. Fireball would be useless, shock would hurt herself, ice bolt wouldn''t travel very far. WHAT THE HELL!? I start to rush over to her. The swordfish all began to focus her as well¡­ WHY DID SHE JUMP IN! She''s so out of place here that she is being targeted. She begins to conjure something. With her high level time magic, she can cast without chanting. She doesn''t even have an air helmet, I didn''t think she would be so¡­ She summons eight sharks to guard her. The few swordfish close to her were destroyed instantly¡­ Maybe I didn''t give her enough credit. She can defend herself. She still should have around half of her mana for casting as well. One of the summoner skills halves the amount of mana reserved by familiars. One of her sharks rushes towards the mind eel. Some of the other generals are also heading towards it. Lance, powered by his drillance and Zergnar riding on Sharkdar. Strong jumped in the water as well¡­ He doesn''t have a helmet and unlike Leaf, he is actually useless in the water. Morpheus is defending him against the few straggler swordfish still around. Trice jumped in without a helmet. She is holding her own, she''s become accustomed to using scrolls in her fighting style. Her Gear mk2 is guarding her almost too well in the water. An almost 100% coverage from every side of her. The Gear mk2''s head spinning around unnaturally fast to soak in all the information of underwater fighting. I''ve been making my way to the ship with the hole the entire time. Only getting in damage dealt to the mind eel to boost the experience I''ll get from it dying. I use control nature to lengthen the boards somewhat blocking the hole. Spitting spider silk to clog the hole up completely. This will only be a temporary solution¡­ This attack would have sunk a dozen pirate ships without them being able to retaliate¡­ I wish I could control these giant raid bosses. Having a giant ally would be helpful but I haven''t found a solution to it yet. I turn around right as Lance pierces into it. His drillance spinning the insides of the mind eel. The eel is too big to die from a single attack. Zergnar next, continually slashing the almost defenseless eel now that we''ve defeated his defenses (the swordfish). The few swordfish still around have become far less coordinated. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Leaf''s shark reaches it next. She casts a spell and the shark expands to three times the size it was. It starts ripping into the eel. It shouldn''t be much-. The insides of the eel start spilling out, The ooze it makes is what it uses to breath and also to control whatever comes in contact with it. Lance, Zergnar and the shark familiar are now under the control of the mind eel. Shit! This became another race against time before our allies can accidentally kill one of us¡­ Lance doesn''t seem to be effected by the ooze though. Continuing his attack on it, Zergnar starts moving towards Lance but Lance has already drilled completely through the eel. It will die soon. It''s control over Zergnar is far weaker because of this, Zergnar was at full strength when he was controlled by that siren. With Zergnar barely moving Lance easily avoids him. The shark hasn''t moved at all since being mind controlled. Only let go of its attack, some of the sharks teeth have fallen out and are still embedded in the mind eel. It finally dies from Lance''s continuous attacks¡­ If he couldn''t resist it might have ended worse¡­ How was Lance able to resist though?
Purple ¡°poison dartwing¡± evolved into unique variant Mind meld bulletwing
Morpheus ¡°changling¡± evolved into unique variant Transformling
Darkclaw ¡°young griffling¡± is evolving, because you are the owner please choose evolution
Gem variant | Metallic variant | Bloodfusion variant
Level increased to 39
Level increased to 40
With Master of Learning reaching forty your other classes and jobs level faster
...I''ve heard of gem and metallic dragons¡­ I''ve never heard of a bloodfusion dragon¡­ What is that¡­ It must be rarer than the other two because I''ve never heard of it¡­ Should I pick it¡­ It could potentially be better¡­ At the same time though, I might have never heard it for a reason¡­ It sounds like it might be because it is half dragon. I pick Bloodfusion. While I was deciding I was also connecting the mind eel to a few ropes and taking them to the closest ship that doesn''t have a hole in it. They''ll hold onto the ropes while I go to run more¡­ Darkclaw fell out of the sky! I swim over too him. He''s begun his transformation, this should take longer than the normal transformation. I get him onto a ship so he doesn''t drown. He begins to change. The feathers on his body are being forced out and replaced. The new feathers are far more scale like than the previous ones. Like hybrid dragon scales and griffin feathers. His wings begin to stretch and grow to accommodate his new feathers. His face begins to elongate, the bottom portion of his beak falls off. It was replaced with a giant jaw. His top portion is still a beak. The bird like talons he had as hands start to bulk outwards and change to paw like appendages with claws on them. The feather line is no longer there, his entire body is covered in his scale feathers, including his head. His eye starts to become more reptilian, finally finishing with diamond like pupils. The entire time he was changing, he was also getting bigger. He is twice the size he was before. Able to easily hold three or four people.
Darkclaw ¡°young griffinling¡± evolves into one of a kind variant Dragriff
Darkclaw begins to speak in common. ¡°Heh, master always puts me through so much pain¡­ It is totally worth it though! LOOK HOW COOL I AM!¡± Darkclaw kicks off the ship. Jumping higher than even I could with my boosts. HE''S FAST! He darts around, making impossibly sharp turns with his new body. His wings seem to be both flexible and sturdier than the feathers they replaced¡­ Maybe I should take a few feathers off him for testing purposes. He fires his breath attack, it is different than it was before. It shoots out like a fireball, except it is purplish in color. A purple fireball is fired from him at the ground. Faster than even he was traveling at. It hits the surface of the water and instead of evaporating like I expected it. It sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The flames aren''t extinguished by water¡­ He takes in a deep breath and fires again. This time it is normal flame breath but the color is blue. His breath is far more narrow, extending farther than my breath has. Mine is like an explosion, his is like a beam of fire! After watching Darkclaw evolve I go to help lift the mind eel out of the water. I look over and see a strange man on the deck helping pull the eel aboard. He is wearing a set of armor one of my generals would wear. DID HE KILL A GENERAL!? ¡°Who are you!?¡± ¡°Master, don''t you recognize me? I''m Morpheus, you''re old changling.¡± ¡°You''re a person though... Did you evolve into a person?¡± ¡°No I can change into other things besides animals now. It seems like I can also choose the size as long as it is under one thousand pounds, I can transform into it.¡± He shape shifts into a few more things. A dog, another person, mimicking my facial features, a mouse, finally mimicking Darkclaw''s new evolution. I don''t think he can do the same attacks as Darkclaw in his form. He''s also far slower. Just because you can mimic a dragon doesn''t mean you can use flame breath attacks. It appears he can''t change into non living things though. I hear an unfamiliar voice inside my head. ¡°Hello master, it''s nice to finally talk to you.¡± ¡°Who is this now?¡± ¡°I''m purple, I can connect with people telepathically with my new evolution. I seem to have developed some mind control type powers.¡± ¡°What else can you do with your new powers?¡± ¡°I can link you telepathically with other people. I think I can handle five as long as you''re a league close to each other.¡± I hear a few voices inside my head. Leaf, Lance, Trice, Swift and Shikki are all connected. Purple talks up. ¡°I think the smarter the person, the easier it is to connect them telepathically.¡± Lance screams inside my head. ¡°WHAT THE DEATH GOD! WHO IS IN MY HEAD!?¡± Trice begins to talk. ¡°I think we''ve been linked telepathically to a few people, sound off if you''re in the group.¡± Leaf squeaks out. ¡°...Leaf here.¡± ¡°Swift can hear you all.¡± ¡°I-I can hear you all as well¡­ This is Shikki.¡± I go to speak up but Aegis cuts me off. ¡°Can you all hear me?¡± Lance answers him. ¡°Yea, but who is this?¡± ¡°I''m Aegis, the gauntlet Kite uses. He''s also in the call.¡± Leaf speaks again. ¡°C-can you see my memories or thoughts¡­ I feel¡­ Like I don''t want to be connected anymore.¡± Purple talks again. ¡°No, only what you are thinking when we are connected. Even I can''t go through your memories¡­ While you are awake anyways. If you go to sleep I can eat your memories though. I won''t unless master tells me to, so you''re safe.¡± I talk up now. ¡°That is enough for now Purple. Thank you for showing me your new abilities.¡± He breaks the connection. I wonder if I''m going to get more memories when I go to sleep¡­ Well, I''ll find out later. We spend the rest of the day making it to the ninja village. We dock a few hundred feet off shore, most likely out of sight of them if they look. It is too late to do anything today. I''ll meet them tomorrow. Chapter 79 New memories, meeting another god I decided to absorb all the monsters I''ve slain recently. I was holding off until I had a big amount of them¡­ I don''t want the disgusting siren to age anymore than it has¡­ The mind eel gives me 20 too all my stats. Similar to the sharktopus. I absorb the siren next¡­ So gross I don''t want it to be a part of me¡­ Absorbing it gives me the shivers but after checking my stats, they''ve went up 5. I absorb the swordfish next for 1 point in each stat. Finally absorbing a jellyfish monster we''ve been catching. I should be able to absorb it without any problems since I have poison immunity. I absorb the jellyfish¡­ That wasn''t that ba-. MY WHOLE BODY GOES NUMB. I fall down, I CAN''T BREATHE! My heart is pumping so heavily it hurts. All my limbs have a throbbing pain running through them. I can''t breath! I CAN''T BREATH! This feels worse than drowning! My head begins to hurt and my vision dims. Shit! I fight to avoid passing out. It takes all my will power to not pass out. I begin puking violently everything inside my stomach. We had eaten some of the sharktopus earlier that night and that is what came up.
Druid skill upgraded Poison immunity--> Venom resistance- Immune to poison and resistant to some venoms
I can breath! I take several gasps of air as my heart calms down. The feeling in my hands and legs start to return. My vision comes back¡­ Why did I decide to eat this with no one around? I''m alone on the top part of the deck. Not knowing the full effects of the jellyfish almost killed me. I continue to puke¡­ Inside my puke I see something¡­ A worm is mixed in with my puke¡­ What the death god!?
Soul leech has been expelled from your body
...WHAT THE DEATH GOD IS THAT!? Aegis chimes in. ¡°It is a soul leech¡­ I didn''t know they were still around, I heard they went extinct before¡­ There is no way for something like that to have been gotten by any means besides a god sabotaging you... For your souls strength to be strong enough to beat a soul leeches... You have beyond the luck of a human.¡± ¡°...FUCKING GOD OF BALANCE! What the shit, why are gods allowed to tamper with my life!?¡± ¡°...That would explain a lot of things actually. It leeches the survival chances from people. For you to still be alive after having a soul leech in you for any period of time¡­ It is like you are beyond blessed¡­ The leech would also explain your lower stats¡­ You might have been born with it or been given it at a very young age to hamper you even further than normal. It leeches power from you continually¡­ You might see a stat boost in the next few days. I doubt it will be spectacular increase though.¡± ...I am beyond enraged. God''s have been fighting over my life since the moment I''ve been born! I feel cheated! My life isn''t even mine to live. I''m the pawn in a game that two gods are fighting over. I start to think of how many obstacles I''ve been pitted against because of the gods trying to kill me. WHY ME! I HAVEN''T DONE ANYTHING TO DESERVE THIS SHIT! Purple connects telepathically with me. ¡°Master¡­ Did you just almost die?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I''m fine now though. Thank you for worrying Purple.¡± I start to calm down¡­ I hadn''t realized how tired I was until afterwords. It felt like my entire body was weak from all the events that happened today. We fought against a boss and I had the close call with death¡­ Far more tired than normal. With my body being heavy I start to move towards to front most boat. I see something strange on the boats deck as I''m flying¡­ THERE ARE NINJAS HEADING TOWARDS THE CAPTAINS CABIN! I stay in dragon form. Landing on the edge of the ship. I could yell for help but I want to see what these ninjas are doing here first. From my memories of Greed, they tend to be on friendly terms with sea travelers. I call out. ¡°May I ask why you''ve boarded my ships without my permissio-.¡± I''m cut off as a handful of shurikens strike me. MOTHER FUCKER! They''re covered in poison. Anyone else would have been knocked unconcious. I fly up into the air. I yell one more time. ¡°LAST CHANCE BEFORE I BLOW YOU THE FUCK UP! WHY ARE YOU ON MY BOAT!?¡± One of the ninjas, fully robed in black clothing speaks up. ¡°You''re an invader! Of course we''re going to protect our village!¡± I speak up again. ¡°I am a friend of Tezuna. Is this how you treat guests now?¡± The one who was speaking removed her face wrap, then asked. ¡°How do you know my father?¡± ¡°I traveled with him on the ocean some fifty years ago. He had a pet fox named Tetachi¡­ I''m going to guess you''re his daughter. I didn''t see you when I was here last time but he''s spoken of you many times before. Your name is Nami¡­ You look nothing like your father though.¡± She sheathed her sword. The rest of the squad of ninjas did as well. With their actions and the look Nami is giving me, I feel something has happened to her father. Her father was a brown colored murine. She is pure white. Tezuna was missing most of his features on his face from constant battle. No whiskers, blind in one eye, a few fingers missing, part of his ear was bitten off, numerous scars cutting across his face. Nami''s face was untouched by battle. Zero scars¡­ Meaning she is either far more skilled or far less skilled than her father¡­ Even my face has a few scars. You can''t fire knives that explode close to your face without taking some permanent damage. My left arm is a completely different color than the rest of my body since it has regenerated. It can''t grow hairs either. With the less than friendly treatment¡­ Something must have happened to the village. ¡°What happened to Tezuna¡­ The last time I was here your people accepted me with open arms. For you to attack our ships without any provocation¡­ Something must have happened.¡± Nami looks down. Clenching her arm with her other hand. ¡°We¡­ We were attacked by the pirates ten years ago¡­ We did our best to fend them off but they managed to kill our most seasoned veterans¡­ They kidnapped several of us and used their safety as a method to make us keep making weapons and supplying them¡­ Tezuna died in the attack...¡± ¡°...We''re going to kill the pirates. If you help us I can guarantee safe relations with us in the future.¡± ¡°Did you not hear me!? We were overwhelmed! They killed dozens of our best fighters! What can a few ships do against an army of thousands?¡± ¡°...We can beat them.¡± I hear Purple connect with me. ¡°Master, I sensed you were in danger. You''re brainwaves shifted a few moments ago. Do you need any help?¡± ¡°No Purple. I doubt they''ll act now that they know we''re not pirates. I''ll convince them to leave but keep a link between us just in case I can''t.¡± I speak to the ninjas again. ¡°Tezuna was my best friend. I don''t care if we gain you as allies¡­ If you murine have fallen to the point you don''t avenge your people that is fine. I would like to speak with your leader in the morning. If it requires me to come by myself I will. I doubt you murine folk have fallen to the point you would attack a person on a mission of peace.¡± They all look discouraged¡­ I know for a fact that any debt owed in blood against murine they would always repay¡­ For them to not have avenged in such a long time, they are all probably waiting for a reason to join us. I hope my words have spurred them to join me later. They shouldn''t attack tonight. I''ll post some sentries tonight just in case. I go to sleep warily that night¡­ Hoping to wake up for the next day. That night I have dreams of another life¡­ The life of a girl. I grew up in the part of the world my first set of memories are from. The south eastern country. This was around the time that the country was improving its living conditions. Villages slowly expanded and added sewer systems. I had grown up through these changes. I was very shy the first part of my life. Until around twenty when I had a coming of age event happen. I changed after that, living the life of a merchant. Traveling between towns and eventually starting the first merchants guild. I lived a very full life. Never settling down with any single man. I gave birth to three children, all to different fathers over the years. On my death bed, I gave leadership of the merchants guild to my oldest son. Then gave the majority of my accumulated money to my second son. Finally, giving the house I lived in. With enough money for my third son to live/grow up in without any problems. My first son was somewhat of a go getter, so he would have protected his brothers for their lifetimes¡­ My youngest son might still be alive as an old man in the south eastern country still. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
Mental map expanded
Location of potential class unlocked Gladiator
Merchant skill gained Merchant''s guile- able to convince people they are making good deals, when they are actually getting ripped off
Trait acquired Shy- bashful when it comes to things dealing with the opposite sex
Trait acquired Lustful- extremely strong sexual desire for the opposite sex
Title Food connoisseur- able to enjoy food more than most other people
Title Mapping expert- able to path out the safest routes when traveling
Title Employer- able to hire people for cheaper than normal, people are more likely to work for you if offered
...Those are some weird traits. I also got two of them. HEY IS ANYONE ELSE THERE!?¡­ I guess not. I''m not looking forward to these two traits¡­ They''re two more traits that fight against each other. Just like my kindness and greed. I''m not sure I can go through my my new memories yet. I don''t have the time to go through the new memories yet anyways¡­ This life seems far more peaceful than Greed''s did though. ...Before I wake up, I call out to the gods. SOMEONE ANSWER ME! My dreams fade to white¡­ Before me stands a small man¡­ It is me. He speaks. ¡°I''m the greater god. I''ve been watching you.¡± He had a giant smile on his/my face¡­ It is kind of uncanny how it looks¡­ ¡°I can change it to a different face if you want.¡± When he says that, he switches to Leaf''s face¡­ That might be even worse. ¡°How about your friend Gobber.¡± Changing his face again¡­ Yea, that is better. I can deal with that face. ¡°So, I take it you want to talk to me about that soul leech I placed on you.¡± ¡°...YOU PLACED IT!?¡± ¡°HAHAHAHA!¡­ Yea. I saw something in you, I knew it would turn out well if I stunted your growth. By doing so, I knew I could get some better fights out of you¡­ It''s a good thing you weren''t reliant on stats. You would have been boring as everyone else to watch! HAHAHAHA!¡± ¡°YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!¡± He made a table appear between us. With a chair appearing behind him as he sat down. My legs were taken out as a chair slid under me. He reached onto the table and grabbed a cup out of thin air. A kettle of tea formed on the table with a cup on my side. He took a few sips before speaking again. ¡°You act like it is a big deal. You barely lost any stats from it because of your class. The only reason I put it in you was to strengthen your survival through weakening it when you were a child¡­ You wouldn''t have been put in harms way enough as a child and would have taken the first steps out to adventure by yourself... Instantly losing to anything you would have fought. I SAVED YOUR LIFE YOU MORON! Sorry about the method you got it¡­ Rosie shouldn''t have died¡­ I was just insuring my entertainment by putting it in food she had eaten. You were only drinking milk at the time though so, sacrifices had to be made.¡± He began to twirl the cup around splashing the remaining tea out all over the table. Then continued his monologue. ¡°So, I guess you''re hear for recompense for what I''ve done? Here is what I''m going to do. I''m going to give you two options. One, you get nothing! But the soul leech stays out of you forever. Or two, I give you a special reward chest.¡± He snapped his fingers and a tiny chest appeared on the table. ¡°I''ll put the soul leech back in your stomach and it will continue to keep your stats low¡­ Well, around 100 less than they would be. It seems like the choice is obvious to me. I just want to see what you do though.¡± He took another sip out of his cup with no tea inside and threw it behind him. It disappeared before it hit the ground. He leaned to a side and a couch appeared behind him. He yawned and said. ¡°You''re choice though. I just want to see if you''re going to go the boring route. Or pick the wild card.¡± ...He thinks I''m going to pick the leech¡­ Or maybe he thinks I''m going to pick the chest¡­ I should pick the opposite of what he wants me to pick¡­ But if he knows I''m going to pick the opposite of what he wants me to pick¡­ Does that mean he already knows I''m going to try to pick the one he wants me to not pick¡­ If I do that¡­ But what if he knows that?¡­ I should just pick the one I want to pick¡­ Damn you curiosity! ¡°HEHEHEH. I can read your thoughts. So is that what you choose? Do you choose the wild card box?¡± ¡°I''m not sure¡­ Can you give me a hint at what it is?¡± ¡°Sure! When you open it you''ll be eaten alive with happiness.¡± ¡°...What an odd way to phrase that sentence...¡± ¡°I like the unexpected of course!... You''re starting to get more boring.¡± The greater god yawns again. ¡°Please don''t bore me¡­ HURRY UP ALREADY!¡± As he yells the white nothingness of a background fades to red for one second¡­ ¡°Well¡­ The last time I gave a demigod the choice. I got an amazing piece of armor out of it¡­ So I guess I''ll let you decide¡­ Please don''t bore me with your choice.¡± His face forms a smile again. He begins to laugh audibly. ¡°HAHAHAHA! I can''t believe your guts. To ask a god to not bore you! Fine! For you''re brazen act against a god! A god who could smite you in your sleep if he wished. Blow you out of existence with a single thought. I''ll add a single ounce of my power to that box...¡± He points a finger at the box and it starts almost bursting with energy. I can see light almost radiating out of it. ¡°Now get out of here! I have to make an elaborate path to get you to eat another soul leech. I''d rather not just put one back into you. Good luck figuring out what I put the soul leech into that is going to effect you.¡± He says with a smile on his face¡­ Great now I have to worry about being effected with parasites again¡­ I doubt I''ll be able to ever remove it if I get infected again. My last thoughts before I wake up is that now I''m going to be constantly worrying about getting infected again¡­
(Kite previous stats) (strength- 1360) (dexterity- 570) (intelligence- 1380) (stamina- 1480) (total = 4790)
(Kite stats after) (strength- 1420) (dexterity- 640) (intelligence- 1430) (stamina- 1550) (total = 5010)
Chapter 80 Meeting the shogun I wake up. A box is on my chest¡­ Was it the right choice?¡­ Should I even bother trying to avoid getting another soul leech. He''s a god after all¡­ He''s probably thought up one thousand scenarios to get me to eat it again. Aegis what do you think? ¡°Hmm¡­ I''d say you should open that chest and see what is inside first.¡± ¡°...You''re not in on this right?...¡± ¡°Really? You''re really going to ask that? I''ve been nothing but helpful.¡± ¡°...Yea, I guess.¡± I open the chest¡­ The moment I do the chest eats me! I roll into it, when I look up, I see a giant castle. Beside the castle is an even bigger tree¡­ Well, since I''m in here I should explore. Aegis speaks up again. ¡°This is a house mimic¡­ I''ve never seen one this big before¡­ Calling it a castle mimic is fairly accurate¡­ I''m honestly more interested in that tree. It should be impossible for a tree to grow inside. The light is coming from a false sun. I''ve never seen a mimic with a fake source of light.¡± ¡°I''ll check both out, the insides of this castle mimic is insane. It is easily big enough to carry one thousand troops in¡­ If it grows crops it can be used as a mobile food base for an army. You could keep the freshest crops around. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water¡­ Speaking of which. I still haven''t fed you one of those black iron swords yet¡­ We''ll have to figure something out as payment later.¡± ¡°Agreed¡­ Speaking of mouth watering, I''ve been waiting to eat those swords since you''ve made them.¡± I check the castle. It is a giant one at that. It has a barracks, food court, central garden and around 25 separate rooms. It even has a king''s room¡­ I''ll take claim to that. The bed is huge. It could easily fit five people on it¡­ I head to the tree next. It has a giant door on the outside with a sticky note attached. The preferred method of communication from the gods. I picked up the note. ¡°This is the gift I gave you. It is a time tree. Inside the tree, the higher you go up the more time dilates. On the very top floor, the time dilation is a year to a single day. Once you enter the room you can''t leave. I''ll provide the food while you live/train there.¡± ...He isn''t even trying to hide the fact that the soul leech is hidden in the top floor¡­ At least that would be the obvious place for it to be¡­ Would he really risk infecting other people besides myself just to infect me¡­ I hope he wouldn''t go that far. If he did, I would go out of my way to make my life more boring if he did. ¡°How do we get out?¡± ¡°There should be a hole to exit against the wall. Check where we entered from. Also¡­ These mimics eat mana from living things inside as it''s food source. Expect to lose mana while you''re in here. It isn''t a rare either. So it wont cause mana explosions.¡± ¡°Well that''s convenient.¡± I search the wall. There is a tiny hole¡­ How am I supposed to fit through that? I start pushing on it and it gets bigger and bigger. I expand the hole slowly until it can take my entire fist¡­ WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME! Aegis chimes up. ¡°Just run at the hole you idiot.¡± I take a running head start at it. Jumping into the air I for a ball and get shot out of the castle mimic¡­ Did I just get another pet? I haven''t tamed it yet, it is technically a monster. It is harmless though. More of a symbiotic relationship. The smaller mimics are the ones that eat people to try and evolve into a house mimic. After trying¡­ 1000 times to tame the mimic, I gave up. It isn''t meant to be I guess. It seems docile enough. It can''t move on it''s own or rather I might be able to move just very, very slowly. It is technically a trap type monster. I''ve seen a few in my past lives. The most dangerous ones were the ones that took the shape of other objects. Some resemble gold mixed in with feces. They don''t hurt you but have the chance of inflicting several permanent diseases on you. Others take the shape of stalactites and drop from the ceiling, impaling any unaware adventurers. The worst is the shadow clone mimics that will copy your moves completely. The only way to kill them is to have an ally attack them. These are all a part of the mimic family tree of monsters. I still have a lot to do today. I need to try and win over the ninjas. Learning any classes they have here would be smart. I know it is going to be more than ninja. They''ve had several hundred years to build up learning/acquiring new classes. I''m going to expect at least 2-3 of those and a few specialty jobs¡­ Hopefully that is. So I have to be especially careful to not aggravate them. I head towards the village. My pets have decided to travel with me. Some of my generals have also decided to visit the town. Lance and Trice go, almost running into the village. Leaf following behind. She''s wearing her plain robe armor... I should make her something sexier to wear. Nargzar and Leon have both headed into the village. I expect they are going to look at weapons, maybe buy some ninja items. While I go to meet the leader, I hope they don''t get into to much trouble. I head to the village. I''ve met the shogun before during my trip as Greed. He lives in a castle inside the town. It is far different than normal castles. The ninjas have a very strong/sturdy wood. Most of their boats/buildings are far sturdier. I would like to trade for some while I''m here. If the ninjas opened up trade with other lands, they could sell this wood for anything they wished. Entering the village, I''m greeted by Nami. She begins to speak. ¡°I''ve come to escort you to the shogun. He might still be sleeping¡­ The shogun is very old, he will be dying within the next fifty years. I see that¡­ You''re followers have decided to look around. We shouldn''t have to worry correct?¡± ¡°Well. Lance, Trice and Leaf should be fine. Leon and Nargzar might want to challenge some of your ninjas. They won''t go too far if anyone agrees to the duels.¡± ¡°Heh, maybe I should go seek them out after you visit with the shogun.¡± ¡°I would most certainly like to see you fight. Maybe it will bring back memories of your father.¡± ¡°...You speak of my father quite often¡­ I didn''t really see him very often when he was traveling¡­ I wish I would have known him better before he passed away¡­ We were outnumbered 50 to 1¡­ I still don''t understand how you plan on fighting such a giant army... Even elephants will lose to ants if they are outnumbered.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I''ll explain a few plans once we meet with the shogun. I''ll tell you early if you give me a little kiss?¡± She completely ignores me... Thankfully... We continue to travel the rest of the way in silence. Ninjas aren''t known for being talkative. We travel through the village. It is one of the most structurally sound ones I''ve seen in potential allies. Normally they live in huts with no protection. This village is completely walled off with guard towers. Inside the village is very active. A few of the murine folk have come out to greet us and see what all the commotion is about¡­ We enter the village¡­ The amount of troops I''ve seen running around is small compared to my last trip. I only see a few dozen ninjas. The battle had cost them over half of their fighting strength. I understand why they aren''t willing to go to war with the pirates now. We enter the castle. It is far smaller on the inside than how it looked. Many small rooms cut off with sliding paper and wood doors. We enter the biggest room. Speaking of which, I should make an audience room for myself at the fortress. I''ll keep the mimic castle for living and remake the giant room at the fortress for meetings. The shogun is sitting on a pillow when we enter. From my trip here last time. It seems that we both sit on the floor with neither of us being seated higher. It is a sign that we are both people and neither of us are above the other. Far different the human kings do it. Making their guests kneel in front of them while they sit on a chair raised above even normal standing height. He begins to speak. ¡°Nami has told me we were going to have visitors today. I did not expect such a small child to be the leader.¡± ¡°I''m only taking the form of a small child, I''m actually a dragon.¡± The old man looks at me more closely. Then speaks again. ¡°You are most certainly not a dragon. While I don''t doubt that you can change into one. You do not act like a dragon in the slightest.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, for one. You are too courteous, while dragons are smart. They tend to have big heads and act superior to other creatures. I sense none of that from you. It is exactly the opposite, when you came in the fact that I sat to look my guests eye to eye left you with a feeling of camaraderie.¡± ¡°Heh, I knew you would see through me. We''ve actually met before and you were just as wise back then too.¡± He gestured for Nami to leave. Most likely to get us some tea. Another sign that he views us as equals is the fact that he has no guards while speaking to guests. He is centuries worth of wisdom rolled together. ¡°So, we''ve met before? I guess even at my age I''m still surprised by things because I don''t recall your face.¡± ¡°I had a different one the last time I was here. I visited with Tezuna before. I was the pirate leader back then.¡± He slowly got off his pillow. Walked over too a table and pulled some papers off of it. ¡°I believe we had an agreement that you haven''t held your part of.¡± Those were the papers I signed to show support with the ninjas. It stated that we would bring food and shelter for weapons and wood. I remember even though we were new, the papers were written favorably towards us¡­ For my son or granddaughter to fall so far as to attack an ally¡­ She must be taught a lesson in honoring agreements. ¡°Yes¡­ About that, I haven''t been in power for over forty years. My son was the leader than his daughter took over¡­ With how we mistreated your people, I feel ashamed at myself for being such a bad father. If I was a better one maybe my son would have been a better one. We wouldn''t have this problem if I was.¡± ¡°We are all just creatures, living in the world as we see fit. While I don''t doubt your story, it is only a small portion that I understand. To understand it further and give you a ruling on whether we can betray the pirates depends on the full story.¡± I went into detail about my rebirth. How everything played out so far. How I regained my past lives memories and even how I spoken with the gods more than once. During the story, Nami had brought us tea. I hushed myself until she left again. I instinctively took a sip but realizing it might have had a soul leech in it I spit it out. He asked what was wrong and I finished my story. This elder mouse is the only person who knows the full story besides Aegis and my generals. ¡°I see¡­ You have been through much in your short life¡­ I would like to help you. You understand that they have hostages now so we cannot betray them without risking their lives¡­ If you can find a way to get them back, we would throw all of our support behind you. The hostages should amount to around fifty captured civilians¡­ That was ten years ago¡­ I''m¡­ I''m not even sure they are still alive.¡± ¡°We will get them back. If you give me some ninja troops and train me in the ways of your people. Everything that can help get your people back will be helpful.¡± ¡°We don''t have much¡­ The pirates take all that they can every few months¡­ All of our blacksmiths have either quit or left because of their merchandise being stolen¡­ Same goes for most other job workers¡­ You''ll have to ask them yourself since I cannot speak for them.¡± ¡°Thank you for your time shogun. I¡­ Tezuna was my friend¡­ I''m so sorry things turned out this way.¡± I work on gathering my generals who have visited the town. I''ll have to make attempts to gain jobs and classes myself. I see Nami is talking with Leon and Nargzar. Leon is laying down and Nargzar is sitting, both are breathing hard. ¡°Your generals are stronger than I thought they would be. Perhaps if they both fought me at the same time they might stand a chance. Would you like to go a round to avenge your troops?¡± ¡°Sure, may I ask what classes you are first?¡± ¡°I am shinobi, advanced wind mage, assassin and my last class is samurai. I broke the class barrier five years ago. I just recently got samurai, so it is the only non upgraded class.¡± I let out an excited cry when I hear all those classes I didn''t have. Chapter 81 Sparring match ¡°What''s wrong with you?¡± ¡°Ah, just excited over your classes.¡± I can barely contain my happiness. I say. ¡°Since this is only a practice match. Please go easy on me.¡± I pull out two of my totem swords. She looks at them with a strange look. I ask a question. ¡°Would you like me to just use melee attacks or go all out?¡± ¡°We should stick with melee attacks for now. When¡­ I mean if you lose, we''ll switch it up.¡± She was strong enough to defeat my generals in fights¡­ I can''t take her lightly. ¡°Will you try to use all of your classes during the fight?¡± ¡°I suppose I can try. You''ll have to last through them all though. You''re men¡­ Didn''t last very long.¡± ¡°Don''t worry about that, I can go all night.¡± ...Damn this new trait. I look at her before we start. She is holding two wooden swords, one in each hand. Her armor is the black cloth she was wearing last night. She has her face revealed but could easily cover it if she was trying to be stealthy. She lets me go through my normal pre-fight preparations. Activating my three harmonicas. Injecting a stat potion. Activating all of my buffs before we start. Besides Aegis, I''ll use him if it is necessary. She doesn''t waste any time when I give her the go ahead. Nami rushes in, faster than I expected. I barely get a control nature off to strengthen my sword before two swing down and break on mine. She swung hard and fast enough to break a specially made wooden training sword! It confuses her when the weapons that were broken were hers instead of mine. ¡°I''ve got strong wood.¡± ...Damnit! I can''t even fight without making sexual innuendos. She throws them away, pulling out another, much longer and thicker sword than the two that were just broken. She is holding it with both of her hands. You don''t really see that fighting style from dexterity fighters very often. It is possibly because of her samurai class? She is ten feet away from me. She starts to channel magic. Her body is wrapped in wind, spinning fast enough to make her cloths visibly move. She puts her sword above her head like she''s going to att-. SHE LAUNCHES A BLADE OF WIND AT ME! I barely dodge and she was charging behind the wind strike to attack me when I avoided the attack. Her blade has wind spinning around it. It has orange mana, or chi rather oozing out of her attack. I brace my blade again. I have a feeling my hands wont be enough. I block with my foot as well. The weight from her pushing down almost knocks me off balance from my unorthodox block. The attack would have been un-blockable any other way. I kick on my sword to throw her backwards. ¡°Aegis boost!¡± My stats increase. Man I''m regretting not having Gear on me right now. This fight would be far easier with him. I didn''t want to look any weirder than I had to when talking with the shogun. Having a backpack with a wooden man on my back would have been extremely weird. I charge forwards, reading my strike. She dodges and is¡­ Almost floating mid air¡­ WHAT THE FUCK!? She lands a few seconds later. I let her gain her balance again before charging in. She charges as well. Is she going to do something different?¡­ WHAT THE FUCK! There are three of her! How am I supposed to fight three! I panic and use flame breath. The other two disappear only leaving the real one behind. ¡°I thought you were sticking with melee.¡± ¡°Sorry¡­ I panicked, wont happen again.¡± We begin the fight again. She pulls out a belt full of throwing weapons. Launching several different types of shurikens at me. I avoid all of the ones from that belt. She pulls out another one. I continue to dodge while she throws things at me. Pulling a third belt out! FUCKING DAMN WHY SO MANY SHURIKENS! The last one is full of throwing spikes, or darts or something small and pointed. If the other belts had twenty shurikens, the last belt is loaded with five times as many spikes. She throws all of them. Pushing me back as she does, I have to retreat because she is throwing four at a time. She empties the last belt¡­ Then pulls out a spiked chain. Throwing it at me, I try to avoid it but she moves it remotely with her wind magic. It raps around my leg, digging in, I can feel poison on it. DAMN! Where was she holding all this stuff? All those throwing items were to set me off-guard for the final one. This would normally immobilize someone. She charges in, I hope I can get the drop on her. Since she thinks I''m immobilized, she might go all in on this attack. I prepare a heavy rending slash for when she is in range. She swings her sword one handed and blocks my attack. She pulls something else out of her pocket and throws it in my face. It explodes and blinds me, some gets in my nose. It''s pepper! I''m blinded! I quickly pull water out of the ground and splash my eyes. I wasn''t quick enough. She strikes down just as I block with my left hand. Breaking it¡­ This would normally be where the fight is called¡­ ¡°NOT YET!¡± I jump backwards and start chanting regenerate and heal on myself. Drinking a regen potion. The shock on her face from my quick recovery is noticeable. I call out again. ¡°You''re too strong, I can''t go easy on you or risk embarrassing myself in front of someone as pretty as you. I am going to start using magic from this point on. Prepare yourself.¡± I immediately switch into dragon form. Dropping my totem sword I fly into the air. This doesn''t even phase her, she jumps in the air after me. Almost flying, she travels towards me. I see wind blowing her in my direction. I begin to cast a breath attack but she throws another pepper bomb right into my mouth before I can get it off. I continue to cough as she puts the sword right into my stomach. If I had eaten anything today. It would have come up in the attack. If Aegis stat boost wasn''t still active I would have been knocked unconscious. I retaliate with a strike from my tail. Knocking her down to the ground. She falls slower than I thought it would because of the wind underneath her. She was barely hurt by that. I start to cast my diseased locus attack with silent chanting since I''m still coughing. Locus appear around her to inflict my debuffs but can''t attack her because of a smoke bomb she set off. The locus wont go into the smoke and if they do they are instantly knocked down. They float around the outside of it waiting for the smoke to disperse. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The smoke starts to cle-. WHERE DID SHE GO! I kunai flies close to my face. I see an enchanted piece of pap-. BOOM! It explodes in my face! I get hit with four more shurikens at the same time. I''m going to lose! Aegis stat boost has worn off. I change into my human form. Falling to the ground I cast white wind towards the ground. Falling into the healing wind. Silent chanting a heal while I''m doing this. I found out I can use a breath attack and a silent chant at the same time because of melded magic. Another two kunai''s are thrown at me, with a spiked chain between them. They swing around me! The spiked chain wraps around me again. I change into mouse form and they fall to the ground then change back into dragon form¡­ She still hasn''t come out of the woods. I get myself back up to full health¡­ HOW DID THE ENEMIES BEAT THESE ANNOYING FUCKERS! ¡°Come out of the woods or I''ll blow them up!¡± ¡°That''s a bluff! YOU''RE NOT STRONG AT ALL!¡± She continues to piss me off. I crunch a vial in my mouth. Pulling out a few scrolls, I begin to burn a portion of the forest down. The second I begin the attack I see a shadow behind me. I blink strike away and turn around as quickly as I can. She is already rushing towards me again after missing her finishing strike. A wind strike is launched at me, then another, then another. All while she is running towards me. ¡°Fight wind with wind.¡± Aegis yells out. I barely get a wind wall up as soon as the first blade hits it. The blade bounces back into the other one canceling it. And the third one bounces off, firing back at Nami. She gets her sword up to block just in time to catch it. I use a control nature uppercut opportune strike to launch her into the wind wall. She gets thrown into the wind current and is floating stationary in the air. I jump towards her and hit her with a heavy rending opportune mana slash strike with all my rage and energy put into it with rage empowered and energy empowered strikes¡­ She is knocked unconscious¡­ I won the fight. I walk over to her. Try to pick her up until I realize that it is a stuffed doll in her place. I''m knocked unconscious before I can react.
Class learned Ninja passive skill gained Way of the ninja- Gain chi through combat Level 1 Ninja skill gained Ninjutsu- Gain chi based skills that will help your deception of enemies (must learn the skills from a teacher)
Class learned Wind mage ¡°Blade mage¡± passive skill gained Wind absorption- Able to absorb mana from surrounding air Level 1 Wind mage skill upgraded Wind blade--> Wind slash- Attack made while focusing can launch powerful wind to cut the target
Class learned Samurai passive skill Chakra- Convert mana into chi Level 1 skill gained Chi strike- Add chi to a strike from your weapon
I wake up. Nami is apologizing profusely to my generals who had watched that fight. Both of them are laughing it off. I hear Leon say ¡°Don''t worry, he probably enjoyed losing to you. He''s weird when it comes to fights.¡± I hear Nargzar say ¡°He loses more fights then he wins. Honestly it is to be expected now.¡±¡­ I kind of laugh when I hear them say it. All three look at me. ¡°You got me good there. Thank you for the amazing fight. I''m surprised there are still people stronger than me in my dragon form.¡± ¡°N-N-NOT AT ALL! I had to try against you! Do you know how mad the shogun is going to be at me for assaulting a diplomat!¡± ¡°Don''t worry about it, you asked if I wanted to fight. I''m honestly glad we did. I need a teacher for ninjutsu now, if you feel like making it up to me. You can teach me all those tricks you just used.¡± Nami looks at me oddly. Like she doesn''t understand what I''m talking about. She asks with hint of not understanding in her voice. ¡°What do you mean? It would take a hundred years to learn ninja to any non murine folk. You want me to follow you for a hundred years because of a simple fight?¡± ¡°No, I already learned three classes from you, I just want to learn the skills tied to ninja if you don''t mind.¡± She continues to look at me weirdly. Like what I''m saying is a complete lie. I pick my sword up and begin to focus on striking with a wind slash. I launch it into the air. The wind powered strike is of a similar size to hers except it has swirling winds around the center wind strike. Her eyes widen when she realizes I have already learned something that must have taken her years to learn. ¡°NO! I WONT TEACH YOU! YOU''RE CHEATING!¡± She gets up and runs off¡­ Too bad, I''ll have to find another teacher for the ninjutsu skills¡­ I would rather learn from someone who can beat me in a fight though. I''ll try to convince her later. Chapter 82 New recipes and pet I spend the next few hours going through the town. Asking people for help at learning and watching them do their jobs. All besides the blacksmith agreed, I don''t need his help right now though.
Murine folk tailoring recipes gained
Murine folk chef recipes gained
Murine folk leather working recipes gained
Murine folk construction recipes gained
Fishing style learned Fly fishing
Doctor skill gained Herbal knowledge- Can assess the qualities of a herb immediately and what it could be used to cure
...Such a rich knowledge and culture. The amount of things I''ve learned how to do within a few hours of work is crazy. Although I haven''t found an enchanter or an alchemist in the village. Perhaps they don''t have any? I''m not sure¡­ I continue to ask around but only get odd stares when I do. It is like they''re only hearing a small part of what I''m saying. They all speak common though¡­ I have to figure out why. I try to find Nami. I see an old run down house at the edge of the village. My sense of exploration gets the best of me because I drop what I''m going to go check it out. If I remember correctly this house used to be Tezuna''s I see a fire fox spirit inside the door¡­ I know that fox, it is Tetachi! I call out to her, but she starts to act guarded as I get close. Snarling and expanding to be more intimidating¡­ What is wrong with Tetachi?¡­ There is nothing I can do now. I''ll have to ask Nami once I find her. Leaf and her group approach me once I re-enter the town. They''ve also been exploring the town. Buying trinkets from the townspeople and some other traditionally made items too. Lance is wearing a plain medallion around his neck. It isn''t a rare, but it has an effect on it for a slight increase to charm¡­ How is that possible? I''ve never seen an effect like that. There is a zero percent chance to learn it¡­ Even the extremely rare sword I made had a chance to learn. How was this made? ¡°I haven''t told you guys about the new castle the greater god has given me. You three should check it out and claim a room each¡­ Maybe you two can share one?¡± I point at Lance and Trice. They both look embarrassed but I doubt they weren''t thinking about it themselves. ¡°I wouldn''t mind sharing with you Leaf.¡± ...These new traits aren''t very good together. It is like I can''t stop myself from saying it and the second I do... I start to feel sick and get nervous. It is like mixing water and oil, it just doesn''t work. Leaf laughs it off but she is even more embarrassed than Lance and Trice were. We separate and they head back to the ships to claim their own rooms. Since the mimic isn''t a rare item. I could inflate the amount of room available by adding rare satchels and tents for other members to use. I still need to find Nami, the only person I haven''t asked is the ninjas near the ninja castle. I head to talk to them. They all seem to know where she is but would rather not tell me. Forcing me to ask the shogun. He sends me to a training area off to the side of the castle. I walk there by myself. The training area is an open field, some dummies, training swords and targets for shurikens. Nami is the single person inside¡­ NAKED! Do-Do I get closer!? I feel like a pervert for spying on her. WHY IS SHE NAKED THOUGH!... Never mind she''s wearing white wraps covering up most of her body and a loincloth. Why did she pick white? I can barely look at her without feeling embarrassed. I slowly approach her. She continues to ignore me¡­ How do I ask for her help. ¡°W-why are you wearing such little clothing?¡± ¡°If you work out in clothing it gets wet and stinky. Something you and your troops don''t understand.¡± She continues to swing her practice sword while talking. I can see jiggling¡­ Damn! This is like pulling teeth. I turn my back to talk to her for now. ¡°I¡­ I was at Tezuna''s house¡­ Tetachi is still alive. She seemed very angry when I got closer.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ Tetachi always loved my father more than anything. When he died Tetachi was so distraught she could only guard the house and wait for Tezuna to return¡­ Sometimes I wish there was something I could do for her.¡± ¡°Can I talk to her? Would you mind if I tamed Tetachi?¡± ¡°Sure, why not. It''s not like you already have it easier than everyone else already.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°You just!¡­ It took me five years to learn the samurai class after I broke through the class limit. People said I was a prodigy. It takes ten years minimum to learn it. I worked my hardest to learn it quickly, I was going to continue to train until I could avenge my father. For you to just show up and learn it from a single battle. You make all these promises, that you are going to avenge my father. I¡­ You wont get my hopes up. I tried for months after Tezuna died to tame Tetachi. If you can convince her¡­ I don''t know whether I would be angry at your skill to just win people over immediately¡­ Or happy that she has finally moved on. The fact that I don''t know... That scares me.¡± ¡°...I don''t know what to say¡­ I''m sorry I learn so fast¡­ Their are drawbacks to it though. When I was born I trained for six years straight. Almost 20 hours a day. Every day I woke up I was out training. Training so hard my hands would bleed, I had calluses since I was five¡­ You know how much that got me in strength? I almost died to a slime for my first fight¡­ Years of training didn''t even amount to the strength to fight evenly with the weakest monster.¡± She stopped swinging. Well I only know she did because I didn''t hear her swinging anymore. She decided to speak. ¡°How? How did you get stronger than?¡± ¡°I didn''t give up¡­ Every fight I was in I scrapped by. I learned from my loses. Even when I was beaten I learned from it. Even when I lost my arm I didn''t give up. I have to get stronger, if I don''t everyone I love will die. My path¡­ Is a bloody one. I''ve only seen a few drops and it hurts to think of what else I''m going to be put through¡­ I''m scared shitless of losing my brothers in arms¡­ That''s why I can say for a fact that I will avenge your father. I''ll think up something that will beat them. I always do¡­ Because if I don''t, everyone I love will die.¡± ¡°...I¡­ I didn''t know the burden you carry was so great¡­ I feel so foolish, I''m concerned about revenge more than my own people¡­ What¡­ What do I do?¡± ¡°I don''t know what you should do. I know if you really want to pay the blood debt back to the pirates. And free your people from them. You''re best chance is with me. You aren''t weak, you are already strong. You just need allies that can back you up¡­ We can be those allies.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ...We talked for another few moments. Nothing as heated as that. I did flirt with her a few more times but all was brushed off. I ended up explaining what was wrong with me because the sheer amount of comments was getting to be too numerous. Conversation got onto jobs around hear and their lack of alchemists and enchanters. ¡°You''re asking the wrong questions. We don''t have them, we have something similar, a specific job only the murine can learn. We have a transmutation master. It is something similar to three of the human jobs. It can be used to combine alchemical ingredients. Add enchants to items with a somewhat same effect. Or combine two or more like items similar to synthesizing. The effects aren''t as strong as the whole of each job.¡± ¡°You don''t mind if I go and get that job right?¡± ¡°Nah¡­ I think I''m cool with it. You do your thing and I''ll keep training like always¡­ Always to get stronger... No shortcuts.¡± ¡°How about this. You teach me the ways of ninjutsu and I''ll teach you two classes.¡± ¡°Hah, I''d like to see that.¡± ¡°Well think about which two classes you would like and we''ll knock it out one day. We can also knock some other things while we''re at it.¡± ¡°Yea right.¡± She continued practicing. Someday soon she''s going to realize I was telling the truth. I''m too busy right now to bother teaching her. That is a full day thing if you ask me. I head to my ships¡­ I need someones help¡­ Never mind I should be able to reach him from here. I try to communicate with Purple¡­ Hmm, he seems to be aware of my pain and when I''m giving off danger vibes. I pick up a needle and poke myself in my hand while thinking bad thoughts. It doesn''t take to long for him to get a hold of me. ¡°MASTER WHATS WRONG!?¡± ¡°Sorry for the way I contacted you, I need your help. Can you head to my brain waves?¡± ¡°Yea, there are easier ways to contact me though. I can make it so if you think of a code word I''ll know you are trying to contact me.¡± ¡°How about the word booby trap?¡± ¡°I guess that works¡­ I''ll be their soon.¡± It doesn''t take Purple long to finally arrive. We''re in front of Tezuna''s house¡­ I needed someone to communicate for me. The fox notices our presence and begins to stand up. I sit down right in front of her¡­ It confuses Tetachi but she starts to drop his guard. ¡°Can you link me with him Purple?¡± ¡°I can, it is riskier with people who you''re not sure what their intentions are. If she struggled enough, it might wipe your short term memories out.¡± ¡°...I''m fine with that risk.¡± We''re linked. I hear Tetachi for the first time ever. ¡°YOU ARE HERE TO HURT MASTER AREN''T YOU!?¡± ¡°No, I''m hear to visit you Tetachi. Do you not remember me? I was a friend of your master.¡± ¡°Hmm, you don''t look familiar¡­ You give off a feeling of someone my master once knew. My masters master.¡± ¡°That''s right. Your master told me to look after you Tetachi. Your master has passed away.¡± ¡°NO! HE CAN''T DIE! HE''S TOO STRONG! YOU KNOW THAT DON''T YOU!¡± ¡°LISTEN TO ME! YOUR MASTER IS DEAD! DO YOU REALLY THINK HE WOULD WANT TO PROTECTING AN EMPTY HOUSE! You should visit his grave...¡± ¡°NO! MASTER IS NOT DEAD! YOU ARE A LIAR!¡± ¡°Tetachi! Read my memories! I give you permission to¡­ Just please¡­ Please understand what has happened.¡± Purple interrupted. ¡°Master! Giving her permission could end with all of your memories being wiped out!¡± ¡°Tetachi won''t believe me any other way.¡± I can feel her crawling around in my head. She goes through all of my memories. Not just the ones tied to Tezuna¡­ Even the ones I haven''t went through with the new set. She begins to cry. She cries harder than she ever has before. ¡°MASTER! WHY! WHY DIDN''T YOU TAKE ME INTO BATTLE WITH YOU! WHHHHHHHHHHHHY!¡± ¡°Tetachi¡­ I''m so sorry¡­ I wish I could have done something to stop it¡­ You can''t keep living like this. You haven''t even honored his death by visiting his grave. Your master would be disappointed you left his daughter to fend for herself wouldn''t he?¡± ¡°MASTER! I''M SORRY!¡± ¡°Lets go then.¡± She leaves his house. We visit the grave site of all those who died trying to protect their land against the pirates¡­ Tezuna is buried in a burial mound off the coast of the island. Most likely where they fought off the pirates. To be a testament and a monument to their sacrifices. Tetachi is on my shoulder, being able to change sizes, she could fit many rolls in my army¡­ She wont be joining it though. We say are peace then I take her to Nami. She is still training. When she sees Tetachi has left the house she immediately knows whats happening. I call out. "Here is Tetachi... She would like to be your pet from now on." ¡°No¡­ I can''t take her¡­ She doesn''t belong to me...¡± ¡°No she doesn''t. She belongs to your father. And your father would have wanted herto be by your side.¡± ¡°I can''t tame her though. She''s just a monster, eventually she''ll go crazy and try to attack without a master¡­ She deserves to be by your side Kite. You''re the one who convinced her to move on. Stop looking backwards at the past and look forwards at what could be¡­ She deserves to be with you.¡± ¡°Purple link Nami with Tetachi.¡± ¡°Master''s daughter! I wont ever become feral with you around. I promise! Please accept me!¡± ¡°I can''t Tetachi¡­ I want to but, I can''t take care of you like Kite could. If you become a follower of his you can avenge Tezuna and might get some closure¡­ You might be the only one who needs it worse than myself.¡± Tetachi turns to me¡­ I open my hands and she jumps into them, crawling up me settling on my shoulder.
Bonded with unique variant Seven tailed yokai
When we bonded Tetachi changed into a naked fox girl! WHAT THE HELL!? ¡°W-w-w-what are you doing!? P-p-put some cloths on!¡± ¡°What!? I can''t show master some affection? You should name me¡­ Tetachi was the name my last master gave me. I want to have a new one.¡± ¡°Is this a custom for pets to be renamed?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Sort of, it helps me bond with you easier¡­ Also¡­ Being called Tetachi reminds me of my old master...¡± ¡°Alright¡­ I''ll call you Red from now on.¡± Chapter 83 Transmutation Weird night a sleep that night. I''m taken into the white void again. And meet with the greater god again¡­ He just said that I''ve already been infected. ¡°What when!?¡± ¡°Well, it could have happened when you took that sip of tea. That is all it needs¡­ Or either of those pepper bombs that hit you would have given you one. I didn''t just use one method, I''ll let you go now since I have to remove around ten thousand soul leeches from food around you¡­ Also from some of your men since you''re a spoil sport who would give up if I leave them in there. Also, tell Zergnar to calm down on eating¡­ He has twelve different leeches inside him from the amounts of food he''s eaten.¡± ¡°Does that mean I have more than one?¡± ¡°Nope, I killed them off already as soon as you went to sleep. You only had one so increasing the amount might ruin the experiment of your life.¡± ¡°Great. Hey whats up with that tree? What kind of food does it have? Who is going to be the next general to die? What is it like being a god?¡± ¡°Hahaha, you''re as greedy as ever when it comes to information. I''ll answer one question before I go.¡± ¡°Which general is the next to die and can I stop it?¡± ¡°...I''ll only give you a hint since it is spoilers. It is the general who cares for you the most.¡± ¡°WHAT KIND OF VAGUE BULLSHIT IS THAT!?¡± ¡°Hahaha, I knew you would ask that and I left it vague on purpose. I''ll let you think of who it could be¡­ I know you''ll never guess it either. The answer is right in front of your face and you''ll let them travel right to their own death.¡± I wake up... Why did I even ask that? It''s not like I can do anything with that information. I look over in my bed¡­ All of my pets have moved into my room and are laying on my bed. Besides Darkclaw who would take up the majority of it so he sleeps in a pile of spider silk I had made for him in the corner of the room. I got over the fact that Red could change into a human form quickly. She never transformed when I was Greed, it must have been an upgrade from an evolution path after I died. I look at all my pets. The number of them is more than I thought was possible to get. I can still tame 3 more¡­ Morpheus has bonded with me¡­ All of my pets are bonded with me. I try and remember something about each one. Sock was my first pet, he was a wolf that changed into a direwere. Pokodo was my second, she was a ferret that changed into a pure white variant that could heal. They''ve spent the most time with me. Darkclaw was next, I bonded him the moment we laid eyes on each other, I knew we were bound together. Morpheus was technically next, even though he took longer to bond with then Blue. He didn''t get a new class when he evolved. He didn''t gain anything he could teach me either¡­ Going to Blue next. Blue is sitting up. He is the only pet awake right now. Sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks somewhat sad at something. I gesture to him. We leave the room and begin to talk in the hallway. ¡°Master¡­ I haven''t been completely honest with you¡­ You aren''t my first master. I was the partner of an adventurer before. We traveled together for two years. Most people wouldn''t try to tame a weakling imp but she saw something in me¡­ I let her down. She died without my help. I let a group of bandits kill her when we were outnumbered¡­ Then ran away. I''m still ashamed at what I''ve done. I was so scared back then, I thought my next master would have to be so strong I wouldn''t have to worry. When we met¡­ You were anything but strong. I still bonded with you and I couldn''t understand why. I made up reasons for it but never really thought about it¡­ With all the pets you have, the people you''ve been drawing in. I understand why now. I wasn''t looking for a strong master. I was looking for a leader to follow.¡± ¡°I knew something was wrong with you Blue. You''ve always seemed like you had a darkness about you. Less trusting than my other pets. Just understand, I don''t mind if your cowardly. It suits me a lot if you haven''t noticed. I myself am a giant coward. That is why I am such a good leader. I''m not above going the cheap route if it will mean the safety of my men. Even if it seems cowardly or unfair. I wont die Blue... I can''t die yet.¡± We head back in the room and I look over my other pets. Purple is sleeping above the bed upside down. He has changed in appearance since his last evolution. He started to get darker in color, getting even smaller than he was before. He is now very close to the fastest in my army. Barely behind Darkclaw in speed. His telepathic abilities might have been the biggest upgrade out of all of my pets. The ability to communicate to other people without speaking could be very helpful for stealth missions. He also didn''t gain a new class or skill when he evolved. Red is no longer nude. While she can change forms at will, she prefers to stay human. I added a druid badge to her kimono I specially made for her. I learned how to make it but haven''t had a reason to make gear without just enchanting it with visual distortion. In a fit of inspiration I made kimonos for all of my female generals to wear around when they aren''t expecting to fight¡­ Red doesn''t wear underwear¡­ I realized I haven''t taught my pets any classes since they''ve evolved. I''ll have to train with them later. First, I still need to do some things around the village. I want to learn the ninjutsu skills and transmutation first. So I can level them up while in the time tree. I''ll let my sleeping pets continue to sleep. I''ll have to convince Nami and find a transmutation master today. I''ll start with the transmutation. I ask around and I''m sent outside the village walls. The transmutation master has a hut set up on the outskirts of the other side of the village. The side opposite of the boats. So the main reason I didn''t find it was because of that. It is the beginning of the day, I hope I have enough time to learn both things today. I rush through the village. I''d rather not change into dragon form and scare all the villagers¡­ On second thought, I might be attacked by the ninjas if I change. I am strong but they have countermeasures against dragons. If I get hit with pepper bombs I can''t use my strongest attacks... I make it through the village. I can see smoke coming from inside the forest here. That must be where the transmutation master is. I turn into griffin form and fly up. I shouldn''t be shot down if I''m only a griffin¡­ Hopefully¡­ I see a hut with a fire in front of it. The hermit on the outskirts of town is stirring a pot of some kind on the fire¡­ He''s very old. Maybe even older than the shogun. Clumps of fur is missing from his skin. I''ll have to approach carefully or risk scaring him to death. I land out of sight and try to approach him slowly. When he notices me he screams. ¡°AHHHHH! Who are you!?¡± ¡°I sorry to intrude, I was looking for the transmutation master.¡± ¡°HIHEHAHO! That would be me. Why are you visiting? Have you come to be my apprentice?¡± ¡°I¡­ Yes I have. How did you know?¡± ¡°Well. I figured someone would come to learn from me before I died. You''re a weird looking murine though? You sure you''re not here for some of my famous hair restoring tonic?¡± As he says that he pours some of the liquid he was stirring on himself. It immediately strips the hair where it was poured¡­ I get the feeling that this person is crazy. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°No thank you, your teachings is the main reason I''m here.¡± ¡°Ok then lets get started.¡± His hand points at some barrels in the corner. ¡°As my new apprentice, you need to fill these barrels up with water from the ocean. We''ll go over what to do after that.¡± I get to it. He lives a distance away from the ocean so it takes a long time. The second I get them back he asks the next step. ¡°Here''s an ax, cut down ten trees and hall them here.¡± I get to work again. I see him messing with the water. Continuing to cut the trees down. It doesn''t take as long as fetching the water. I''m still wasting a big portion of time on getting materials¡­ If I find out he''s making me gather materials for making his stupid hair growth formula I''ll be super mad. I cut them and wait for my next instructions. ¡°Here is a list of herbs to purchase from the town. You should also buy a few pieces of equipment with any spare money you have.¡± ¡°You can use my gear if you want.¡± ¡°How can I use your gear? It is fairly enchanted already. It seems you know the applications of all the three branching paths already. I wouldn''t be able to transmute the enchants onto your gear.¡± ...Was he playing stupid to make me drop my guard. ¡°While your in town you should pick some of the flowers from the castles flowerbeds. They''re the tastiest.¡± ...I guess not. It does seem like he takes his profession seriously. He could be a very good teacher if I can see his brilliance through his madness. I go and buy the herbs on the list. He''ll show me how to make them into potions. I''ve¡­ never seen any potions made with these herbs¡­ None of them have any healing properties or harming properties in them¡­ I swear if he''s making me buy ingredients for his hair tonic! I buy three sets of gear with a gold coin I had on me. It doesn''t even take a full gold and I have to buy more than I would like to break the gold into all the silver the store had. While heading back I see some herbs that can be used to make potions and grab them. ¡°Welcome back. Take a sip of this soup I''ve been making.¡± He takes a ladle full out of the pot he was making the hair tonic in. And immediately spits it out. ¡°Needs more salt. So, did you get those ingredients?¡± ¡°Yes, I also found some ingredients you can make potions with.¡± He looks inside the sac and pulls the herbs you could use to make potions for. He licks them then throws them on the ground. ¡°These potions are only good for alchemy. We don''t need them for transmuting the herbs.¡± He begins to grind the herbs inside a mortar and pestle. If he was making a potion he wouldn''t need to do that. Whatever he is doing, I''ve never seen any other alchemist do. He grinds it down into a powder and starts putting them into little containers. I''ve never seen these before. I grab one and squeeze it. It is squishy and bouncy like slime gel, except it isn''t wet. What is this? ¡°What I''m making right now is a pill. You can eat it to gain different effects than if you distilled the ingredients with an alchemy alembic.¡± He hands me one of the pills and urges me to eat it. I risk being poisoned and consume the pill. I feel the effects immediately. I get a boost of regen. What he just made with a regen potion, that could be made for much cheaper. It would also be safer to carry since it would be in pill form. Less likely for the glass to break. This is amazing! ¡°Hand me one of those pieces of armor.¡± He begins to put mana in all the pieces. I go to help but he stops me. I''m not sure what he is doing but I will see soon enough. A few moments later he stacks the pieces all together. Neatly folding them all into a single pile like you would do if you were planning on swimming or bathing. I noticed that he placed them onto a circle. It had symbols mixed in with them. He begins to channel again but this time he is adding an enchant to them. When he finished, every piece of gear had a single enchant of weak intelligence increase. But wearing all of them gave the set bonus of strong intelligence increase. What an amazing time saver for boosting sets of armor for my troops. ¡°Give me the other two sets of gear.¡± I continue to watch him do this two more times. The three identical sets of gear are now enchanted with a weak versions of a stat. One intelligence set, one strength set and one dexterity set. He lays the three sets on top of each other¡­ If they were rare that might cause feedback¡­ I''m not sure though. He starts channeling again, it should take days or even weeks to combine the armor if it is similar to synthesizing¡­ It is done within five minutes though! What the hell? He is sweating from the work he was doing. ¡°Ha. Ha. Ha. So, this is transmuting more than one piece of gear together. The biggest difference between this and regular synthesis is that depending on the difficulty, it puts your transmutation on cooldown¡­ Meaning you wouldn''t even be able to enchant or make pills without risking problems from occurring. You also have to do it within a transmutation circle or it will be impossible. There are many different types of transmutation circles. This one is for creation.¡±
Job unlocked Transmutation- able to combine or mix things together to make them better
Transmutation secret skill gained Mana to matter- from excessive knowledge of multiple jobs, You can create things out thin air with mana, you can create anything as long as you''ve inspected or used detect on it before
Enchanting upgraded- enchanting gear restrictions removed
Synthesis upgraded- advanced set making learned
Alchemy upgraded- Philosopher''s stone recipes learned
WHAT!? Knowledge pours into my head. I know so many new things. With the gear restrictions removed, I can now make anything a void storage container. The advanced set making I just learned allows me to make sets of gear even out of rare enchants. The stones I learned how to make¡­ Chapter 84 Philosophers stones and Ninjutsu The philosopher''s stone recipes I''ve gained are all beyond strong. The method to make them is insane but they can be used for very strong effects permanently once they are made. The first one is the false soul philosopher''s stone. With it, you can give any monster a makeshift soul. This has many effects, not only will the pets permanently bind to their masters. But even after the master dies the pet will never go berserk or lose its intelligence. It might also give boosts but I''m not quite sure on what kind. Only testing will answer that question. The second one was called the eye of the beholder. If you replace an eye with it you gain effects by doing so. The eye actually levels up. I only know that the first rank is. If focused, you can zoom in with it¡­ You have to sacrifice an eye for it to work though¡­ I doubt many people will use this one. I shutter thinking of ripping my eye out of its socket. The last recipe I learned was a transmutation stone. While holding it in your hand or having it touching your skin, you can use the transmutation without a circle¡­ While this one seems to be the weakest. It is by far the most useful. No need to sacrifice anything to use it and anyone with transmutation can use it. ...What would happen if you synthesized them together?¡­ Well I guess we''ll find out once I make them all. The method to make them is¡­ Somewhat hard to deal with¡­ I need to kill people to make them¡­ Or rather I need to sacrifice creatures inside of a transmutation circle that is designed to turn the mana into a stone. Each takes a different amount, the cheapest being the transmutation stone at 5. Then false soul at 10. Finally eye of the beholder at 15. I need to figure out¡­ If I can sacrifice monsters instead of people. I¡­ I might be okay with sacrificing captured pirates if it comes down to it¡­ There are so many variables I don''t know. Can I make a transmutation stone that can be used as a philosopher''s stone making transmutation circle?¡­ I''m starting to confuse myself. We have too many new tests to do. I thank him for his help and leave. It confuses him that I''m already leaving, he''s always confused though. I''ll have to make him a transmutation stone as payment for him teaching me. ...What if you put transmutation circles onto weapons? You could potentially absorb the magic of anything you killed to make the philosopher stones¡­ I start adding a few transmutation circles to each one of my pieces of equipment¡­ I need to make sure it doesn''t cause problems with the enchants on them. I don''t add the circles to my totem swords. No reason since the method I''m trying to use involves the circle being inside the creature when it dies¡­ What can I kill to test it? Well, I guess I could go kill some fish inside the crescent beach on Greed''s island. I need to find a way to record the amounts of things I''ve killed. The fish probably wont add up to the same mana sacrificing a person would¡­ A raid boss might fill each circle instantly though¡­ Maybe I''ll have some of my other troops head to the old raid and try to kill bosses with transmutation circle weapons. I take the portal to Greed''s island and kill the fish we''re going to eat that night with a transmutation circle drawn on my heirloom sword. I only made it about the size of a knife though. After killing 100 fish, the circle glows with light and changes into a transmutation stone¡­ So each person is worth around twenty fish in mana¡­ I wish there was another way to add mana too it. Nothing else works to add mana besides killing things inside the circle or have the circle inside them when they die. Which suits weapons. I have a transmutation stone. I hold onto it and try to think of making a false soul stone and the gem shifts in my hands. When you look very closely to the transmutation stone, you can see the circle for making false souls embedded on it. As long as I have this, I can constantly be making false soul stones for all of my pets and my followers pets. I think about enchanting gear with transmutation and the transmutation stone changes the circle on it. Meaning you only really need one per person with the transmutation job. ...The main problem I have is that it has to constantly be touching me in order for it too work that way¡­ I could make myself another false tooth¡­ I would rather not. Doing that could have unforeseen consequences in the future. By replacing my teeth it could be weakening the teeth around them. I would rather keep my natural teeth for as long as I can¡­ That brings up how to keep it in contact with me¡­ I could sew it into my skin¡­ I''ll just hold onto it for now. I''ll have to kill another 200 fish in order to make a false soul stone. I get to work. We normally eat 500 fish a day when it comes to army. While I kill them, some other people finish gut and debone/descale them and packaging them into freezer barrels (an invention I made for portable storage). With over five hundred troops to feed we don''t eat fish every single day. Right now, we''re starting to run low since we haven''t been sailing. If I had waited a few more days to learn transmutation, I might not have been able to try this method out. I kill another 200 fish and get into the rhythm where I also gut them. I hit the limit needed to make another stone¡­ It isn''t a stone though, it is a liquid. So the transmutation stone is a somewhat coarse and rocky stone. The false soul stone is a red liquid¡­ I wonder what the eye of the beholder will be. I hope it is a squishy ball¡­ Anything else would be very uncomfortable to replace an eye with. ¡­ I''m still not sure I''m willing to sacrifice an eye for new abilities¡­ Removing an eye is just¡­ It isn''t even a 100% chance to work. I¡­ I''ll do it¡­ I just¡­ Want to give my generals the chance first¡­ Yea that''s it¡­ I''m totally not afraid of having my eye pulled out¡­ I have two false soul stones¡­ Rather false soul liquids. Which pets should I give it too first? Should I find a way to get more than have them all get strong together? Yea¡­ Tonight I''ll send our ships off into different directions for us to catch more fish. I''ll need 5 more minimum so 1000 fish minimum. Each ship can bring in around 200 fish each. So I''ll send out six ships just to be safe. Leaving just the turtles and a shiv on the island. Sleep that night is peaceful. I like sleeping with my pets¡­ I wonder if any of them will pair off eventually? Well¡­ We''ll just have to see, I know for a fact that you can have hybrid monsters. Darkclaw is the perfect example of that. I could end up with some very strong troops if they start having babies. Which of them would make the best couples¡­ WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING!? I have stuff to do other then plan out relationships for my pets. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The boats are all still gone. They should be back sometime tomorrow. I''ll go speak with Nami about learning some ninjutsu skills from her. I check the training area first. That is the most likely place for her. She is almost always training. I head there and instead of seeing her training like normal. She is sitting in a meditative position. Like she is trying to gain chi through meditating¡­ Should I leave her alone? No, she shouldn''t be more than an hour or two. I''ll meditate as well. I start meditating. Time passes. Not sure how much. She brings me out of my meditation by talking. ¡°Hmm. I didn''t know you were the patient type. With how fast you learn, I would just assume you would give up if you couldn''t get a hold of me.¡± ¡°Well, there is always something to do when you are waiting. Meditating is a good way to restore chi while I''m waiting.¡± ¡°That is convenient, I meditate to keep my mind clear. It would be very convenient to also get chi while doing it¡­ Sadly, my people haven''t been able to become monks for centuries now.¡± ¡°...You want to try becoming one right now?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I mean I''ll teach you.¡± ¡°This again... You are great but no one can teach someone that quickly. Especially a class that has been blocked from our people for hundreds of years. The last monk murine folk was the shoguns father. He tried teaching his son for 20 years without any success. The shogun was a prodigy just like myself. So if he couldn''t learn it in that time. There isn''t much chance that I could learn it¡­ I''m also at the class limit.¡± ¡°Could you humor me and listen while I explain it at least? If you want you can go get some other ninjas and I can teach the bulk of you all at once.¡± ¡°No¡­ This joke has gone on long enough. I''m going to continue my practice, if you want to talk while I''m practicing your more than welcome to. You will not be dragging anyone else into your nonsense though.¡± ¡°Alright cool! Remember, if you learn anything, you have to teach me ninjutsu skills.¡± ¡°As unlikely as what you are saying is. I''ll make that promise.¡± I begin to teach her. She is swinging her sword at nothing right now. With the amount of practice she does, I doubt many people still want to spar with her. She is by far the strongest ninja that wasn''t killed ten years ago. Making her the strongest ninja alive today. It takes over two hours for her to finally learn it. She screams when she does. ¡°AAIIIEEEE!!!! WHAT!? H-HOW!?¡± ¡°Wow! I was just about ready to give up. It normally doesn''t take two hours for me to teach someone.¡± ¡°A-Are you¡­ What are you exactly?¡± ¡°Wow. That''s just rude. I''m a normal person.¡± ¡°N-No you''re not! Normal people just don''t show up and teach you a class that breaks the class limit in a few hours! Y-You''re a god here to make fun of my lack of power aren''t you!?¡± ¡°No! Like I said I''m just a normal person. I just picked a weird class when I was reborn¡­ Then a god made¡­ Made me a special class just for me¡­ Wow this sounds less real then me being a god.¡± ¡°...R-Really¡­ Are you really just a normal person?¡± ¡°Yea. The gods are fighting over my life though. Some want to keep me alive while others want me dead¡­ All the trials I''ve been put through might have been elaborately arranged by the gods. The greater god actually got between the other gods¡­ Then he helped me. I think... I''m not actually sure if he did.¡± ¡°You''re a strange one aren''t you?¡± ¡°So, you promised you would teach me. I hope you wont go back on your promise.¡± She looks somewhat defeated. She sighs and says. ¡°F-Fine... You know that this is part of our culture right? You can''t just go around teaching these things to outsiders.¡± ¡°Bah, you''re people seemed fine with me learning everything else. It will be good for your culture to have it spread throughout the world.¡± ¡°¡­Y-You''re attitude just makes me mad¡­ I''ll teach you¡­ If I have to¡­ You did make me promise¡­ It feels like I''m making a deal with a demon...¡± ¡°Hey! That''s racist! Some of my best troops are demon tribe¡­ I guess they aren''t real demons though.¡± She teaches me several skills for ninja.
Ninjutsu skill upgraded Shadow illusion--> Shadow doppelganger- form two clones of yourself that will mimic your actions and can be told through commands to do things (1 minute limit, 10 minute cool down)
Ninjutsu skill upgraded Hide in shadows--> One with shadows- become untraceable in the dark
Ninjutsu skill gained Substitution- Change your location with that of a fake version of yourself
¡°You''ll have to make the substitute version of yourself. It is also a hassle to carry it from place to place and put it into key locations.¡± ¡°Is that all? I thought¡­ All those moves you used against me... I thought you had more.¡± ¡°Well that is the next step. You have to form a contract with an animal. The shogun should have some contracts¡­ I want to be around to see which animal appears to form a contract with you.¡± We head to the shoguns office¡­ Some men I''ve never seen are inside. I managed to conceal myself before they noticed me¡­ They''re pirates! What are they doing here?¡­ Fuck of course, they come by every month or so to collect weapons and items from the village. Did they assault us! I need to head back to the boats. I leave the castle. I have to be very careful leaving because it is now full of pirates. I¡­ If they''ve done anything to my troops. I''ll kill them all! I''LL FUCKING DESTROY THEM! I duck out of the village. Doing everything possible to go unseen. Running down alleyways. Jumping from rooftops. Changing into mouse form. I make it out of the city unnoticed. Heading to the beach we''ve docked at I notice that my three ships still hear haven''t been touched. What!?¡­ Wait a second¡­ The pirates might not even realize we are here. SHIT! That is a two way street, my generals might be exploring the town right now with over 100 pirates inside. Chapter 85 A bad situation Please let them be inside the castle. Please! They''re not. Lance, Leaf and Trice must all be inside the village shopping. Shit! I have to find them before they''re caught. I tell the ships to leave shore and look for the rest of the ships. If we''re seen before then we''ll be in trouble. If we attack the pirates here, we''ll lose all chances of gaining the ninjas as allies. Not only that but they might kill the hostages they have. I can''t afford to let them find us. PURPLE¡­ BOOBY TRAP! ¡°What is it master?¡± ¡°Help! Link me with Lance!¡± ¡°He''s out of range, we need to head into the village for me to reach him.¡± ¡°Hurry. Connect with all my small pets as well. Pokodo, Sock can turn into a mice, Morpheus can change as well and Red can change her size.¡± ¡°Ok master... Done.¡± ¡°Everyone listen up. We are headed into the village on a search mission for Lance, Leaf and Trice. If any pirates see you¡­ Actually it should be fine, since we''ll look like tiny animals.¡± We head to the edge of the village and Purple connects us with Trice mentally. ¡°Where are you Trice?¡± ¡°We''re in the back of a room of the trinkets shop. We''re hiding from some pirates who are looking through the shop." ¡°Purple try to connect us with Nami. We''re going to need a reason for what I''m about to do.¡± He unconnected me from all my other pets. And connects me with Nami. ¡°Nami can you hear me?¡± ¡°Y-yea. This isn''t looking good. If you''re seen here in town, all of us could be in danger.¡± ¡°You need to tell them a lie. Say that a band of monsters has been terrorizing the village, normally attacking people on the outskirts trying to collect food. The pirates shouldn''t know about my pets and will most likely assume you''re telling the truth if we show up. It is only a precaution.¡± ¡°A-Alright. I''ll do just that. Is there anything else I can do?¡± ¡°We need to keep them from looking on the opposite side of the island. The side where my ships might show up on. They''ve all been sent away but I can''t get a hold of them. So after we exit the village, we''ll hide on that side of the island.¡± ¡°A-Alright, I understand.¡± From what it sounds like. Lance, Leaf and Trice should be safe. The pirates aren''t harassing the villagers. They are there for items and the pirate queen has probably put an order to not injure any of them. It is bad business to hurt the people making things for you for free. It might also be an attempt to avoid them revolting. They needed their entire force to acquire hostages. The 100 pirates here would stand no chance against the 50 ninjas. You can really tell that Gold is a tactician. She fought the ninja''s on her terms. Instead of drawing the fight out, she did a full frontal assault. Ninja''s specialty is stealth attacks and hit and run tactics. Assaulting them in full force over one day, this didn''t allow them the chance to retreat or counter attack. I just have to be careful. Me and my team of mouses head towards the trinket store. The pirates aren''t throwing a huge ruckus. Some are talking with the murine folks. I hear laughter between them. Over the past 10 years, the rule of the pirates has started to wear down. You can see that they''ve grown accustomed to each other. Most of the pirates are preoccupied with something else. We are still careful, trying not to be seen. We make it to the entrance, I look inside and see a pirate talking with the owner of the store. Trying to joke and be funny while looking at her wares. She is making small talk but is uncomfortable. Trying to not make the fact that she''s hiding three people in her back room obvious. We wait outside. He eventually leaves and passes by us. We sneak in after that. Heading into the back room. I reform myself into a human. Some of the others do as well, a few stay in their small forms. I speak first. ¡°Has anyone seen you in town?¡± Trice answers. ¡°No, I noticed them first and managed to get into the back room before we were caught.¡± ¡°Good, we''ll have to wait here for tonight. We''ll sneak out in the darkness. I hope they don''t check the shores and no more people try to visit¡­ I''ll have Purple and Red head between and try to run interference if anyone shows up.¡± I send Purple and Red outside the building. They''ll try to stop people from heading towards the shores we were docked at. We continually hear more people entering to look at the wares then leave. A few agonizing hours of this later. It is now nighttime. We need an escape route. I guess it is my time to make one. I head outside. Exiting out of a window in a room. Too small for normal size person to exit. I''ve been in contact with Purple this entire time. Asking weather or not anyone has tried to head that way. No one has, thankfully. I sent them their as a precaution. I''m going to start a fire at the edge of the town. When the commotion starts, we''ll attempt to head out of the village. I get to the edge of the village and vault over the wall in a concealed area of the town. It had buildings lining the part I jumped over so it isn''t visible from the streets. I head towards direction the pirates are docked in. I pick up sticks and twigs while heading there. Collecting as much as I can carry. I place them all on the road and start a tiny fire. I yell. ¡°Help! Help! Fire!¡± I doubt my voice will be noticed as either not murine or a pirate. I assume it is safe to yell but not to be seen. I''m still connected with Trice and Morpheus. Morpheus will turn into a mouse and tell them when the coast is clear to make a run for the exit. I meet them near the wall I had vaulted earlier. We weren''t noticed¡­ From what Nami said. They''ll only be here until morning tomorrow. Leaving tomorrow after the supply of weapons and wood has been loaded. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. We''ll only need to remain hidden until sometime tomorrow. If we attacked the pirates, we would have to assault the pirate fortress before they would normally return to get a surprise attack off. I need more time for preparations before then. It is in everyone''s best interest if we''re not found out and that the few pirates here leave alive. Sparing 100 pirates now will result in a sneak attack that will end with far more pirate deaths than we can take if they''re aware of us. The pirate ship we had already taken was too far away and could be taken without much consequences. It sounded like they were part of a group that was already fighting a raid boss. Gold had probably sent them there for that specific mission. This ship is far too close to the pirate base for it to be assaulted by a raid boss. At least one big enough to not have been noticed before. We camp out on the shore the rest of the night. I don''t sleep. I can''t sleep for now. We''ll have to wait for the ships to return eventually. I still feel like we avoided a very dangerous situation. Like one misstep could have ended with us losing the ninjas as an ally and alerting the pirates to our army. At least a force strong enough to sink a single ship. I will not take Gold lightly. She will be the toughest opponent I''ve ever faced. I''ll have to be careful. Their forces outnumber ours 5 to 1. Even taking into the fact that I can get the ninjas on our side. We are still overly outnumbered. The first attack could be the difference in winning or losing this war. It is finally daytime. The light is skimming the surface of the water. I''ll let these few rest now that Sock has woken up. He can guard them in case some pirates head here. I doubt they will. I have to wake up Purple. He needs to connect me with Nami if she''s awake. I need to know if they were suspicious of that fire. If any small details makes it back to Gold. I feel she could gleam the meaning better than her captains. I know I''m being overly paranoid now. I try to make contact with Nami. Purple says her brain waves are giving off the impression that she is sleeping. I''ll have to wait. I continue to wait in mouse form on the wall around the city. Trying to continuously remain hidden. Spying on them, there are far less pirates roaming the areas. Most are either loading the ship or sleeping on the ship. Watching for a few hours. They finally leave. All of them leave the village and head towards their ship. I follow after them and make sure they leave. They set sail and are finally leaving¡­ Nothing really came from them being here¡­ I breath a sigh of relief and start to feel tired from staying up all night. I head back to our side of the island and wait for my ships to return. All return and we store the fish on Greed''s island. I head into the village and talk to Nami directly. She is training like normal¡­ I guess you couldn''t say it is normal. She is attacking the target dummy unarmed. It looks like she is using chi waves in unison with strikes. She is already training the new class she had learned from me. With her stored chi from ninja and samurai. She can already use high powered attacks with the chi. It is scary how strong her chi strikes would be if she had monk since she was born. Meditating every day for years at a time could result in her throwing out attacks strong enough to kill everything in a hundred foot radius including herself. You would need to use extreme caution with that much chi. She notices me. ¡°Ah, its good to see you again. I''m just practicing this new class I''ve gotten.¡± ¡°Nice¡­ So did the pirates say anything about us or the fire I started?¡± ¡°You started that fire! The pirate captain thought it was one of his pirates. He thought they had gotten drunk and started the fire as a joke.¡± ¡°I needed a distraction to get my friends out of the city. So if he thought it was one of his pirates. It should be fine then.¡± ¡°I''ll leave you alone for now than. I need to go kill like 1000 fish before the end of the day.¡± ¡°A-Alright¡­¡± I leave her to continue training. Heading to the beach I start gutting fish for the remainder of the day for false soul stones. I now have all the soul stones needed for all of my pets¡­ Tomorrow, I''ll check out the tree with them and teach them classes as well as give them each a false soul stone. I try to head to sleep that night. With all my boats returned I feel far safer. I yawn before noticing Gobber is on the ship¡­ Hmm, I haven''t seen him in awhile. He looks both extremely tired and excited to be here. He sees me then yells. ¡°Hello master! I got some free time to come and visit.¡± ¡°Ahh¡­ I was just going to bed¡­ I''ll stay up to talk with you though.¡± ¡°Thank you master. It''s¡­ It''s been tough to take care of all my new children¡­ They''re getting old enough to walk now¡­ Some of them like to sneak attack me while I sleep¡­ I haven''t had a decent nights sleep since they''ve been born.¡± I can see the fatigue on his face. My poor friend. For him to only get a few hours of break after over a month of them being born. I feel sad for him. His nose looks different as well. ¡°What happened to your nose?¡± ¡°¡­One¡­ One of them likes to punch me in the face when I pick her up¡­¡± I think¡­ After I train my pets. I''ll babysit for him and Hilda to give them a break. Chapter 86 New souls, new personalities After resting for that night. I am excited to try out the time tree. I still haven''t even been inside the tree yet. It could look like anything on the inside. I meditate until all of my pets are awake. Once they are all awake, we make our way to the tree¡­ Every time I see it, its size always amazes me. We go through the door. I notice another door on the opposite side of the room when we enter. I head to the door, getting closer I notice another sticky note. From the greater god no doubt. It read ¡°Floor one. Time dilation, one day is equal to two days inside this room. Time dilation starts when both doors are closed.¡±¡­ Does that mean I can use multiple rooms at the same time by putting people in the top room and working my way down?¡­ Questions for later I suppose. For now we need to finish exploring. Heading through the door leads to a staircase. It leads around in a circular path. Reaching the top we get to the next floor with a sticky note on the outside of it. ¡°Floor two. Time dilation, one day is equal to one week inside this room.¡± We continue heading through each floor. Similar notes left in each one. Floor three is equal to two weeks. Floor four is equal to one month. Floor five is equal to two months. And floor six is equal to one year inside the room. The last note said. "Use at your own risk, side effects may happen if used repetitively." ...I don''t need to spend a year of my life inside a room yet. I don''t have anything I could train for over a year. I could go for two weeks without much worry though. It would also be a good test of how the time tree works¡­ I haven''t even looked at the wood. Using detect on it, I notice that it has some interesting properties. The wood had an effect of time displacement. From what it sounded like. If you made this wood into a sword and swung it at an enemy. The attack wouldn''t hit for when it is swung. It would hit sometime afterwords. Making the attacks far less predictable¡­ Even to the person swinging the sword though. I explain what we''re doing to my pets. ¡°Alright, we''re going to spend two weeks training together from here on out. I brought some pillows and food just in case and we can make beds out of spider silk. If anyone feels nervous being indoors for long periods of time, they shouldn''t do this¡­¡± Wait a second¡­ I don''t see any toilets or the such. How and where will we go to the bathroom? I''m not sure how that works. Maybe the room changes once we close the doors¡­ I''m not sure, two weeks of poop from eight different creatures is still a lot of poop. I hear a voice in my head. ¡°Oh yea I forgot about that. I''ll make it so once the doors close you wont have to use the bathroom.¡± ...The greater god can talk to me at any moment¡­ That is slightly scary that he is constantly watching me. I still noticed a whole in his creation¡­ It makes me wonder how strong the gods really are. If they''re so petty to fight over my life, maybe their power isn''t absolute. Well, I found out they can at least make mistakes. We still need to start somewhere. Two weeks isn''t that long of a test. It gives me just enough time to teach them new classes and practice my new classes to get them leveled up to at least ten. Gaining ten levels shouldn''t take very long. Classes start to slow down around twenty for me now. Slowing down more and more as they level. The few that have reached over fifty barely budge no matter how much I work on them. I begin to bring several trips worth of materials and pieces of equipment we''ll need. I don''t plan on spending every second of the day training just skills. In this down time I can also do some other things that would normally take to long for me to bother with. Making pills and repairing/upgrading gear is one of those things. ¡°Close the doors to this room. We''re going to be stuck in here for 2 weeks. This is the last chance to leave if you don''t want to be stuck in here.¡± All of my pets are unflinching. None even showing the slightest fear for being boxed in for 2 weeks. Which is surprising. While I have no problems being locked up. Most people don''t. Wide open spaces is a must for pets, especially ones that can fly. Their animal instincts might act up and some of them might get agitated. I''m hoping two weeks isn''t long enough for them to go crazy. I need two weeks for all my plans though. First, I need to see how each pet handles taking the false soul stones. Having enough for each of my pets, I need to verify how much stronger each of them becomes. I also need to experiment with the ingredients and materials I can collect from each of my pets. Collecting some fur, feathers, poison and even a tooth and claw from each of the generals. After we are through here, I''ll make them a void tooth for each of them. ¡°Alright¡­ I''m not sure what this is going to do to each of you¡­ Does anyone want to try it first?¡± Sock is the first to speak up. ¡°I''ll try it¡­ I don''t want anyone else to suffer if it turns out to be harmful to us.¡± Sock''s point of view I grab the vial of red liquid from master. I''m not sure what it will do to me¡­ If he thinks it will make us stronger. I have to believe him. One thing I''ve learned from him, he can''t hurt his friends. No matter how much of a convenience cutting dead weight like the demon tribe would have been. To sacrifice a country that doesn''t care for his ideologies. He refuses to settle halfway¡­ I¡­ I need to keep getting stronger. I don''t want to be a darkness in his heart because I died. I need to keep getting smarter. I need to be better than Gobber. Gobber is his strongest general. He can no longer be his general because of his children. So until they are old enough to take care of themselves. He is sidelined. Without our strongest general, master has no one to rely on. I¡­ I want to be the one he can rely on. At least one of the ones¡­ Losing to Gobber so easily only showed me how arrogant I was to think I had become strong. I drink the liquid. Please let this help me, I need this to help me get stronger. A rush of energy courses through my veins! It is like the feeling of evolving! Maybe even more than that! I FEEL AMAZING! LIKE I CAN DO ANYTHING! With this, I might be able to help master.
Trait acquired Ferocious- Can do things for your master that he wouldn''t be able to
Class limit broken
Strength and Stamina increased by 200
New wolf passive skill gained Ferocity- Attacking enemies awards a temporary boost to health, strength, dexterity and all regens
Pokodo''s point of view We all watch Sock drink the red liquid. It takes a few seconds but he begins to shake. Light pours out of his eyes and he howls once it is over. He appears to be fine but after it is done he says that he is now stronger than he was¡­ I don''t care for power though. I only want to keep people safe. I enjoy my life right now, I get to visit people and the mood is always good¡­ I get to play with the children and everyone gets along. If we start losing people, my enjoyment could change. The mood could change from cheerful to somber. I don''t want anyone to die. So if I can become a more powerful healer, I would much rather do that. I want my peaceful, easygoing life, to remain peaceful. I remember the days when I first met master and could laze about on Sock''s back as well did everything together. I want it to stay like that¡­ Sock helps me with the liquid, I''m still one of the only animal like pets the master still has. The second the liquid touches my mouth I can feel power rushing through me. It takes far longer to drink the entirety of the liquid than it took Sock. The power continues to rise, so much that my body also shakes from the amount of energy coursing through me.
Trait acquired Slacker genius- While not in a fight for your life, you''re very calm, while fighting for your life or the lives of your friends, can accomplish amazing things
Class limit broken
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Intelligence and Stamina increased by 200
New ferret passive skill gained Nimble heals- a portion of your dexterity is used to increase the speed and power of your heals
Darkclaw''s point of view Everyone keeps drinking the red liquid. Each shakes and glows, as if they''ve been getting stronger and stronger. I barely can wait my turn. On my turn Kite pours the vial of red liquid into my mouth. I feel power coursing through me. I''m so excited. Master keeps making me stronger and stronger. I knew he would, I could tell the moment we caught eyes that he would be able to help me. I happily drink up this vial.
Trait upgraded Hunger for power--> Greed- Constant want/need to get stronger to protect those close to you
Class limit broken
All stats increased by 100
New dragon passive skill gained Gold consumption- Consume gold to increase your permanent mana and the firepower of your breath
New dragon skill gained Semi human form- Take a form somewhat similar to that of a human
I hear an unfamiliar voice inside my head... Blue''s point of view I already know I''m going to get stronger by drinking this Philosopher''s stone. Everyone else has so far, so it would only make sense that I would as well. I''ll most likely gain a boost to my intelligence or charisma to make me stronger towards the things I''m good at. I don''t think the other pets have completely understood this¡­ Do I really want to become a constantly knowing creature?¡­ I''ve already been through so much pain¡­ It might be easier to just stay a regular monster. I have the vial containing the philosopher''s stone in my hands. I waver to drink it. I close my eyes and pour it into my mouth. I hope this isn''t the wrong decision. Please, please let me overcome these feelings. I don''t want to be cowardly my entire life. I want to get brave more than anything else. I finally swallow the liquid.
Trait acquired Courageous charmer- Become braver, anything you can''t deal with in a fight, you will try to charm instead
Class limit broken
Intelligence and Charisma increased by 200
New imp passive skill gained Aura of charming logic- Allies are slightly smarter and more charming in your presence
Morpheus'' point of view It is my turn now¡­ While I enjoy the thought of getting stronger. I barely know everyone else, I haven''t made any friends out of the entire army. The method I came to be a part of the army was¡­ Not great. I was taken away from my family. I know I shouldn''t like my master, for some reason I still do. It is almost like I''m being forced to like him. After the war with the pirates, I will ask Kite to return to my return to my family. Maybe I can convince them to join me at master''s fortress. I drink the potion without any fear in my mind.
Trait acquired Patriarch- Your heart is always heavy with the thoughts of family
Class limit broken
All stats increased by 100
New changling passive skill gained Camouflaged skin- Can focus yourself and temporarily make yourself invisible for a short period
Purple''s point of view It is my turn¡­ Everyone else has shaken once they''ve taken the red liquid¡­ What will the changes do too me? Will I become stronger, smarter, more agile? I''m not sure what will happen. That makes me excited. I sit down and Kite helps me drink the liquid.
Trait acquired Curious- Always questioning everything, constantly seeking knowledge
Class limit broken
All stats increased by 100
New bat passive skill gained Echolocation- Can see everything around you almost with radar like accuracy, can see around corners and scan rooms before entering
Red''s point of view I''m the last to go. I accept that. I have to prove myself as reliable to master again. I know him though, better than any of his other pets. I know what he is actually thinking, I''ve been through his memories... Even ones he hasn''t been through yet. He¡­ He hasn''t had a very comfortable life¡­ Or lives rather¡­ He''s been through so much. I just hope he can handle his new memories once he goes through them¡­ I drink the vial of red liquid.
Trait acquired Haughty- You are better, smart and more beautiful than everyone around you, but you already knew that
Class limit broken
Dexterity and Charisma increased by 200
New kitsune skill gained Fox fire- Attack with the illusion of fire, people believe they are being burned but really aren''t, the illusion lasts until they are told or figure out it isn''t real
Chapter 87 Awakened class Each of them had learned a special skill related to their species. After trying to learn them for a few hours. I gave up, it seems like I can''t learn them¡­ Which is fine, I didn''t really expect to be able to learn skills from other species. ¡°With that out of the way, we''re going to go over new classes for each of you. We''ll also go over the rules to training in here. One, you are not allowed to go all out. If you do, you might destroy this room. Two, you can''t use fire attacks, I know that is unfair to some of you¡­ But we''re inside a tree, the tree might be fire resistant but I doubt it is fire proof. Three, no sharp objects, you might cut through the tree and I have no idea if that will ruin the tree''s ability to dilate time.¡± We pair off, my other generals spar while I teach them each new classes. Sock learns guardian. Pokodo learns warden. Blue learns warlock, he couldn''t learn witch doctor. I go to teach Darkclaw next but Red pulls me aside. ¡°Well, it isn''t fair that I am always last since I was the last pet you''ve gotten. So I''ll tell you something if you teach me next.¡± ¡°What are you going to tell me?¡± ¡°I have a class already, one that you don''t have. So if you teach me right now, I''ll teach it to you.¡± ¡°Which class is it?¡± ¡°Fire mage.¡± I teach Red next, I don''t mind teaching them in any particular order but Darkclaw and Sock seem somewhat agitated by this. She learns fire mage, illusionist, black mage, warlock and witch doctor. I tried teaching her witch doctor with little reason to think she could learn it. She managed too somehow. She kept looking at Blue and smiling, as if to say. ¡°Hah, I must be better than you since I could learn something you couldn''t.¡± After that, she taught me fire mage.
Class learned Fire mage passive skill Fire absorption- Able to pull mana from surrounding fire
Fire mage skill upgraded Fire spray--> Flamethrower- Conjures a powerful jet of flame in front of you
Would you like to learn True elementalist? Warning! You will lose several other classes by doing so.
What is this? I''ve never seen this before¡­ I wonder which classes I''ll lose¡­ Is it going to be worth it?¡­ I''ll test it out, I just hope I don''t regret it.
Awakened class learned True elementalist passive skill gained Elemental absorption- Able to pull mana from all surrounding elements
Classes removed Elementalist, Nature mage, Aqua mage, Wind mage, Fire mage
Class experience added to True elementalist
True elementalist level 1 to 53
Level 1 True elementalist skill gained Conjure elements- Can form any element out of mana
Level 10 True elementalist skill gained Manipulate elements- Can control elements and move them as you see fit
Level 25 True elementalist skill gained One with the elements- Can communicate with the elements
Level 50 True elementalist skill gained Elemental shield- Form a shield with all the elements blocking magic and projectiles over a large area
HOLY SHIT! WHAT!? I CAN''T BELIEVE THIS! My classes were all lost to combine into a stronger than all parts put together class. All of my skills involved in each class are gone. I feel I could recreate them if I wanted to though with conjure elements and manipulate elements. I could make any type of healing rain or water, the fire and nature. I could now manipulate the elements to form many various attacks. I could form miniature tornadoes. If I added fire to it, it could be tornadoes on fire. I will have to think up some attacks that combine all the elements together. I form the elemental shield, a small version. I feel like I could make a shield big enough to protect a large area. All of these new skills are instant compared to the two second cast time versions. I also feel... More complete once I''ve learned it... Like a piece of myself I didn''t know was missing, was finally revealed... I feel at peace with the elements, almost as if I can connect with them. I feel that I''ve calmed some of the negative thoughts inside myself by learning this class... Almost as if a weight has been lifted from my mind. Darkclaw isn''t happy I made him wait. He deals with it. I''m not sure what I should teach him, he could go without learning any classes and would still be my strongest pet¡­ What should I teach him? I ask him. ¡°Well¡­ I''m not sure which classes I should teach yo-.¡± ¡°PIRATE!¡­ I mean, pirate would be one I should learn...¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll teach you that, you can still learn more than one class though.¡± ¡°Let me think about which classes would be the best for me.¡± I teach my dragon the pirate class¡­ This brings up the bigger question. How to teach your dragon. He might be the first pirate dragon ever in the history of the world. Darkclaw asks a question. ¡°Can you teach me thief and fighter? I think scout and ninja would also be a good classes.¡± I teach him what he asked for. He was able to learn everything up to scout, once he learned scout though. He spoke up. ¡°It says I''m at the limit now¡­ Why can''t I learn five like everyone else?¡± ¡°I''m not sure¡­ Maybe it is because you are a dragon?¡± ¡°...DAMN! I should have learned ninja instead of scout!¡± ¡°Well there is nothing I can do, you''ve already learned it.¡± Darkclaw is somewhat angry he couldn''t learn the same amount as my other pets so far. I teach Morpheus next¡­ Once again I have no idea what to teach him. I let him decide which classes he should learn. ¡°I''m not sure what I should learn master. I allow you to choose the right classes for me¡­ I would like to talk about something else first¡­ My¡­ When you''re men captured me, you took me away from my family¡­ After the war with the pirates¡­ I would like some time to visit them.¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I-I''m sorry¡­ I didn''t know Morpheus. After we get out of here. Of course you can go visit your family. If you want, your family can move to our fortress and I''ll promise their safety.¡± ¡°...Thank you master. I¡­ I''m sorry to be an inconvenience.¡± ¡°I would never see you as that Morpheus. I understand what you''re going through as well. Gobber is going through the same thing. I didn''t know I was forcing you to do anything you didn''t want to do... Even if you can''t convince your family to move to our fortress... You should stay with them.¡± Which classes should I teach him¡­ He might be leaving forever¡­ I should teach him classes that would make him better at protecting his family. I don''t think he would fit the normal tank classes though. He learns knight, berserker, monk and blue mage. I had hoped he could learn blue mage, thankfully I tried to teach him instead of assuming he wouldn''t be able to learn it. He, like Darkclaw, was limited to four classes. I teach him all of the blue mage skills I can. He can''t learn a few, improved aqua affinity and night vision or poison spit. He doesn''t really need them since he can transform into things that would normally live in the ocean or see well during night time. Only Purple remains. The last pet to teach. I somewhat have a plan for him class wise but I''ll let him decide. Purple starts to speak. ¡°Scholar! That is the main one I want to learn¡­ Wait a second¡­ How would I open the books¡­ Wait! Do you have any classes that can manipulate things like books so I can read them?¡± ¡°If you level up scholar enough you can absorb books learning them instantly.¡± ¡°Well that''s boring¡­ Which classes would make me better at learning that isn''t boring?¡± ¡°Well¡­ You could learn stealth classes to help you be better at infiltrating the enemy bases. It would help you learn the secrets of our enemies.¡± ¡°Wow! That sounds interesting, lets do that instead.¡± I sort of led Purple into believing that. Purple will be great for stealth missions. Being able to link people so we wouldn''t have to talk to communicate. His telepathy and echolocation also makes him good at seeing threats even before they come into sight. I teach him ninja, wind mage, scout and illusionist. It seems like I can still teach classes I''ve lost through combining to make new classes. Finally done teaching. It feels like it has been an entire day already¡­ I have no idea how I can tell how long it has been since we''ve entered though¡­ Wait, I can communicate with elements. I speak to the time tree. ¡°Hello time tree, may I ask you the favor of telling me how long we''ve been here?¡± I hear in a deep voice, almost echoing throughout the entire room. From the looks on my companions faces, I am the only one who can hear it. ¡°It has been eight hours.¡± ¡°What really? It has only been eight hours since we''ve entered¡­ I''ve taught so many classes today though, I''m honestly exhausted from it.¡± ¡°It is the truth, you haven''t even been here for half a day yet. You still have almost two weeks left.¡± ...I thought that would take longer¡­ At least a day. I''m honestly tired to the point I should sleep before I pass out. I can teach many people at once but teaching each person one on one takes less out of me then a crowd. Just the sheer amount of new classes for each of my pets is enough to make me tired though. I head to sleep. When I wake up, Darkclaw and Sock are fighting very loudly. Darkclaw is in a human form¡­ Well, as human as a dragon can be. He still has his armor on, I thankfully made all their armors with the visual distortion that allows them to change sizes. They are sparring very intensely but it appears that neither are going all out. I call out to them. ¡°Hey, can you guys break for a second?¡± Both stop and start to walk over towards me. I remove three feathers from Darkclaw. He winces in pain from the removal but says it isn''t as painful as evolving or making the soul pact. Everyone else was also training together, I remembered to bring in some targets for them to practice against. Most of my casters can''t spar, that still doesn''t stop them from fighting. Blue is chanting magic while Red runs away from a torrent of water cast towards her. She remains in front of it until the last second when the jet stream catches her. She is knocked off her feet but quickly recovers. Blue had begun chanting another jet stream in this time. She began chanting the spell for ignite. SHIT! ¡°STOP!¡± I call out, it is too late. Both of their spells fire, Blue''s starts to propel towards Red, Blue starts to pulsate with the ignite under his skin. I manage to redirect the water a few inches away from Red before it hits. While this is happening I also dispel Blue so he doesn''t gain any permanent scars if he was injured anywhere. I yell out. ¡°What did I say!? You both just broke the only rules in here the first day we are in here. Don''t go all out and don''t use fire attacks!¡± Red chimes in. ¡°I just wanted to test out my new skills. Blue was helping me with this practice match.¡± ¡°No, like I said. We don''t know weather or not the tree is¡­ Are you fireproof tree?¡± ¡°Yes, the inside of me is also nigh invulnerable once the door are closed.¡± ¡°...Alright, it seems to be safe to both go all out and use fire magic in here¡­ Sorry for making such a big deal out of it.¡± They rest for a bit then continued to fight with renewed passion. Red is being outclassed right now. Blue has the advantage because he had most of his classes before today. She is still giving it her all. She isn''t like a normal caster, continuing to run around to avoid the magic while also casting. More of a nimble fighter with magic than anything¡­ Perhaps I should make her some specialty weapons. Morpheus and Pokodo are talking about something. Leaving Purple by himself. I still need to teach him all the ninjutsu skills. I was too tired to teach him before I slept. I approach him and he stops casting his wind needles at the¡­ Wind needles!? WHAT! That isn''t the normal wind mage skill¡­ What else can Purple do differently. The wind needles looked as if they were also covered in a poison, they also last for a few seconds after hitting the targets instead of dispersing immediately. ¡°Hello Purple. That is a unique¡­ Skill you have their, what is it called?¡± ¡°It''s air blade but I modified it slightly, I don''t have a weapon to attack with. I launch them from the fingers on my wings. I can launch six at once if I flutter my wings at the target. It took some practice to get them all to fire in the same direction though.¡± ¡°How do you coat them in poison though?¡± ¡°I drip poison down my fingers and they''re applied when I fire the needles.¡± I''ll have to try that later. I was getting off topic. I need to teach Purple some ninjutsu skills. ¡°Alright, since you don''t have any ninjutsu skills. I''m going to teach you some to help you level it up.¡± ¡°I have a ninjutsu skill though.¡± ¡°Wait what!? Which skill is it called?¡± ¡°I have the bat contract ninjutsu called poison gas creation.¡± ...So because he is already an animal, it has chosen his animal contract for him already. I teach him the other ninjutsu skills that Nami had taught me. He tried to teach me his contract but I was unable to learn it. I''m surprised by all these skills I can''t learn. I had a very high retention for learning until I''ve been in here. Perhaps it is because it has to deal with things I don''t understand. Like the philosophers stones and ninja class. I hear an unfamiliar voice in my head. ¡°Darkclaw''s new human form looks yummy, doesn''t it?¡± Chapter 88 Lust and Chocolate ¡°So you can finally talk now? Also Darkclaw looks anything but yummy to me.¡± ¡°You know what I mean don''t you? I want to eat him up.¡± ¡°Seriously? That is really gross to me.¡± ¡°Well, when you lock us in with only animals. I''m going to think of which is the most likely candidate to-.¡± ¡°Let me stop you there, I am NOT having sex with any of my pets.¡± ¡°Still¡­ If you had to pick.¡± ¡°I thought conversations with Greed were bad.¡± ¡°If I were a guy, I would be very attracted to that fox girl. She has some big breasts¡­ I wonder if you can milk her?¡± ¡°WOW! Please stop! Can you hold a conversation about anything else besides sex?¡± ¡°Oh, of course. Sex is just something fun to talk about. So, you haven''t went through my memories yet because you didn''t want to invade my privacy? I give you permission.¡± ¡°No, that isn''t why. I wanted to meet you before I absorbed you into my consciousness. From speaking with Greed... I learned more about myself than I would have from just going through his memories.¡± ¡°Well I guess that makes sense¡­ Somewhat¡­ So do you want words of encouragement then? I would say just go for it with Leaf. She isn''t the type to stop you if you make a move.¡± ¡°No, that isn''t what I was wondering. Can you¡­ Tell me if there is anything I should expect first... I don''t want to go in there and get hurt again. Greed''s¡­ His memories left me with a scar on my heart for a person I have never met before.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I guess you could say that. I went through Greed''s memories also and it was nothing that bad. My life was pretty peaceful. That isn''t to say that people close to me didn''t die. I just accepted it better than Greed did¡­ It didn''t ruin my life.¡± ¡°Well. I guess that is okay then. It isn''t as bad as I though-.¡± ¡°So if you could choose any two girls to have a threesome with, which two would you pick? I''m going to assume Leaf is one. What about Green? She is also named Leaf, maybe you want to bury yourself in a pile of leaves.¡± ¡°OH GREATER GOD! Please be quiet¡­ Can''t you read my thoughts?¡± ¡°I could, that would take the fun out of teasing you though.¡± ¡°Well please, keep the chatter down for awhile. I can''t focus if you keep talking to me.¡± All of my pets are looking at me. I guess I went back to making faces while talking to myself. It is hard not to. I stretch and begin to practice my new classes. While summoning my shadow doppelgangers is easy enough, controlling them is far more difficult. It is far easier to have them mimic my actions, if I decide to control them. I have to add far more thought to controlling it. It takes too much to control both. Far too much. Aegis talks up. ¡°Hey, let me try to control the left one real quick.¡± The left most doppelganger begins to move on his own. I hear Lust begin to talk next. ¡°Let me control the other one then.¡± The remaining shadow doppelganger begins to move on its own once she says that. My two clones are moving at a far more proficient level than if I had controlled them myself. Soon enough though the shadows fade. Aegis and Lust both are giving off the emotion of disappointment. I think they both enjoyed controlling the clones. I feel sorry for them, that they aren''t able to have their own bodies. I check the dragon feathers I collected from Darkclaw. The three feathers are all around twice the size and width of a chicken feather. It fits comfortably in my hand. I only collected a limited amount for now. I need to make sure that Darkclaw''s feathers can grow back. Things I know for certain wont grow back I''ll collect near the end of our time here. I''m going to collect a claw and fang from each of them. While I don''t plan on making void claws for them. Each will have a void tooth made. They could store pills inside to buff them during fights without needing to spend time and a hand to put them in their mouth. I also brought some sets of gear. The gnolls gear hasn''t been upgraded for the longest time. So their gear looks far worse for wear than my other troops. I plan to fix them up, replace some of the more worn out parts and enchant them with set effects. I''ve decided on dexterity for all their sets because it works the best for the beast riders. Which the majority of them are. I need to test out my new skill mana to matter. I begin to channel mana into gold. It is the first thing I''ll try because, if I can make an infinite amount of gold... The army will never have money problems¡­ All of my mana resulted in three grains of gold¡­ I don''t think I''ll be able to use this to make gold. If that is all I focused on, I might be able to make a single gold every day¡­ I still need to continue practicing this. I try a few more things. Gold was the only type of material with the extremely low yield. Perhaps it is because gold is a good mana conductor and it messes up the ability to make it. I can conjure three silver coins with all my mana. Making materials is far better though. I make a few herbs that I can change into potions with barely half of my mana. So it seems to be better for making materials than money. I brought in enough herbs to make around several hundred regen pills. Spending several hours making these items. It feels like it has been over two days of time. With the amount of sleep I''ve had, it could be possible that is how long it has been. I ask the tree how much time has passed. ¡°It has been 30 hours.¡± ¡­ It has barely been a day in here and I''ve already done so much. I feel like I might not have brought enough things to do with how much I can solely focus on accomplishing things. It makes sense since the majority of my time is spent making sure everything is running smoothly for my army. We have almost 13 days remaining in here. The only thing we can do with the remaining time is train. Many of my pets are still too weak for me to fight evenly with. Any that have just gotten classes are outpaced. Everyone besides Darkclaw that is. Even in his human form he is very strong. He doesn''t resemble a human as close as any of my other pets. Dragon feathers still cover his skin, wings poke out of his back. His face is still dragon like in appearance. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Sock and him are very even in strength when it comes to fighting. At least until Darkclaw starts to use his dragon breath attacks. Avoiding them takes more effort than Sock can manage normally. Taking damage from his flames, his hair has been singed repetitively. The space around him stinks because of this. Fighting each of my generals, I can sometimes surprise Sock and beat him in a fight. Darkclaw however is far more difficult to beat. Going all out normally ends in a tie. The few tricks I can use to beat him have quickly been learned. Only trumps could put me ahead of him but those are designed to kill. I wouldn''t use trumps in a duel¡­ Well¡­ It depends on how mad I am actually. I''ll have to design some more non lethal trumps... I think I might actually have a few already. While Darkclaw is very strong. He barely trains besides fighting. With the effort Sock puts in training. He could eventually surpass Darkclaw and surprise him in the fights with his strength. We''ve been eating food we''ve brought ourselves¡­ I haven''t noticed any food that the greater god had promised. I ask the time tree how to get the food the greater god promised. ¡°You just have to think of food and a fridge will appear.¡± I test it out¡­ What exactly is a fridge though? I start to think about different types of food. Sauteed vegetables with a hunk of basilisk meat and some fresh baked bread with a cream spread on it. I nice dwarven ale to wash it down would be amazing as well. Thinking this forms a box in the corner. I head towards it. I''ve never seen a box like this. I poke it to make sure it is safe. I continue prodding it¡­ How does it open? The front of this ¡°fridge¡± has a door on it. Is the greater god playing a trick on me? If I open this door, I half expect it to lead into another room of some kind. With how small this thing is, I doubt it would contain a single meal I''ve asked for inside, let alone enough food to last for two weeks. Perhaps it refills itself every time it disappears? I open the door. The temperature drops as I open the door. It is like the entire room inside has been enchanted with freeze magic. I look at the food¡­ It isn''t what I would have expected, it isn''t even close to what I asked for. On the top shelf of the fridge is several see through containers of¡­ Different colors of liquid¡­ They are labeled, it looks like some are tea, beer. One of the bigger containers is milk. One sticks out more than the rest. It is unlabeled, on it is a sticky note. The note reads ¡°Greater gods own concoction. You are welcome.¡± I''m afraid to drink it. On a shelf underneath the top is several brown plastic bags. I prod them and look at the writing on the package. Their are directions on how to get to the food. The food is called ¡°food rations¡±¡­ I''ve never heard of that food before. One is separated from the rest. I read the contents of the ration. It is the exact thing I had just thought of eating. Minus the beer and vegetables¡­ The beer wouldn''t be mixed in with the food though. I continue reading the contents of the ration¡­ Most of the ingredients inside I''ve never heard of. What exactly is a ¡°chocolate bar¡±? Finally, on the very bottom shelf is a mixture of different fruits and vegetables. Some I know what they are. Some I''ve never seen before. Tasting all these new foods should be fun and enjoyable. The biggest problem I have is that the greater god has made it. Who knows what could be wrong with any of this food. I could eat something poisonous or toxic, maybe even something that will make me explode. I''ll have to be very careful with everything I eat. I start with all the unknown vegetables and fruits. First is a red orb, it looks somewhat like an apple. I''m not sure if it is a vegetable or a fruit. It is the only one with a stick note on it. ¡°This vegetable/fruit is called a tomato. I cultivated it myself to make it large, more beautiful and more delicious.¡±¡­ I take a bite. The liquid inside explodes in my mouth. It is indeed very delicious. I continue trying the other fruits and vegetables. A orange stick that is fairly tasteless. A brown ball that is very hard to open, the liquid inside is tasty though. There was a fruit that was yellow. After biting into it I found that the outside is sort of like armor that is very bad tasting. After you take the armor off, the inside is mushy and very sweet. I hadn''t even noticed that on the door was more shelves with things on them. From what it looked like, they were full of some type of spices and another sticky note. ¡°This is all the food you''ll get for this week. While it doesn''t seem like much, some of the food can be made more filling by re-hydrating it. If you leave and restart the week, the fridge will refill.¡± I decide to experiment with my pre-packaged meal. I open it slowly, cutting the top of the container open. I take everything out of the container. Inside are more packages. Each package is labeled. Basilisk meat, dehydrated potatoes, crackers, strawberry jam, cheese spread, canned fish, mixed nuts, chocolate bar. I sample everything, the basilisk meat tastes exactly like that, basilisk meat. I''ve had it before, it is as delicious as normal, slightly less than I''m used to eating every meal when it is available. I add water to the dehydrated potatoes and continue to stir. It isn''t very good so I heat up the tray that was also in the package. It makes it more edible but still not nearly as tasty as the meat of the meal. I take out the crackers next. They look like hard bread. I try a corner of one and that is what it tastes like, crunchy bread. Meaning I should try the other things first since it might be better to top these crackers with something. The packets for the strawberry jam and cheese spread are different than the other packets. I rip off the top of each and try them both. The strawberry jam is very tasty, it is another new flavor to my taste buds. I''ve tasted cheese before, I knew it would be good with the crackers so I add some to it and it tastes exactly how I expected it to. I cut a piece of meat and place it on the cheesy cracker and enjoy it. I finish the crackers, jam, paste and meat. Opening the canned fish it is somewhat similar to what I''ve already eaten. Cut into bite size pieces, I easily finish that as well. I''ve had mixed nuts before in my previous life. I''ll save that for later, if I start to get hungry before the next meal. Getting to the chocolate bar next. I open the packet it came in¡­ It is a poop colored bar¡­ It doesn''t look very tasty at all. I smell it, it barely has a smell and I can''t get what it would taste like from its smell. I lick the corner of it¡­ It tastes extremely sweet. I bite off a corner of the bar. It starts to melt in my mouth as I chew it. Almost sweet enough to hurt my teeth, it is beyond delicious none the less. Maybe even more than the basilisk meat. I finish the bar and am completely satisfied by the meal. Lust spoke up. ¡°That meal was more satisfying than an orgasm. I feel so good right now, and the good part is I don''t have that annoying full feeling from eating either. Sometimes, its good to be just memories in your head." Chapter 89 Unexpected situation and sparring match Everything was so neatly packed into the fridge. Even with the number of people inside the room, there might have been enough food for us all. I had brought over two weeks of food just in case he wouldn''t have given us enough. But I''ll let my pets enjoy these new foods. The ration I had eaten was one of many. After counting them, I realized that we could eat around three of these a day and would still have a few left. After looking in even more detail, I realized that each ration was for a different meal. Breakfast, lunch or dinner. I give each of my pets a ration. Also giving Darkclaw an extra two rations worth of our food. He needs more than the rest because of his size. I watch them all try to figure out the meals like I had just done. I begin to help the ones that couldn''t open the packets easily. The rest watching me open them mimicked me. They all enjoyed the meal like normal. Until we got to the desert portion. Not everyone had gotten chocolate bars. Some had something called cookies, others had something called candies. I watch them enjoy their treats. Almost all of them enjoy it completely. Some don''t though, Sock bit a corner off of his chocolate bar and had set it down after that. Blue had also ignored his sweets. Maybe it is a preference thing? I let them trade their candy for some of our food if they want. Sock eats an extra piece of basilisk meat, Blue picks up some of the vegetables from the fridge. He seems to like the orange sticks, which I did not. Darkclaw enjoyed the sweets too much. He greedily accepted the portions of sweets Sock and Blue had not eaten. Red broke a cookie in half and let Darkclaw and myself try it. It is also very sweet, just like the chocolate. It tastes like sweet hardened bread when I try to place the taste. Pokodo gave me and Darkclaw two of her candies candies to try. The taste of it isn''t something I''ve never had before. Darkclaw gagged and immediately spit it out. The taste was weird, like it wasn''t supposed to be eaten. It still made my mouth water as it was in my mouth¡­ I''m not sure what to describe the flavor as though. It made my mouth pucker while I sucked on the hard candy. I need to learn from this. If I can prepare meals like these for my troops, they would be able to travel further away without needing to rely on taking a chef with them. Food can only last for so long. Without the usage of special bags or a job, most of my troops would only be able to travel a few days away from the base. If I make food similar to these rations, they''ll be able to travel as far as the amount of rations they can carry. Which is easily twice as far, each troop would be able to travel a full week away easily. The main reason for the chef job isn''t because they get better at cooking (they do but that isn''t the main reason). Everyone can do every job, at least theoretically. The reason you would pick the chef job, is the fact that you can cook monster meat and make it edible. No one else can unless they pick the chef job¡­ Speaking of which, why am I thinking about food so much? Lust answers. ¡°That would be my doing. The two things I enjoyed the most in life. Good food and good sex.¡± ¡°Well, it is somewhat distracting but I actually enjoy the food far more than I previously had. It also helps me look at things I would take for granted or never think about. I would have most likely eaten the food and never gave it a second thought on replicating it.¡± ¡°That is why I''m here.¡± Eating food only takes 30 minutes¡­ We still have so much time left. I begin running. I''ll knock out the trial of wind next, at least try to do as much as I can while I''m in here. I might be able to get 30 or 40% more while I''m in here. I also have to continue working on my new classes. Ninja and samurai need leveling. I should also practice my new true elementalist skills. I''ll try to reach level 10 with both Ninja and samurai while in here. Perhaps by doing so, I''ll unlock something else that Nami can teach me. I get to work, running is easy enough. Most of my pets have started doing there own thing. Running for three days is easy enough, I will barely use 20% of my fatigue points. It''s just getting tired from staying awake for three days is far harder. While running I continue casting my shadow doppelgangers every time they come off cooldown. It is around a day and a half before I get the first dexterity of wind trial completion¡­ What!? HOW? It should have taken twice as long. Something doesn''t add up¡­ I try to figure it out. It just doesn''t make sense. Could it have been because of true elementalist? I haven''t been doing anything differently¡­ Except I''ve been casting shadow doppelgangers¡­ Even if you count their effort towards increasing my speed of learning. It still doesn''t add up. That would only add 2 minutes, every 10 minutes¡­ If you triple the amount I would get plus each doppelganger, that is the only way I could have increased the speed. So, it seems while the doppelgangers are active. I have increased learning/leveling during that time. I take a quick nap. Then I begin to train again. I decide to spar with my pets before I push towards finish the dexterity of wind trial. This time it is a fight between me, Darkclaw and Sock. Fighting against multiple opponents is good for preparing for the unexpected. The fight starts with us all facing towards the other two in a triangle formation. My other pets have all stopped what they were doing to watch this fight. I''m also excited to see how this fight turns out. It begins, I start going through my pre-fight routine as they charge at each other. Applying every single buff I can. With my new true elementalist class, I activate a healing wind behind me to increase my speed further. I make shadow doppelgangers and talk inside my head. ¡°Focus Darkclaw, lets take him out before we lose our buffs.¡± Each of the two extra people inside my head take control of a shadow. We''ve been practicing at attacking the same target. The main difference for my clones is they can''t use my skills. I''m the only one with magic and breath attacks. They are cloned with similar versions of my gear though. So each of them has two totem swords in their hands. The enchants don''t roll over on the gear, so they are regular treant wood swords. We slam into an unguarded Darkclaw¡­ He is overwhelmed by the attack coming from his flank. He is knocked down and out of the fight temporarily. All three of us switch targets onto Sock. Even with all three of us assaulting him at once, he continues to block all the attacks being launched against him. Almost ten seconds have passed before Darkclaw rejoins the fight. He cleaves one of my clones in with his claws, instantly taking it out. I readjust to being sandwiched between two combatants. I block Darkclaw''s assaults with Aegis while still trying to attack Sock with my remaining shadow doppelganger. Aegis is the clone that was left. Darkclaw increases his attacks now that he''s regained his senses. FUCK! I can''t continue blocking and also attacking Sock. I have to focus on blocking or Darkclaw will overwhelm me. I switch to focus Darkclaw. I block his claws with Aegis and continue attacking with one of my totem swords. We lock eyes as he begins to open his mouth. I know what he''s going to do when he does that! I unload two wind scrolls into my mouth to counter. He casts fire while I cast freezing bad breath mixed with conjured water and wind to increase its effect. Even with the two scrolls his breath starts to overpower mine. I''m caught with the final second of his breath as the room fills with steam from ice coming into contact with fire. I dodge away in the cover of the cloud. I begin to heal myself as I back into a corner. The cloud starts to dissipate. Sock had also done the same thing as I had and backed to a corner as to not get attacked from behind. Darkclaw didn''t move at all. He is still in the center, now in human form. I hear him speak. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°HAH! Even with your boosts, my breath is still stronger than yours. This fight is decided if you can''t contest me.¡± He is beginning to get too arrogant. I''ll have to bring him down a peg to keep him humble. He is right. Even in dragon form, I doubt I could contest his breath with mine. It would be a stalemate for one more breath, then I wouldn''t be able to fight against him... That would be before I had my fight against Nami. He begins to take in a deep breath for his next attack. Boy is he in for a surprise. I wouldn''t be able to match his breath. Mine is weaker than his. So I throw a pepper bomb at his mouth. It would have missed but I used conjure wind to guide it into his mouth. Boom! It goes off and covers his face in pepper. He begins to cough and during this whole time I was running towards him. He begins to brace himself for my next attack. I go into dragon form, dropping my totem sword. I''m around ten feet from him when I use my next new attack. I jump into the air and begin to spin to build up force in my tail. He is still looking towards me. I blink strike behind him and slam my spinning tail attack down onto him. It is augmented with several skills, chi strike, mana slash, opportune strike, heavy rending slash, wind strike and strengthened with rage and energy empowered strikes. Darkclaw''s feathers are far better for blocking slash attacks then blunt attacks. He is knocked unconscious. I call this new attack spinning class combo attack. I could use it while in dragon form, with a weapon in human form¡­ Maybe even without a weapon. I''ll have to keep working on it, every new skill I gain might be added to this combo move if it works properly with it. I turn to face Sock. He has been watching the entire time from his corner, waiting for me to finish. I check to see if Darkclaw is still breathing and change back to a human to move him to the other pets. If he had taken the fight seriously and not assumed his victory, he would have been much harder to beat. Him dropping his guard this time might not happen again after being humiliated like that. Me and Sock readjust and take renewed fighting stances. He shows no signs of underestimating me. His stare is penetrating me. Looking for any openings that will show up. Gauging the threat of any attack I will make almost instantly. He slowly edges towards me. Shield first, giving me no target to aim at. I want to win this fight! I need to win this fight! I can''t keep losing! ¡°Aegis¡­ I need this win¡­ Please help me any way you can.¡± ¡°We¡­ We need to beat him slowly, wear him down with ranged attacks while you run from him. Do not let him hit you or it will be your loss.¡± I pull out my shuriken launcher. Socks eyes don''t waver at all. He continues to edge closer towards me. I use the launcher, he easily blocks and dodges all of them. HOW!? My confusion must have shown on my face, because Sock responds. ¡°I''ve been dodging dragons breath attacks for two days straight. A few shurikens are easy enough to dodge.¡± He hasn''t stopped moving towards me! What do I do!? I change into dragon form and fly up. At least up here he won''t b-. I get hit in the face with a rock! Of course he would have counter measures to flying by now. It knocks me down just enough for him to be able to reach my wings and pull me down. He''s ready to deliver the finishing blow when I change into mouse form and fall out of his grip. Dropping to the floor and changing into a human again as I turn to face him. He''s right over top of me. Shield right against me, he could slam me with it but that would push me out of his reach again. Fuck! What do I do? I have nothing to counter him. I start to block with Aegis but he pushes my gauntlet out of the way. I have nothing to block with! If I block with my arm it will break. What do I do!? Aegis chimes in. ¡°Use your feet! Like you did with Nami!¡± I barely get my foot up to block! It is just plain leather though, his training sword easily injures my foot. But at least it wasn''t a finishing blow. Sock is surprised by my block. I jump backwards in this time. Increasing my distance with wind and healing my now throbbing foot. It hurts but I can stand on it. A few more attacks like that and I might be in trouble though. Lust yells out. ¡°You need to punch him in his dick.¡± ¡°I''m not punching hi-.¡± Sock not realizing I''m in the middle of a conversation charges at me. Aegis talks while he charges. ¡°Attack him indirectly. Aim for numbing his body. If he gets into close range like that again, cast numbing poison breath at him.¡± That is a good idea! I need to make better gear for myself¡­ Lacking a gauntlet on my left hand reduces my blocking capabilities too much. I should also think about having specially made shoes to use to block with. I don''t have time to think of that right now though. I''m in the middle of a fight. Sock is almost in range. I begin to cast a bad breath with numbing poison. While it would be more effective to just kill some people. Tanks are too hard to take down by normal means. Weakening him with numbing poison will even us out a bit and he might even be immobilized by it. I put my gauntlet up to block right as my stat boosts wear off. What awful timing. He pushes my hand out of the way with his shield again. Swinging his sword at me I once again block it with my foot. I can tell that my poison breath is effecting him. His attack stings my foot far less. I might ju-. I get kicked across the room¡­ Shit! I''m at less than half health now. I begin healing myself I see that he is at 70%. He pulls out his shurikens and launches them at me. I manage to switch into mouse form and dodge all the-. He rushes before I can think and I barely get back into human form before he is on me again. I could have went dragon form but I have no defenses in dragon form. It is an all out, high risk high reward form. I go to block with Ae-. Getting kicked across the room again! Shit! He''s too strong! He keeps getting stronger and stronger as the fight goes on! I make a tiny tornado, trying to get some fir- he cuts through the tornado as if it wasn''t there. I have a few trumps left¡­ All of them are meant to kill though. SHIT! What can I do?... I have one attack I haven''t used yet... I want to win so badly though. I really should have tried this skill out before using it in a fight. This spell could easily backfire if it isn''t strong enough... I remember Leon and Nargzar laughing over my loss against Nami. I can''t keep losing fights... My army will start to lose faith in me. I NEED TO WIN! I begin to cast flash bomb. It starts forming in my mouth and as soon as it comes in contact with the ground it will most likely explode. I spit the orb at the ground. A white light starts to form just in time for me to cover my ears and close my eyes. I barely protect myself before it goes off. The sound is still extremely loud even closing my ears. I wait a few seconds and re-open my eyes. Sock is rolling around on the ground as his eyes burn from the bright light¡­ What did I just do!? Why would I use such a dangerous attack against my ally! That attack is too dangerous. Not because it could kill, but because it could cause permanent damage. Even the bystanders got caught up in the attack¡­ What is wrong with me! I rush over to help Sock up before I call the match. Chapter 90 Two weeks later I can''t believe myself¡­ I can''t believe I just did that¡­ Why am I such an idiot¡­ I just hurt my pet¡­ My general¡­ My friend¡­ I''m an idiot. Sock is still down. Even after an entire minute he is still wobbly from the effects... He must have been hurt more because of his sensitive hearing. Some of my other pets have also felt the effects, if they were closer to the blast it would have been as bad as it was for Sock¡­ I still feel awful¡­ I can''t believe I was so afraid of losing that I would do something so stupid. Darkclaw was already awake from being knocked unconscious. He was up before the fight even ended. He''ll walk away with no permanent injuries¡­ I''m not so sure that Sock is as lucky as him. Sock has recovered enough for me to apologize. ¡°I''m¡­ I''m so sorry Sock¡­ I didn''t mean¡­ I just¡­ I''m sorry.¡± ¡°It''s fine master. You should do whatever it takes to win a fight¡­ That is a very good way to win fights though.¡± ¡°I¡­ I guess¡­ It is just, the collateral damage is too much to use in every circumstance.¡± ¡°An attack that bypasses all defenses. It is the perfect countermeasure to any tank¡­ I have to ask though. Why did you want to win that badly?¡± ¡°It''s just¡­ I should be stronger as the leader. I should win more fights than I lose¡­ Which¡­ I haven''t been doing. I just don''t want to be seen as weak, I''m the leader of an army¡­ I can''t be seen as weak, especially in front of people I care about.¡± ¡°Are you stupid? Master. We''ve seen you tear a raid boss in half with a single attack. Just by being around you, we''ve all been made stronger. You do amazing things, impossible things every single day. I doubt anyone thinks of you as a weakling. That isn''t even your biggest asset. You have this innate ability to gain allies which no one else has¡­ Just please. Give us a heads up if your going to use that attack against enemies, so we don''t get hurt by it.¡± I feel like even more of an idiot. Since Gobber has left, I haven''t been relying on anyone else since he''s left my side to raise a family... I shouldn''t try to do everything by myself. I have so many amazing generals to help me and I''ve been putting all the pressure on myself. Instead of being the strongest, I should rely on people who are best for the job. Sock might make a better leader for the bulk of the army than myself. I begin to train again¡­ There isn''t much left to do besides that. Even with the help of my allies, I should still keep getting stronger. I need to keep getting stronger. I continue to run¡­ Until I complete my dexterity of wind trials¡­
Elemental strengthening complete
Dragon bloodline skill upgraded Elemental alignment--> Elemental attunement- All elemental breath attacks are strengthened while in dragon form
I ask the tree how much time is left. ¡°You''ve been in here for 8 days and 12 hours.¡± WHAT!? HOW!? I can''t believe it is barely a week into training¡­ The time inside here almost seems to go slower than normal. Perhaps I should have only went with a week¡­ My pets aren''t taking the enclosure as well as me. Sock is¡­ Pokodo and Darkclaw are doing far worse than the rest. Pokodo is used to walking around the fortress and talking with everyone. It seems that she has started talking to herself. Darkclaw is far more aggressive than normal. He''s acted crazy a few times and he has destroyed some of the food we were going to eat. Besides the few samples of chocolate, cookies and candies I put aside for testing. He opened all the rations and stole all the chocolate and cookies inside. Leaving the candies because they weren''t sweet¡­ I have no doubts that if we were forced to stay inside for more than two weeks. Darkclaw would have just ruined our chances at surviving. Thankfully, I picked a short amount of time. Even if one of them goes crazy now. They won''t have to wait much longer to finally get fresh air. I know now that Darkclaw and Pokodo can''t use this tree ever again. It would be too risky. Another 2 days pass with no more problems, I continue training than go to sleep. I am woken up by shouting. Darkclaw is slamming himself off the door and screaming. ¡°LET ME OUT! I WANT OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!!!¡± He is doing everything in his power to destroy the door. Slamming into it, using his dragons breath, clawing at it. Nothing seems to make any dents in the door. Sock is trying to calm him down but Darkclaw will not listen to him. I knew this might happen, Darkclaw is having a panic attack with less than five days of time left. I walk over to him. He notices me for an instant, then goes back to beating on the door. He might be too panicked to care that I am his master. I speak to him. ¡°Darkclaw, please calm down. We only have 5 more days to g-.¡± ¡°FOUR DAYS! I CAN''T WAIT FOUR DAYS! I WANT OUT NOW!¡± ¡°We can''t get out until the time is up. If you break the door we might be stuck in here forever.¡± ¡°I DON''T CARE! I WANT OUT NOW!¡± He is beating on the door so hard his hands have started bleeding. He could become a threat to himself and us if I don''t take him down right now. I connect with Purple via the booby trap phrase. I make a request for him to hit Darkclaw with as many numbing needles as he can shoot once I hit him with my own poison. I start filling my mouth up with us much poison as I can. Even filling up my tooth just in case I need more than I can fit into my mouth. I start mixing in the hallucinogenic poison as well, far less than the numbing poison to be used as a makeshift anesthetic. I have to make sure I don''t hit his eyes with this poison. He might go permanently blind if I''m not careful¡­ How will I make him take it though? Lust speaks up. ¡°Kiss him and force it down his throat¡­ I know that sounds sexual but it is the only way to make sure it doesn''t cause any permanent damage.¡± This conversation is a telepathic one not being spoken out loud. My mouth is obviously full, so the telepathic connection is another good thing to have. I can use breath attacks while continuing to give orders to my other generals. I speak up next. ¡°Purple connect me with Sock.¡± A second later after we''re connected I get him up with the plan. ¡°Sock I''m going to need you to hold him for me while I give him some poison to calm him down some. You need to hold his head steady and try to open his mouth so I can administer it.¡± We all get to work. Sock jumps on the dragon and grabs his head. Darkclaw tries to fly but Sock pins his wings with his legs. Purple starts hitting him with the numbing darts. It barely shows any effect on him. It is enough to let Sock overpower him and hold his head steady. I approach the front of Darkclaw just as he opens his mouth for a breath attack. I spit as much as I can into his mouth before he can launch an attack. Darkclaw begins to shake and then falls down. Sock gets off of him but Darkclaw is still awake. I ask a few questions now. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± Darkclaw responds. ¡°I feel¡­ Pretty amazing¡­ Who are you?¡± I doubt this will last more than a few hours but at least he''s calm enough to not be a threat for a few hours, enough for me to finish my sleep. When I wake up, I see that most of my pets are sleeping. Including Darkclaw, who looks far more peaceful now than he has the last few days. I hope a few good hours of sleep will calm him down¡­ I''ll make some more anesthetic just in case he tries to go berserk again. Smaller doses might be enough to calm him without knocking him out. We have a little under four days left of this¡­ I''ll definitely have to put anyone else who wants to try longer amounts through this two week trial period. Just to make sure they wont go crazy from being locked up for so long. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Being locked in for an entire year¡­ I could see myself lasting before I tried today¡­ I doubt I would be able to do it as I am right now. I would need something seriously entertaining to tide my time over. I don''t have anything I can practice for an entire year without mastering it. Even training every day, I feel I would eventually burn out before a year is up. Darkclaw is the first to wake up. He approaches me¡­ Calmly. He apologized about going crazy. I give him a few vials of my makeshift anesthetic, just in case he gets those feelings again¡­ I see him take one later that day. I take the claw and tooth off each of my generals. I''ll need help to enchant these teeth with void storage, so I''ll wait until I''m out of here to give teeth to my enchanting crew. I know that more of my men have become enchanters. Some of the demon tribe had asked me to teach them some jobs. Even when they''re not fighting, they can be useful and outfit our army better. Darkclaw''s feathers have started regrowing back. So that means I have a renewable resource for a very light, flexible, and durable material. We manage to get through the remaining days. I spend every minute I''m awake training my classes up.
Level 10 Ninja skill gained Taijutsu- Gain chi based skills that will help your unarmed fighting (Increases the speed at which you can learn martial arts at) (must learn the skills from a teacher)
Level 10 Samurai skill gained Mana strike- Add mana to a strike from your weapon
Level 10 Barbarian skill gained Rage shield- A portion of the damage you take is absorbed by your rage, capped at 20% damage reduction for 20% maximum rage
That samurai skill seems very strong. It allows me to add my mana into my attacks with weapons as well. The doors open. My pets rush out the door. All of them, Darkclaw slamming into the walls of the staircase trying to exit quickly. I slowly walk behind them. Leaving the time tree it feels¡­ As if far more time has passed than has actually occurred. The inside of the castle mimic still appears the same. It is hard to imagine that I am now 13 days older than everyone else who time has passed for normally. It is now the beginning of the next day. I still feel exhausted from training, I should have given myself a day or two of rest before exiting. I still have so much to do before I make my sneak attack against the pirates. After I train for a few more days, I''ll go over the plans with the shogun and my generals. For now, I need to learn some taijutsu from Nami. I also need to form a contract still. I was interrupted by the pirates before I could. I head to the training area where Nami would normally be. I don''t see her though¡­ I head to check on the shogun and Nami is inside speaking with him. I eavesdrop on their conversation. ¡°So that is how I learned the monk class¡­ I''m sorry I had to teach ninjutsu skills because I had assumed he couldn''t teach me something so quickly¡­ I''m so sorry elder.¡± ¡°What are you talking about Nami? You traded an entire class passed what you could have possibly learned for a few skills. I think our village came out far ahead in that deal¡­ Isn''t that right Kite.¡± ¡°...Sorry¡­ I was just¡­ Umm¡­ Eavesdropping¡­ I couldn''t think of a convincing lie...¡± ¡°Come in, I believe you''re here to try and form a contract. Let me tell you right now, some people can''t form contracts.¡± He pulls out a scroll. It is covered in letters and symbols. I go through the rules and how I activate it. Nami speaks. ¡°You have to use your blood to form the contract. Go ahead and bite your thumb until you bleed.¡± ¡°Can''t I just use a knife?¡± ¡°I guess¡­ It''s just¡­ Biting your thumb looks cooler.¡± ¡°I''ll stick with a knife then. I don''t want my finger to get infected.¡± I pull out my heirloom sword and form it big enough to use. I cut a small portion of my thumb and apply it to the contracts signature. Very quickly the paper starts to glow brightly, in a short time the paper turns into a snake. I can hear the snake inside my head. ¡°Hello human. It seems your wishing to form a contract? Well there are certain rules you''ll have to follow. We''ll go over them out right now.¡± The next 30 minutes is spent hammering out the details of the deal. It seems that in order for me to get approval for the contract, I need to do certain things. With the snake, I''ll be able to eat larger portions of each meal and go longer without eating. Allowing me to store food in my body for longer. I have to double my meat consumption because of this. It seems that if it is cold outside I''ll be forced to sleep for twice as long and my regen will be limited until I warm up. Which shouldn''t be a problem, I agree to the terms of the contract.
Ninjutsu passive skill learned Warm blooded- Regen increases while in warm environments
Ninjutsu skill learned Shadow snake- Form a snake made of shadows that can stealthily knock out a single foe (10 minute cooldown) time opponents are knocked unconscious vary depending on opponents size
Taijutsu passive skill learned Serpent strikes- Your unarmed strikes aimed at joints and pressure points now have the chance of paralyzing the opponent temporarily
Druid skill learned Snake form- Able to transform into a snake (increase to poison production)
*Poof* With that the snake contract disappears. Nami begins to speak. ¡°It seems you''ve unlocked a very common contract animal. I sort of expected something¡­ More¡­ I''ll teach you some taijutsu as a request from the shogun. After speaking with the him, it seems you will be given special treatment so long as you help the other ninjas learn another class. Come with me.¡± ¡°Before that, can I try forming another contract?¡± Chapter 91 Forming more contracts The elder begins to laugh heartily at what I just said. Like he can''t believe what I just asked, so it sounded like a joke. He gets up and starts to walk over to the table where he had pulled a contract from. Nami yells at him. ¡°E-elder! You can''t take him seriously, can you? I''ve never heard of a person every forming more than one contract before.¡± The elder answers her. ¡°That is what makes it so interesting. I''ve lived for hundreds of years and never once did I think about forming more than one contract. Yet someone who was just introduced to the idea of it has already thought of something new¡­ I am excited to see how this plays out.¡± I repeat the same steps as last time. I prick my finger with my knife and add my blood to the signature. The contract begins to glow as it has like last time. It expands, getting bigger and bigger. Unlike with the snake which made the contract shrink in size. The contract as more than doubled in size. An animal begins to form¡­ It is a dragon. A small paper dragon. I look over at Nami and the shoguns faces. Her face shows terror while his shows excitement. I go to talk to the dragon but he cuts me off. ¡°WHAT THE DEATH GOD DO YOU THINK YOU''RE DOING HUMAN!? You waste my time by summoning me here, even though you''ve already formed a contract. Your reason better be a good one.¡± ¡°I thought it would be interesting to try and form a sec-.¡± ¡°Dragons don''t make contracts with people! We never had! I doubt you''ll convince me.¡± ¡°Well, I''m not a normal person. I doubt many people can summon you. Why do you think I''m different¡­ Doesn''t it bother you that you don''t know?¡± ¡°...I suppose your right. You have five minutes to convince me this contract will be worth my time as a dragon. You have to be able to further the cause of our species which I doubt any human ever could.¡± I start to explain my life from the beginning. After I notice he''s getting bored I speed through it faster, going over the interesting parts of my life and leaving out the more boring parts. I get to the part where I bonded with a dragon and then formed a soul pact. He looked very interested when I was talking about Darkclaw. I explained how much stronger he''s gotten from just being around me. The dragon finally spoke once I went over the new classes I taught Darkclaw. ¡°Listen, kid¡­ You could have just told me you could make dragons stronger. That is one thing a dragon cares about more than anything else. Is strength¡­ You know what kills dragons more than anything else? Other dragons, because we''re always trying to be the number one dragon. If you keep getting stronger, and promise to kill, teach or tame every dragon you meet. If you ever lose a fight with your army¡­ I''ll break the contract with you.¡± It must be because of the lack of forming contracts that he didn''t know the finer details of making a contract. These contracts seem far easier to deal with than the snakes. Maybe because they are both extremely rare situations. I don''t plan on losing a battle anyways¡­ If I do¡­ Chances are I''ll be dead anyways. Teaching a dragon might be bad later on for the future of all humans... That just means I''ll have to kill or tame them.
Ninjutsu skill learned Shadow wings- Form a pair of wings made out of shadows, wings last for thirty minutes (1 hour cooldown) wings can be used in attacks and can be shredded, removing them before their time is up
Taijutsu passive skill learned Dragons touch- Attacks have the chance of paralyzing and shutting down body parts of enemies struck
Dragon bloodline passive skill gained Claw production- fingernails are replaced with sharp, retractile claws
SHIT! OUCH! My fingers all feel as if needles are piercing through them. Which is fairly accurate as a claws grow passed my finger. I practice how sharp they are¡­ Poking my skin, the claws are sharp enough to draw blood with a moderate amount of pressure. If I''m ever unarmed, these will be far better protection than being completely unarmed. As I think that, I retract the claws which stick out no more than a normal fingernail would. I from my shadow wings next. Both of them look amazed at my new ability. It must be the first time either of them have ever seen shadowwings like these before. I try to fly up and after a few seconds of trying to work them I finally do. Just enough to raise myself off the ground but I feel these shadow wings could be as fast as my dragon form... I wonder if I can form them on other people... I won''t know until they come off cool down in an hour. Nami finally speaks up. ¡°Are you done yet? Every second you waste here, you could be learning taijutsu from me.¡± ¡°...Can I try forming another contract...¡± Nami looks at me. It is a look that shows annoyance as well as confusion. She speaks next. ¡°Elder! I can understand two contracts, it would be a complete waste of a contract if he attempts again. As there is no possible way for him to learn a third.¡± The elder only smiles as he gets another contract. I think his curiosity has gotten the best of him. He is willing to see just how far I can go. I mimic the other steps. The contract begins to glow again. This time a rabbit is formed. The elder begins to laugh very loudly when it is made¡­ The rabbit speaks inside my head. ¡°H-hello¡­ I¡­ I see that you''ve made a few contracts already¡­ I¡­ I don''t mind forming another one with you...¡± We go through the process again. For my pact with the rabbit I have to not die¡­ That seems like a ridiculously easy contract to deal with. It would also not matter that I broke it. As I would be dead anyways. I doubt the rabbit wanted to put very hard stipulations on me. Seeing as I had already formed two other contracts. I hate to say it, but the rabbit seems like a pushover. The animal vanishes like the others.
Ninjutsu passive skill learned Shadow run- Increases movement speedwhile decreasing noise from running while in the cover of night
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Taijutsu skill upgraded Rabbit punch combination--> Goblin punch combination- Attack with a flurry of punches, more focused on speed than power
Druid skill learned Rabbit form- Able to transform into a rabbit (increase to dodge and movement speed) become more cowardly while transformed
Once the rabbit disappears the shogun can no longer hold in his laughter. ¡°HAHAHA! I can''t believe this! Three contracts formed! This is beyond normal. Not only did you make a contract with a common animal. You made one with the strongest animal. One I''ve never seen any other person ever form a contract with. After that you make one with the weakest animal! He isn''t even from the same zodiac! If you had summoned a hare it would have been more normal. HAHAHA! You are beyond normal my friend. Everything about you is a contradiction.¡± He strokes his beard and switches from being amazed to explaining the animals more. ¡°Some animals form friendships and get along better with other animals of the zodiac. Like minded animals that is. Nami has formed a contract with a tiger. Tigers are more likely to befriend other members that are also tiger ninjas. But also dog ninjas and horse ninjas. None of your animals are part of the same group in that sense. Dragon is separated from all other groups and are only related to the snake family... For you to form a contract with three different groups...¡± ¡°...Can I try forming another contract?¡± He doesn''t say anything, just pulling out another contract. I try this one, same as the rest. Nothing happens this time¡­ Just a smear of blood is covering the signature of a contract scroll. It seems to have been a waste of a scroll¡­ Nami begins to get angry. ¡°You fool! You wasted a contract that takes an entire year to make! All this work was just thrown away because of you.¡± ¡°...Why don''t you try to form a contract while it is still wet. You''re blood should still work if my blood hasn''t dried yet.¡± She looks confused. As if she hadn''t even thought she could form a second contract. She just looks confused at me, then at the shogun. ¡°S-should I try?¡± ¡°I don''t see why not. Either you succeed and form another contract or the contract goes to waste.¡± She bites her finger¡­ I wince as I think of how easily that will get infected. I know that bites have a high chance of causing infections. The scroll begins to glow as her blood covers and mixes with mine. A dog appears this time. From what the shogun has just said, it seems that her two contract animals are from the same family. Hmm, it seems that I am strange in that sense. A few moments of hammering out the contract and she is finally finished. Nami begins to speak. ¡°...I can''t believe¡­ Never in a thousand years would I have thought¡­ I could ever form a second contract. I feel so¡­ Stupid.¡± She falls to her knees. Tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes. ¡°I can''t believe myself!¡­ My weakness was brought on by myself. All those years of practice... Of thinking of getting stronger. And I haven''t thought of easy ways to become stronger. Something so simple as this¡­ I feel so foolish.¡± She continues to sit there. Stationary for a few moments. I can''t imagine what she is thinking. I only tried it because I hadn''t grown up in the village. If you only see people using a single contract their entire lives, almost everyone would assume that was the limit you could try. Something that seems so obvious can be buried by what seems to be common sense and tradition. I try to cheer her up. ¡°How is it your fault? You''re putting the entire blame of your people on your shoulders. Dozens of other people were also put in the same situation. Your entire culture is set up for only trying it once. It seems that even if you can learn more than one, it would be very rare. So perhaps you all lost the process of trying multiple times because it is too expensive to do?¡­ Why aren''t you happy? You''ve done something no other murine folk has done in hundreds of years.¡± This seems to not cheer her up at all. I sit and wait for her to finish crying¡­ It might seem rude but she did promise to teach me taijutsu. It takes¡­ Longer than expected for her to stop crying. Like she has been holding back frustration for years and her tears are a mixture of happiness and sadness. So much time wasted getting stronger when there were easier solutions. She finally regains her composure. We walk to the training area and she begins to teach me some taijutsu skills.
Taijutsu skill gained Body strengthening- strengthen the muscles of certain parts of the body to either increase the power of attacks or defense
Taijutsu skill gained Burst of power- Able to sacrifice fatigue points for a boost in power to an attack
Only two¡­ I''m fine with that, with the amount of contracts I''ve just formed I''m happy with anything extra. It does seem like not as big of an upgrade as ninjutsu was. Maybe Nami just isn''t good with taijutsu? Nami begins to speak. ¡°When we were sparring a few days ago¡­ I noticed your attacks were very sloppy. I doubt you do but¡­ Do you have any martial arts knowledge?¡± ¡°What''s a martial arts?¡± ¡°¡­ I figured as much. With how you and your men were fighting, it was a easy to make assumption.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°Well you''re attacks were very predictable.¡± ¡°My attacks are anything but predictable. That honestly makes me somewhat irritated that you would say so.¡± ¡°Come at me without a weapon. No special attacks or anything. Just attack me with this wooden sword.¡± She throws me a training sword and steps into the training circle¡­ Unarmed. I warn her. ¡°You should also get a weapon. I wouldn''t want to hurt you by accident.¡± ¡°Do not worry. I have no intention of letting you strike me.¡± She seems very confident that she can stop my attack. I enter the training circle as well. She stands with her arms down at her side. She begins to speak as her stance changes. Her hands are both open and in front of her. She bends her legs down dropping her stance a few inches. One leg out in front while the other is behind her body. ¡°¡­Begin.¡± I sit for a few seconds. Waiting to see what she is going to do¡­ She just stands still¡­ Waiting for me to attack. I want to attack her¡­ Something feels wrong though, like the second I do attack her. I''m going to regret it. I slowly walk towards her. Inching closer and closer. Being overly cautious for what the situation is. I am armed and she isn''t, the fight is clearly my win. I''m within striking distance of her. Out of the reach of her attacks but mine will connect. I go to move forward to attack and raise my sword above my head. The moment I do this she moves towards me and grabs my raised arm. She slams her hip into my stomach, knocking me off balance right has she wrenches my arm downwards. Using one of her legs she sweeps my feet out from underneath me. It happened so fast I couldn''t even respond to it. I instinctively yell out. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Chapter 92 Learning Aikido ¡°I figured as much. That would explain why you''re attacks were so predictable.¡± ¡°I still don''t understand what you mean. How can you predict the attacks of a dragon?¡± ¡°All of them were the same type of attack¡­ What I just did to you is called a counter attack. All of your attacks against me were straightforward single attacks. Very easy to predict. You also only swung your weapon horizontally or vertically, making you even more predictable.¡± ¡°...How do I get more unpredictable then?¡± ¡°Well, there is a few things you can do. Some are easy to fix¡­ You should practice attacking from different angles with weapons. That is a fairly easy solution to stop most people from predicting your attacks as easily¡­ The second way is by using more than one type of attack at once.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, there are a lot of different ways to attack an opponent besides head on. The majority of your attacks are all that, direct single full strength attacks. By combining several different types of attacks, you can get more out of each one then the single type of attack. My throw was a counter attack, combination attack and immobilization attack.¡± ¡°What are all the types of attacks then?¡± ¡°There are five different types of attacks all together. Single full force attacks, also known as direct attacks. Counter attacks, you can bait the enemy into attacking you and use their movements against them when they do. Combination attack, this is several weak attacks chained together to deal more damage or offset an opponent. Immobilization attack, which you attempt to pin the opponents body parts to limit their movements. The easiest way to do this is to use your own body or their body against them. Finally, feint attacks.¡± While she said that, she walked over and punched at me. I instinctively moved to block it with my gauntlet hand. As I motioned to block though the attack never came. Instead I felt a weak attack on my stomach. ¡°I didn''t have to hold back my real attack. I''d just rather not get covered in whatever you''ve eaten for lunch today. All of these attacks can be used together. Now do you see why you are so predictable? You''ve only been using a single type of attack instead of mixing several types of attacks together. A feint can be used together with a direct attack at the opponents now weakened spots. A combination attack can be used to offset an opponent in an attempt to pin their arms under their own body.¡± ¡°So¡­ How do I learn how to use these attacks together without spending hours, weeks or even months doing so?¡± ¡°Well¡­ The easiest way is to find a teacher for a martial art style. Most people have spent their lives perfecting techniques which they use in battle. A teacher would certainly shorten the time it takes to learn different combinations of attacking and defending¡­ Before you even ask, no I wont teach you¡­ You''re fighting style wouldn''t match up with mine very well¡­ I would say try to learn from the shogun or the transmutation master. Both of them are adept in martial arts that would suit you¡­ You could also try to make your own styles up¡­¡± ¡°How do I make my own though? Wouldn''t it take far longer than if I was taught one?¡± ¡°Yes it would take longer¡­ It''s just... Your way of fighting, is very strange... When you blocked my attack with your foot, I was very surprised. I thought for sure the fight was going to be over with that attack and you managed to stop it. So even though learning a martial art would be fine. Fighting with your own unorthodox style would most likely add to your unpredictability.¡± ¡°...I guess that makes sense¡­ You''re very talkative when it comes to this stuff.¡± ¡°I''m actually a teacher for the younger ninjas who are suited for heavier fighting. So when it comes to explaining things. More tends to be better than less¡­ Speaking of which, I can teach a few of your generals if you''d like. Perhaps those two I challenged first? Maybe you have some others in mind? Just tell them¡­ I won''t go easy on them at all, in fact I will train them harder than I would my own followers.¡± I feel there is an ulterior motive behind this¡­ Like she is trying to gain a favor from me¡­ It might be something else. She smirks and I feel a twinge of fear go through me¡­ I almost feel sorry for everyone who is going to be put through training against her. She said I should also think of other members who would benefit from the training. Fast comes to mind¡­ Maybe Lance if he isn''t busy. I still need to teach Fast another class. Sock would be good, also Gobber but he''ll be too busy¡­ She mentioned Nargzar and Leon¡­ Perhaps she has a crush on one of them. Lust begins to speak. ¡°I doubt it. She has the look of someone hungry to hurt someone. Not hungry for something else¡­ She must not like one of them¡­¡± ¡°Well that''s not good¡­ I hope she doesn''t permanently injure one of them just because she doesn''t like them¡­ With how much she doesn''t like me, I''m surprised she didn''t put me through the training anyways.¡± Aegis interrupts the conversation next. ¡°Either way. You might be able to learn it from whoever she teaches if you spar against them long enough.¡± I suppose I should go get my followers to have them learn from her. Nami might be more into training than myself. I doubt anyone who goes through the effort of learning from her, is coming out sore and bruised. I head to get them¡­ Maybe I should have all of my generals learn from her, even the ones not cut out for combat¡­ No¡­ It would take up too much of her time, it would make more sense for her to only worry about ones with an aptitude for close range fighting. I get everyone who has shown any skill in close range combat. All the generals who were on the ships, Nargzar, Leon, Sock, Lance, Trice, Fast, Strong, Tough. Then I head back to the fortress through a portal and game even more. Brick and Green are sparring. Methodis who was overseeing their fight also volunteers. I send Epieoth and Zergnar as well. Heading back to the ships, Red also volunteers. Even though she is not suited for it, she said it might give her an advantage over Blue. I set them all up. And watch as Nami goes over the rules, she shews me out of the room. Outside near the door almost eavesdropping is Leaf. What is she doing here? She looks mad for some reason. Which is uncharacteristic of her, she yells at me. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°You take all of your generals off to train and don''t include me!?¡± I doubt the training they''re about to go through would suit Leaf¡­ Should I take her with me to train with the shogun? Lust cuts me off. ¡°YOU BETTER! If you don''t go on a date with her, I''ll keep talking about all sorts of naughty things I would do to Gobber if he wasn''t married. I''ll go into extremely uncomfortable detail. So you better do it!¡± I explain that they are going to go through a very difficult training regimen. One that wouldn''t suit myself or her. I ask if she would like to accompany me. She agrees as we head towards to shoguns castle. Heading inside I explain that Nami sent me here to learn from him and that Leaf is also here to learn. A smile forms on his face. ¡°Oh, so you think my training will be easier than Nami''s? It is a good thing you brought a spare healer. I''m going to break your arms several times to dull your feeling towards pain.¡± He walks over to me to demonstrate. ¡°Hold your hand out.¡± I waveringly put my hand out. He grabs my hand and twists it with ease. I feel the joints and muscle instinctively move to avoid tearing as I drop to my knees. As he continues to apply pressure my body rolls with the direction he''s twisting. As I roll he switches the way he was applying pressure. I feel my bone snap under the weight of my own body rolling! Fuck! A surge of pain shoots through it. Damnit! Was this all a ploy to cause me pain!? CURSE YOU NAMI! Leaf starts healing my injury and my body begins to regain it''s focus, he begins to speak. ¡°What I''m doing¡­ Is making your body accustomed to pain. Also, the method of which I''m inflicting pain is through joint locks and throws. Normally, this is used to avoid injuring your opponent. With healers though, we can speed up the process of learning if you feel it in your body. Also, by taking pain repetitively you will build up a tolerance to it.¡± I stand up and hold my hand out again. But he shakes his head, that isn''t what I''m supposed to do. ¡°Come at me. I''ll consider your training successful if you can land a single attack. The young missus should take this time to watch intently to see if she can find any openings or just watch to see what you do wrong.¡± I proceed to charge him and get thrown or slammed to the ground repetitively. Sometimes he snaps bones while throwing me. The pain is still unbearable, I doubt a single day of immense pain would build up my threshold. After an hour of getting man handled by him, I change my strategy. Nami had mentioned my legs being a big part of my fighting style. So I start to focus on using my legs in combination with attacks with my hands. The first attack almost strikes him, catching him off guard. He dodges it instinctively and after the first strike I don''t connect a single hit the remainder of the night.
Aikido martial arts learned- (mastery level novice) Very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
I''m beyond exhausted by the end. Leaf is anxious to try her time tomorrow. I learned enough that with continued practice, I''ll be able to improve it. Learning multiple martial arts would suit me more than mastering one. We wait until my generals return from their training session with Nami¡­ Wow! We''ve fought raid bosses and my men look far more damaged from training than fighting for life or death. The only three who are walking as if they aren''t worn down and out of energy is Green, Red and Trice. I ask Green why not. ¡°That mouse bitch is strong as fuck! I must have just learned faster than everyone else because her attacks were far less effective against me.¡± I get some looks from my other generals¡­ I seems that Nami might have taken it easy on the females¡­ Easy is a relative term, the entire conversation we had, Green''s nose perpetually bled. I cast a healing wind to help ease their injuries. Methodis had went with them but had only lasted a single round before he was knocked unconscious. They dragged his unconscious body behind them. I doubt anything besides the hot springs at the fortress will make any dents on our soreness. I fall asleep immediately once I hit my bed. After waking up I follow everyone else back to train with Nami. After speaking for a few moments, it seems that she wasn''t holding back against them because they were females. It appears she overestimated Methodis and knocked him unconscious with a single attack. She gauged everyone after that with light attacks first than used stronger ones. Trice and Red could only handle mild sparring but Green was another deal all together. Apparently, Green was shouting curses the entire fight and Nami didn''t know how to deal with it¡­ Apparently, she could throw her off her game enough to make her attacks less precise, just as Green had said. Me and Leaf separate and head towards the shogun. After speaking with him about Leafs training. Watching for an hour before realizing his training with her is far different then with me. He takes it far easier on Leaf and it is very clear that it is because she is a girl, unlike Nami, who was an equal opportunity ass kicker. I separate from them and head towards the transmutation master. It doesn''t take very long to get to him. I land near his camp and approach him. When he sees me he starts yelling. ¡°HEY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? You become my apprentice and then take a week off? What kind of apprentice are you? I have the mind for fire you.¡± ¡°Oh yea¡­ I forgot about that¡­ Sorry, I came to learn a martial art from you¡­ Nami said you could teach me.¡± ¡°Well, I guess I can teach you both. But only if we focus on one first. It should only take fifty years to learn either. Which would you like to learn first?¡± ¡°I''ll pick the martial art first then¡­ Also here is a stone to help with your transmutations.¡± I hand it to him and begin to explain how to use it. ¡°While it is touching your body. Depending on the transmutation you''re trying to do. It works as that type of tra-.¡± Before I finish my explanation, he eats the stone. Chapter 93 Learning Circle walking ¡°W-W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Don''t eat that!¡± It is already too late. He had swallowed it before I got out the first word out¡­ It doesn''t look like he is in pain¡­ He coughs up some blood and begins to speak. ¡°What a weird tasting berry¡­ Sort of tasted like blood. I''m not saying it tasted bad¡­ Just different.¡± ¡­ I don''t know what to say¡­ Or think¡­ He just ate a sharp stone and besides some bleeding, he looks fine¡­ Perhaps I could eat one as well? Aegis begins to speak. ¡°I would like one of each please.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Not sure how you will use the eye of the beholder though.¡± ¡°I''ll just pop it out to see with it then reform it inside me. I might even be able to see around corners if I form a stalk to prop the eye out with¡­ It will give me a weak spot though.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I hate to say it, I''m actually afraid to replace one of my eyes. So it would work better if you had one just to be safe.¡± I still need to learn from him¡­ I hope he can still teach me without any side effects from swallowing a sharp rock¡­ I wonder how that is going to effect him¡­ Will he eventually absorb it or will he have to¡­ pass it... ¡°Alright lets get started then. Which martial arts do you know already?¡± ¡°I''ve only just started learning aikido from the shogun. I don''t know much though.¡± ¡°So you prefer soft form to hard form then?¡± ¡°I''ve never heard it said like that before. What is the difference.¡± ¡°Did the shogun teach you nothing? Soft form is focusing towards deflecting attacks made by the opponent rather than dealing damage to them. Turning force against itself. Hard form takes a more direct route to fighting. Fighting force with force¡­ Almost everyone specializes in one type or the other.¡± ¡°Are their any types of styles that use both together?¡± ¡°HIHEHAHO, I''ve never heard anyone ask that before. I know one style that uses two separate parts. I only know the soft form of that style¡­ If you mastered that, you could use it to attempt to create the counterpart¡­ Just, suggesting using both... You sound like a crazy person.¡± He laughs again and spits up a little blood¡­ Then begins to speak again. ¡°What I''m going to teach you is a style that is from a different region of the world. I''m not originally from around here. Traveling far from the east¡­ Or was it the west? Regardless, the style I''m going to teach you is called circle walking. The style I''m going to teach you is called yang form, or gentle palm. The alternate style of this set is called yin form, or hard fist¡­ Did I get them reversed?¡­ I don''t remember...¡± ¡­ Maybe learning from him might not be such a good idea¡­ ¡°Alright, for training today¡­ Try to get me to use more than one finger while defending myself.¡± ¡°¡­ Are you serious? Even the shogun was using his whole body in defending against me. I don''t mean to assume.¡± ¡°Try first before you make conclusions.¡± ¡°Well¡­ The shogun was also injuring me more than he would normally because I can heal myself. He also said that through pain I would learn faster¡­ Is there any chance you can do the same.¡± ¡°Of course¡­ We''ll change it from one finger to two then. If I''m going to be attacking and defending I''ll need at least two fingers.¡± I let out a little laugh before he stares daggers into me. I immediately realize how serious he is being. We take our stances, me with my new aikido stance. Both hands in front of me but lowered. He has is body turned sideways from me, one hand juts out almost to a point where it is fully extended. I slowly edge towards him¡­ Unlike the shogun though, he starts moving. Walking, keeping me in the center of his pattern¡­ How am I supposed to get close to him while keeping my guard up? I start to move towards him faster but he only speeds up as well. In order to reach him I would almost need to rush at him, that is the strength in his fighting style. It forces you to attack at an unguarded pace. Fine then, I''ll fall into his trap. If I was afraid of getting injured, I would have never fought against the shogun. I start to move towards him. At a much higher speed, fast enough to reach him even if he speeds up. I make a grab for his clothing but he pushes my hand into my other one with two fingers. The entire time continuing to move, fast enough to get behind me with the help of the guard he just did with his two fingers. He speaks while moving. ¡°You said you wanted to be taught through pain. I''m sorry for what I''m about to do.¡± He barely finishes his sentence before I feel one of my ribs crack. With two fingers, almost using his fingers as a knife he broke a bone. That is beyond scary if he can do it with only two fingers. I try to turn to face him but he continues to stay on my back. Poking me into submission. A few more stabs and I fall to the ground in pain. He kept his word of only using two fingers. None of the attacks he made were normal to his fighting style. He is only attacking as a means to teach me faster and help me. I take a breather to heal myself¡­ The bones inside me also cut into me as they formed sharp edges. Sort of like a delayed knife after his fingers struck me. I do feel as if I''m becoming more resilient to pain. If I hadn''t went through the shoguns training. His first attack would have most likely had me on the floor. He is looking at me intensely, more my hands than anything. ¡°Did he only break your hands?¡­ I wonder why?¡­ Can I see something? Stick out your hand for me.¡± I hold my hand out and he immediately twists it, breaking it with ease. ¡°Ah, I see what he was trying to accomplish. By breaking the same bones over and over again, he was trying to build up the calcium in those particular bones to make them stronger. Normally breaking a bone wouldn''t permanently strengthen them. But breaking the same bone over and over again will. Especially if you do it rapidly like that. Having the bones in your arms strengthened right now while your still so young...¡± He seems to go rummaging around for a few moments. Throwing various things out of his tent. Returning with a bag full of pills. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°These are calcium pills. These will help your bones absorb more calcium to continue to get stronger as they are broken. I haven''t had a use for them because I''m in great shape.¡± Almost comically timed he coughs up more blood. ¡°But you will need them. You should also eat as much meat as possible before training to build up muscle.¡± Well, I got that covered in spades. Yesterday I ate five pounds of basilisk with my new expanding stomach from the contract I made. I should naturally be able to use this meat as fuel to become stronger¡­ After fighting the shogun and fighting the old man today¡­ I have no doubt I''ll need to eat the same amount tonight which is beyond the human limits of food consumption¡­ This snake contract is both a blessing and a curse in that regard. ¡°Take one of these pills and we will begin again. With how the shogun has treated you, I''ll also target the same bones over and over again¡­ Perhaps after we''re done for tonight I can break all the bones in your body a few times?¡± ¡°...Please, lets just stick with the training for now.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I take the pill and get stabbed in the chest. My rib is broken right near where my heart would be. Shit he didn''t even give me time to take a defensive stance. I stand up and he''s already moving towards my back. I do a spinning attack to try and catch him off guard but he easily jumps my leg and with his two fingered strike breaks the leg remaining on the ground. Shit! I thought other bones breaking hurt! My leg bone getting broken is like a different level of pain. I fall down and go to heal myself, before I can he breaks my other leg. ¡°Ouch! I thought you said you were sorry for what you were about to do. Now it seems like you enjoy hurting me.¡± ¡°You''re a very fun punching bag. It isn''t every day a healer wants to fight someone and encourages injuries. You could say I''m taking advantage of you wanting to get strong fast as a way to test out theories and the like. Also, you bring this weird food for me to eat and I''m pretty sure it is causing internal injuries. You shouldn''t try to kill your teacher.¡± ¡°That wasn''t food! It was a stone that would make it so you wouldn''t need a transmutation circle.¡± ¡°...¡± He gets up and grabs and old helmet. He begins enchanting it with a weak effect before realizing what I said was true.¡± ¡°AHHHHH!? Wait what is this!? I can do enchants without a transmutation circle¡­ I must have been able to do it because I''m a genius when it comes to transmutation¡­ I doubt it had anything to do with that weird berry I ate like you said.¡± ¡°¡­ Can we get back to training please?¡± I spend the rest of the day getting my bones broken over and over again. This time all over my body instead of just my arms.
Baguazhang (Circle walking) martial arts learned- (mastery level novice) Very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
After training that day I head to pick up my other generals. Heading to Leaf first, she is covered in sweat. Her training was most likely hard, not nearly as tough as what I was put through yesterday. The shogun notices me. He is looking intently on my legs. He asks a question. ¡°Was that old man strengthening your legs? It appears as if he improved on my idea to strengthen your hands¡­ If you have a few moments, I can break your legs a few more times today.¡± ¡°No, I''m good for today¡­ How is Leaf''s training going.¡± ¡°For having no classes that would improve her fighting abilities, she is a very quick learner. I would say almost learning as fast as you. If you both attacked me together you might be able to strike me a single time before I knocked you both out.¡± We head to meet up with the other generals¡­ I thought I was put through hell. This time Methodis was still conscious, even with him constantly healing, I still notice the amount of soreness of all my generals is far greater than yesterday. What did she put them through? Nami notices me¡­ She looks at my arms¡­ Then my legs¡­ Then asks the question I was afraid of. ¡°Hey Kite, you want to spar with me real quickly¡­ I want to test something out.¡± ¡°If you''re going to break my arms and legs to see if they are stronger¡­ Don''t bother, both of old men who are teaching me have done so enough for a lifetime.¡± ¡°It is odd they would take to an outsider so easily. I expected them to teach you halfheartedly but it appears both are going all out in your training¡­ You are beyond an enigma when it comes to people liking you¡­ Can you tell the female general of yours to¡­ Not scream so much during fights¡­ It''s so distracting I can''t fight against her seriously.¡± ¡°Are you talking about Green? I don''t expect you to know this, on the battlefield many people fight the same way as her. Screaming and cursing as they attempt to kill another person¡­ This is good training for you as well if you ever plan on fighting in wars. People will do whatever it takes to catch an opponent off-guard¡­ I once caught a bandit with his pants down and ran my sword through his stomach before he managed to pull them up¡­ That was a few lifetimes ago though.¡± ¡°Why?¡­ Aren''t we supposed to be better than the people we''re fighting?¡± ¡°Well, in a perfect world we would be. If the enemy is willing to fight dirty and you''re not. They already have an advantage over you. Do you remember when the pirates invaded before? That was them using dirty tactics to beat you before the fight even started. I plan on doing something similar in my fight against them.¡± ¡°¡­ I guess that makes sense. It just seems unfair to fight that way.¡± ¡°They have hostages. They outnumber us 5 to 1. They have a very good leader. I''m going to do anything in my power to even the odds. Some things might be seen as fighting dirty. I don''t care, I''m not afraid to hit below the belt if it saves the lives of my men.¡± Chapter 94 Back to Merideth
Authors note. The plural of sensei is sensei. It will be used to refer to both of his teachers while using their professions of shogun and transmutation master (or old man) will be used to describe training against each one separately.
It has been a week since I''ve started my training. By training I mean getting my bones broken over and over again every single day. Fighting without weapons and skills has started to take form. I''ve become more accustomed to taking pain, to the point where even when my bones are broken. I barely flinch. I have been able to push both of my sensei to the next level of their training. I''ve landed a single attack against the shogun in the form of a suicide throw after he had pushed me down. Launching him in the air, while he landed on his feet it was technically a hit. The transmutation master has taken to using both his hands to attack with. Still only using two fingers on each hand but that means I''m twice as big of a threat. While fighting against my sensei, I''ve started using the stance they use. Only switching between stances as a last ditch effort to land an attack against them once my defense fails. My role as the attacker is far from fair. These stances I''m learning are for defensive purposes, meaning they have an advantage over myself when it comes to fighting. Which is fine, as long as I''m continuously learning, I don''t mind getting beaten by someone stronger than myself. The training outside of sparring¡­ Is beyond insane. The shogun is easier with this. Normal training routines like push-ups, sit-ups, running and weight training. Hand standing for a few moments than taking a few moments of rest. Things I''m used to for training. The transmutation master uses far more¡­ Unique methods. From circling around a tree while holding my stance the entire day. To taking my stance with pots filled with water in my hands and forced to hold that position. I''ve done some normal training like squats and the like. The main difference is he would strike at my throat with weak attacks, always when I am not paying attention. He is trying to make a very weak point on my body stronger through repeated blows. He also wants me to block the attacks but they come to fast for me to stop. All of my other generals come back to the ships covered in injuries if Methodis was knocked unconscious. If he wasn''t, they come back with soreness from the blows they received in practice¡­ Nami is a monster to be able to fight against so many strong generals for days in a row. A few have gotten much harder to beat. Her attacks barely glance off my dexterity generals. I taught Fast the ninja class when he wasn''t busy, so he has to practice his new ninja class after getting beaten on for training. Leon seemed to be eavesdropping on the lessons I was giving. I''ve decided to spend a year inside the tree to train this new form of fighting. I can also try to master a few other techniques of my own. It would also help me redesign my generals weapons, repair all the gear of my entire army and make pills for everyone to use. With that in mind, I''ve started having my men move supplies into the top floor. I''ll also need a sparring partner. Because of this, I''ll have all of my generals who are training against Nami take a day off to go through the two week time tree period. The top floor is over halfway full of supplies and gear to fix. Meaning I''ll only be able to choose 1-3 other people to train with for the year. Heading down I wish all of my generals luck before closing the doors and starting the two week time extension. Without me inside, I hope none of them go crazy but I''ve left enough medicine to hold them over in case they do. Seeing as they are people, I doubt anyone will have reaction as negative as Darkclaw''s. I train with my sensei that day. Telling them that I''ll be taking a day off soon¡­ And that afterwords I may have become far stronger. They laugh it off like it is an impossibility¡­ I can''t wait to see the looks on their faces when they see I''ve aged an entire year. The aspect of being inside a single room for an entire year is a bit too much to take in. So I''ve had my enchanting crew work on storage scrolls to use as rooms. They are also working on making portal scrolls to replace to teleport circles. I''ll also use this extra year to go through the memories of Lust. I haven''t been putting it off but I''ve just been so busy with learning new fighting styles that I haven''t had any time to go through her memories. The amount of things that have been put to the wayside of this war against the pirates can be dealt with in this year. It will also give me time to catch up my lower level classes. I might even be able to push a few passed to 50 in this time. ...I''m slightly worried though¡­ Even with my preparations I feel I might still run out of things to do and become so bored within this time that I will go slightly insane and start talking to myself¡­ More than I already do¡­ Training is fine, but taking a break every¡­ I need to head back to the capital first and buy as many books as I can to stave off my boredom. While I''m there, I can also head back to the slave auction with a mask on and try to buy some non human races to learn from¡­ Speaking of which. I head back to my fortress and talk with the dwarves. They''ve all become accustomed to living here. They visit Shienta fairly frequently but the living quarters they have at the fortress is better than what they could afford if they tried to run away. One of the children has started mining with the other miners. They''ve uncovered a few more veins, one being adamantine, the amount they found was too small to use though. I hope it was only the inkling of something bigger they haven''t found yet. Kora is overseeing the excavation. Under her leadership the mines have made many improvements¡­ To be honest I completely forgot about her... Thinking about it, I haven''t thought of the members of my mansion for a long time. Besides the ones I see almost every day. It makes me feel sad that I can just forget about the people who have been through so much trouble. Some have even died¡­ From what I''ve heard from Trice, most of the men put up a fight to protect them¡­ None of them survived¡­ Donna was the only maid killed. Trice said her heart gave out when they started the attack¡­ The stable master had freed all of his monsters in the village to give more people the chance to escape. Deuce managed to put up the biggest fight besides my parents. Killing a half dozen of them by himself before they overwhelmed him¡­ I know this sounds cruel but I''m too busy to get bogged down by feelings right now. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I approach Kora and ask if I can talk to the oldest male dwarf who had recently started working here. I''ve already asked all the other dwarves if they had learned any new classes, skills or jobs, with none of them mentioning anything. The son spoke up. ¡°Yea, actually a few days ago I unlocked a new job called miner. I can teach it to you if you want¡­ But you have to give me some of your blood as payment¡­ Some of the kobolds have said that your blood is a very potent alcohol...¡± ¡°I would agree¡­ But aren''t you a little young to start drinking?¡± It is hard to tell how old a dwarf is. He is a male who hasn''t started growing a beard yet. So he is under ten years old. Unless he shaves it, which wouldn''t make sense because to a dwarf their beard is one of their most valuable possessions. ¡°Heh, I guess you don''t know dwarves very well. My youngest sister was raised on bottles of beer instead of milk when she was a babe. Dwarves don''t believe in any certain age to start drinking, they just drink.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Far be it from me to go against your beliefs.¡± I give him an entire bottle of my blood as compensation for him teaching me his new job. I tell him to drink it slowly as it might be hard to come by alcohol this rare.
Job learned Miner- Able to mine more effectively Miner passive skill added Geode finding- Can find pockets of minerals easier, gives you a feeling when hidden geodes are around
¡°Tell Kora about your job, you might get promoted to foreman depending on how accurate that sense node is¡­ Actually I myself can feel one right above our head.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I can''t feel it, maybe you have a stronger sense for some reason?¡± ¡°...Perhaps because of pirates find treasure is helping it.¡± I leave them to dig. I hope whatever was giving me that spine tingling feeling I had is worth something. I still have to head to the capital. I''ve left an elementalist stay there to protect my house. Some of my gnolls have also started visiting the city, slowly making the people become accustomed to the weird sight of a calm gnoll not bent on pillaging. I go through the portal and after a quick meeting with the elementalist I head on my way. I stop at the book store first, collecting as many books as I can fit into my void bag. With the weight of the books I can barely move effectively. I''ll be glad I got these books later once I lock myself away. I am wearing a mask at the moment. I would rather not anyone recognize me from the time I killed someone at the slave auctions. Wearing masks isn''t very common in these towns. I doubt anyone will stop and question why I am wearing one though. I slowly walk toward the slave auctions again. I''m by myself this time. I doubt they have any elementalists up for auction today. I really need a few elves though, normally they are bought for their beauty. I need them for other reasons though. Lust speaks up. ¡°Well¡­ We could also use a few for their beauty if you wanted to¡­ Is what I would say if I wasn''t so completely against slavery.¡± ¡°I get your feelings, it sickens me as well but it is a necessary evil to buy slaves¡­ What I have planned for them is by far the lesser of two evils.¡± The auction goes as excepted. Almost all of the slaves being sold off are humans from the lower quarters who have committed crimes or have racked up an unpayable debt. A few dwarves are being auctioned off and I buy them. Another family left by another father... Seems to be a pattern forming... An elf is brought out and after bidding the price up to two gold I win her. We finally get to the final and main event of the auction. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen. Today we have something very special. Some of the kings men have returned from their expedition to the north with a very rare creature. Trolls are big, strong and can regenerate. He''ll do anything you want as long as you feed him. That is of course, it doesn''t require to much brain power because they are very stupid.¡± A half dozen guards come pulling out a giant of a creature. Easily ten feet tall. He has a terrible hunch or he might even be fifteen feet tall. Big enough to be a raid boss. Potentially as strong as one too, given the right conditions. The trolls hands are bound with so much rope it seems to be impractical. I know better than that though, that actually seems like barely enough to contain his hands. They must also have him on some type of sedatives. If someone else paid for him, they would have a rude awakening once they wore off. ¡°Lets start the bidding for him.¡± The dwarves who I have bought and are standing close by start to shake as I bid on him¡­ I should have brought a few people to help because carrying him back would be a very difficult task for the few slaves I''ve bought. I''ll figure something else out. Maybe buy a cart and horse to carry him. His price just continues to rise. I doubt anyone else has thought of how they are going to get this troll back to where they need him. The few people who are regulars have a few guards with them. Perhaps they had the heads up that a troll was going up for auction today? I might be able to convince them to let me borrow their men. ¡°I bid two gold.¡± The man I was eyeing is the one who bid on the troll. I doubt he''ll be happy to lend me his men if I outbid him. This might get expensive¡­ Having this troll for fighting my battles could go a long way. Even having him protect my fortress with Rock would be worth more than a few gold. I made no mistakes this time. I have enough gold to buy ten trolls more than everyone else. Still, I have no idea how I''m going to-¡­ The troll thrashes, throwing three of the guards holding him off. He starts shaking as he tries to break the restraints on his wrists. Breaking them after struggling for only a second. Both hands released with enough momentum to knock the other two guards off of him. Sending them flying off the slave block. The crowd starts to panic as the troll lets out a guttural roar. Chapter 95 Fighting the troll The troll grabs one of the guards with both hands and picks him up. He is going to slam him into the ground and kill him. If he does, I doubt anyone would want him to remain alive. I have to jump in to stop his assault on the people. If he dies, I want to be the one to kill him for the chance at blue mage skills. I don''t know the giant language. I have no way to communicate with him. I do know what they believe in. Trolls care for nothing, only for food¡­ I wish I had some on me. I drop my void pack holding the books. I huge weight is lifted from my shoulders as it drops to the ground. I shield charge at him and kick his arm, forcing him to drop the guard. Using a gust of wind to cushion the guard''s fall. He lands and immediately runs away in fear. I form a wind wall between myself and everyone else. I''m the only one in close contact with this troll now. I shouldn''t go all out against him. I''m getting too strong, I might accidentally kill him. If I can avoid killing him, I should. I especially need to avoid using fire based attacks. I can''t talk to it¡­ How do I get through to it? I need something besides food that it likes. Trolls are technically not a monster, they are a humanoid but they still worship the god of death. How do I use that to-. He swings his hand down at me before I can finish the thought. I go to avoid it but almost instinctively, I don''t dodge. Instead remaining where I am and barely moving to avoid his attack. While he swings I use two fingers to poke into his arm. I can feel his skin wrap around my hand, barely touching the nerves I temporarily shut his hand down. Trolls are known for their regenerative abilities, that doesn''t mean I can''t start shutting his body down. I start covering the area in my numbing poison breath. The poison will be dispersed by my wind wall so only the troll will be effected. It appears to be wor-. I''m grabbed by the hand that swung down at me. It isn''t strong enough to crush now but he can still pick me up with it. Shit! He can already use it again. He picks me up easily to his eye level. I continue to punch him to no effect continuously casting my numbing breath with little effect. He looks at me with disgust before holding me above his head. He''s going to try and slam me into the ground! WHAT CAN I DO!? THINK! I form shadow wings from my back. I have claws! I remember just when he is ready to throw me, I cut his eyes out. The wound will heal but it is enough to have him let me go. I use my new wings to catch myself as he dropped me upside towards my head. The only thing that is effective against trolls is poison and fire. I could burn him but it would ruin the value of him¡­ The only conclusion I have then is too immobilize him. Continuing to blow numbing breath in his face, I am now also covering him in spider silk. Enough to be an annoyance and slow his attacks even further. He swings violently with no eyesight at where I would be if I wasn''t flying. He begins to scream very loudly, he is talking in a language I don''t understand. Most likely the giant language trolls speak. What is h-.
Osmosis activated
Learning the Giant language
I can understand him somewhat now. ¡°You GOROCHA! I kill GOROGCA here before I serve any of you GORCHALLA.¡± I speak up now. ¡°I AM NO WEAKLING. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO STAND DOWN BEFORE I STOP GOING EASY ON YOU.¡± ¡°Who is that!?¡± ¡°The one who has been fighting you rather easily until now.¡± His eyes have almost completely healed now. He looks towards my voice and sees me flying, black wings shoot from my back. Most likely a sight he has never seen before. ¡°You are no human. What are you?¡± ¡°I am a dragon, join my army and I''ll make sure you remain well fed and you can fight in intense battles to sate your blood lust. If you refuse I will kill you without mercy.¡± ¡°¡­ If what your telling is the truth¡­ Why are these humans not fleeing in fear at the sight of you?¡± ¡°HAH! These fools think I am a human because of the form I am in right now. Just placing a mask on my face is enough to trick them! Last chance before I unleash fire down upon you.¡± This is sort of a long bluff. While trolls worship the god of death. They aren''t cowards, meaning if he doesn''t believe me even a little... My bluff will fail. He has to believe 100% that I am a dragon for this to work... At least the wings and my weird fighting style have helped make my lie more believable. It would suck to kill him, he would make another amazing guard for the fortress. And just like Rock will be very valuable in large scale battles in the future. ¡°¡­ Please don''t use fire. I believe you and will serve you.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Alright, I will purchase you from these humans and we will head back to my fortress before the day is over.¡± I land in front of him and turn around. The crowd is standing there speechless at what just occurred. It seems like they just watched a play of some sort happen. Where a small child stops the raging beast with some type of incredible magic. I think a few have recognized me as the dragon that blew someone apart but haven''t said anything. I head back towards my seat and increase the bid¡­ The auctioneer proceeds back to the auction. As if what just happened never did. I win the auction for the troll with 5 gold. The man who was there for it seems angry but doesn''t make a big deal out of it¡­ Which is good for him. I head towards the troll and climb up it. Sort of riding on its shoulders. The weight of the books isn''t a problem for the troll and it also helps to serve the fact that I might be hiding my true form. I am easily 300 pounds with the weight of the books which the troll easily carries on his shoulders. My ragtag group of dwarves an elf and a troll return to my house¡­ How do I get him back to the fortress now¡­ There is no way he is fitting inside this house to use the portal home¡­ I could bring the portal outside for him to use, everyone of the onlookers would notice if a giant troll had suddenly vanished though. He is getting looks still, many eyes are upon the troll who is not causing a ruckus inside the town. Many people look with eyes that show fear at him¡­ Some people can never change, they''ll always look at anything non human with those eyes of disdain and fear. ¡°Stay here for one second. I need to go get something from inside, it should only take ten minutes.¡± I head inside and back to my fortress to get a teleport scroll. Going back through the portal, I get the elementalist from the house. Telling her to escort the other slaves I had bought through the portal in the basement. The dwarves are just the like others. Afraid beyond any means of explaination, I try to explain anyways. In dwarven. Thankfully the mother of this family speaks common. The elf is far different. She hasn''t let her eyes leave me even for a moment. I finally speak to her in elvish, it almost feels weird speaking in elvish since I''ve never used it besides while I was learning it as a child. I explain the same thing I just did to her that I explained to the dwarves. She looks surprised but quickly speaks. ¡°So, a human child of no more than 14, speaks common, dwarven, giant and elven. Fights on the same level of a troll and owns what seems to be a house that has a portal in the basement¡­ A portal that is extinct magic¡­ Either you are lying or you are not a human.¡± ¡°Well¡­ You are partially right, I know far more languages then those four. I had to hold back my strongest attacks to not kill the troll¡­ And I have far more than a single portal seeing as I can make them. I would rather not lie to you but for now you can think of me as a dragon.¡± ¡°¡­ Fair enough. You did purchase me fairly, it seems you have no plans to try and have sex with me. So I''ll follow you for now. If you''re not taking the portal back yourself, then I wont either.¡± ¡°Fine, you can travel out of town with me that troll and a gnoll to collect the portal scroll once we travel back.¡± We exit and start making our way out of the town. I dropped my book filled void bag off at the fortress so I am not riding the troll. In the slums we''re almost robbed but I seen his approach far before he made it to us. He bumps into me trying to steal but before he can make his way away I pin him to the ground. He had attempted to steal my false pouch, filled with no more than ten silver. The fact that he would attempt to steal from me with a giant freaking troll behind me says something about how desperate he is. ¡°Walk with me and explain why you would risk stealing from someone being accompanied by a troll. If I like your reason, I might give you some money.¡± He warily stands up. Not really knowing why I would be so generous. It seems that whatever he is stealing for is beyond his fear of the situation. We continue to walk towards the exit when he begins to speak. ¡°I-I''m from a poor family. My father left to fight the north when I was young. Leaving behind my mother with four children. We received payments for a few months but they stopped coming. A few months later we received a letter stating his death from a surprise night attack. I''m just trying to provide for my brothers and sister since I am the oldest.¡± ¡°It doesn''t seem that you are lying¡­ While I believe you¡­ You are old enough to get an apprenticeship at a place of work that would help provide for your family. Why haven''t you done that?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I am a lowborn¡­ It would take too long for me to learn anything so no one would ever higher me.¡± ¡°If you could learn any job. Which would you like to learn.¡± ¡°Well¡­ Anything to help me provide for my family would be nice. I do like the idea of blacksmithing more than anything else though. I know a blacksmith near my house and he seems nice enough. He even tried to make me his apprentice for a few months. Without me learning though I was wasting too much of his materials for him to keep me as an apprentice.¡± ¡°Alright. Follow me. Elf, sorry I don''t know your name... Can you speak common?¡± She doesn''t answer me¡­ Good, that means she wont realize I am teaching this commoner a job¡­ Unless she is playing dumb¡­ I guess it doesn''t matter. I teach this commoner boy blacksmithing as we walk towards the exit of the city. It takes around forty minutes to teach him. We''re almost at the line of the forest when he finally learns it. His eyes shoot open in surprise when he does. He can''t thank me enough and he tries to run off before I stop him. I hand him my false pouch with the little money in it and pull out my real pouch. Fishing out 3 gold and 50 silver and adding it to the pouch before he starts to cry at the sight. Clutching the bag in his hands, he runs back towards the town¡­ Now with that out of the wa-. The elf speaks in common. ¡°Did he really just learn blacksmithing that quickly?¡­ Not many humans would do that for a person, even if they could. A dragon would never be nice towards another race, especially when it comes to giving away money. So you aren''t a human or a dragon like you said¡­ What are you then?¡± ¡°I expected as much, you could be any age so it doesn''t make sense you would not know common. Even forest elves learn common as they would need to trade and communicate with local races.¡± ¡°That didn''t answer my question. What are you?¡± ¡°I guess you''ll just have to stay near me to find out¡­ Speaking of which, what is your name? I would rather not call you elf forever.¡± ¡°You haven''t earned my name or story yet, as you haven''t told me your name or story.¡± ¡°My name is Kite.¡± ¡°My name is Fayeth.¡± Chapter 96 Two weeks later for other people We head back to the fortress through a portal scroll. That left a scroll in the middle of the forest, which is why I also brought a gnoll with me to take it back through the teleport circle in the basement. First thing first, if I don''t get this troll fed he''ll kill as many people here as he can. Everyone else is probably starving as well. The dwarves have already been ushered through the portal and are in the main room eating already. It seems the other dwarves have noticed them and a few of the children are talking with each other. I get a gnoll and send him to get the rest of the dwarves so they can meet each other. We get food, my meal is as large as the trolls. Each of us has several pounds of meat. I also have side dishes of some vegetables. We''re going to need to get another basilisk soon as we''re running out of it''s meat. The troll eats his food far faster than me¡­ Not because it was a race, I might have beaten him then. I like to savor my meals, eating them as slowly as possible. All of the people eating with me have already finished and have begun to watch me. I''m eating as much as something four times my weight. It takes me almost an hour to finish eating. The dwarves all left, almost none of the people who were there at the beginning of the meal have stuck around. Only the troll who wanted another slab of meat to eat. Only after he realized I was capable of eating the entire meal. As if to show that he could eat more than me. Fayeth is also still around. Analyzing every detail about me, still trying to figure out what I am. The troll would never have been able to fit inside the fortress, if I wasn''t having it slowly expanded in order for Rock to be able to walk through it. Also the narrow passages isn''t good for an army that numbers almost 1000. It was expanded to be able to fit the giant troll and several followers side by side¡­ I guess I have to say it otherwise they''ll keep following me until I give them direction. ¡°Troll¡­ What is your name?¡± ¡°Trolls don''t have names.¡± ¡°Alright, your name will be Troll then to keep it simple. You''re job here is to just make sure you kill anyone that tries to attack the fortress. You can eat whenever you are hungry... And this is your only warning.¡± We''re now outside. I need to emphasize this point or he might try to kill people inside the fortress. He needs to know I am the boss. ¡°I see these people as my family. You are also part of my family now. Don''t hurt your family Troll. If you ever hurt your family... MY FAMILY!¡± I change into dragon form. Using my tooth to crush a vial than adding two scrolls. I fire off the biggest attack I''ve ever done. HOLY! I guess it has been a few weeks since I''ve done an attack. I also became a true elementalist and have unlocked elemental alignment since I''ve used it. My attack is easily twice the size it was before. So strong it almost burns my face in the process. This attack is too strong to use two scrolls now. Instead I''ll reduce it to one scroll which will double the amount of big fire blasts I can do... Unless I can think of a method to use it without injuring myself. Troll looks surprised. Fayeth looks even more surprised. Even scared. That attack was on par with Darkclaw''s. Perhaps if I made a protector for my face, one that dropped down to cover it when I used the attack. I could use this giant attack without risking damage to myself¡­ I guess I have been waiting for a reason to make myself an upgraded set of gear. Fayeth begins her questioning again. ¡°What are you!? You can''t be a dragon, dragons don''t care for family. Humans¡­ Don''t make friends with so many different races... Humans can''t shoot fucking fire out of their mouths either!¡­¡± ¡°¡­ It seems you can also speak giant as well. I have to be able to trust you before I can tell you my actual story. Until then I guess I''ll have to wait for yours¡­ What I said to Troll¡­ It also applies to you. If you hurt anyone inside my fortress. I find which forest you are from and burn it to the ground. What I said wasn''t a lie. I see you as family now too and if you hurt anyone here. I will kill and eat you.¡± Lust speaks up in my mind. ¡°I want to eat her¡­ Not in the way you are thinking though.¡± ¡°Really Lust. At a time like this, can''t you time this better?¡± ¡°Hey I only make jokes when you give me the chance. You should ask her if she is good at anything. She doesn''t have a task inside the army as it stands.¡± I ask her. It seems that she has four different jobs already. Two stuck out more than the other ones. She had a specialization job similar to dwarves mining called bowyer. She also already knew blacksmithing, which seems weird for an elf to know¡­ She has three classes. One which was the ranger class. I get excited when I here a class I don''t have. As far as I recall, Elves have the same restrictions as humans. The job/class limits are all different for each race. Making it hard to remember which can learn what combination or classes/jobs. So she has broken both the job and class limits for her race¡­ Which is beyond ordinary. ¡°How did someone so strong become a slave?¡± ¡°I was first sold into slavery by my village elder. That was almost fifty years ago. He had sold me for far more than what you would normally pay for a slave. I was to act as the mans bodyguard and he quickly tried to make it¡­ More than that. I killed him for attempting to rape me and was put into the slave trade since then. It has led to many escape attempts or me killing my buyers for trying the same thing but it always ends with me back on the slave block.¡± ¡°So I guess you want to go home then? I give you permission to leave if you want... After you teach me the bowyer job and ranger class that is.¡± ¡°I want anything but to return to my homeland. I have no family left there. The village chief had no reason to sell me off besides that our village was getting too big. He might have also sold off other members of the village around that same time¡­ What do you mean by teaching you? I doubt it is possible since they are both race specific.¡± ¡°Well, consider it a trade I suppose. You teach me those and I teach you another class and job for your trouble. I know that you''ll be amazed and ask what I am again. Especially after I learn from you then teach you in a few hours.¡± It takes slightly longer than expected, once again I think it was partially Fayeth trying not to teach me.
Class learned Ranger passive skill gained Favored prey- After killing types of monsters or people repetitively, develop an innate ability to kill them Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!Level 1 passive skill gained Rapid fire- Increases the fire rate of bows as you level
Job learned Bowyer- Able to craft superior bows
New prey added- Skeleton, Slime, Wolf, Spider, Bat, Goblin, Bandit, Pirate, Viking True prey added- Evil
Wow¡­ Just wow, that is a lot of new information. Just thinking of any of my favored prey I can see their weaknesses. I could also put myself in their mind. Following patterns and routines they would normally follow. I have to test out rapid fire before I teach her. I grab my bow¡­ I haven''t needed to use this for so long... It doesn''t feel natural in my hands anymore. As if I have grown to the point where this bow doesn''t suit me. I''ll have to make one that feels better to hold. I use the bow anyways. Firing as many arrows as possible. Three arrows per shot, I run out of arrows within 30 seconds¡­ WHAT THE FUCK!? I had 60 arrows in my void quiver! I fire easily twice as fast as I was able to before¡­ That is including the upgrade from dual shot to triple shot. If I used tracer shot with this speed, I could potentially fire 120 arrows in thirty seconds¡­ I guess it is also because the bow has a low draw weight... Far to low too fire at full strength. Some of the arrows didn''t even pierce the target. If I increased the draw weight, my arrows could pierce more at the cost of firing at such an insane speed. I''ll need to make a new one while I''m in the tree. I still need to teach Fayeth. We settled on thief and tutor as her class and job. She already had archer, fighter and ranger. The jobs she had was wood worker, bowyer, blacksmith and construction. Most were the ranked up versions of those classes and jobs. The last two jobs she learned from years of work in between being a slave. Bows aren''t nearly as common as swords. So she picked up blacksmithing to increase how much money she could make with her skills. Even if the town she was staying in had a blacksmith, they would always need another person with construction. We speak about what she wants to do. I explain the whole situation. How the demon tribe was being pushed to extinction and fighting against the pirates was a ruse to get them off the front lines. How I''ve slowly moved my armies into the range of striking soon against the pirates. It seems that she is very intent on helping me now. ¡°While I don''t know what you are. I do know that your cause is noble. Just watching you I know that you are a kind person. I will help in any way I can.¡± Today has been¡­ A very long day. The sun has only just started setting. Tomorrow we''ll see which of my generals might be able to handle the year of isolation for training. So much was done today... Hours of planning and moving materials into the top room of the time tree in the morning. Followed by hours of training, very intensive training. Then buying the slaves to add and learning new classes and jobs. The troll didn''t have any to learn. Hopefully once I teach him he''ll learn one I don''t have. I definitely need to make him some specially made armor and a weapon now. I go to bed¡­ Waking up slightly early, today is the day I lock myself away for an entire year¡­ I''m anxious and couldn''t sleep well. I decide to visit both of my sensei before I leave. This will be the last time I speak with either of them for an entire year. While they''ll only see it as a day¡­ Anything else I can learn from them might help tide me over and push my training further than if I go now. I visit the old man first. I know that the shogun tends to sleep in. A few times I visited him early he was still sleeping. The old man is up already. He looks at me slightly confused, I normally visit him second. So me being here this early must throw him off. He was stirring a pot of his ¡°Hair tonic¡± which I haven''t seen him do since our first meeting. ¡°Sensei¡­ I''m not going to be here for training today. I just came here for advice¡­ If I was to disappear for a year, without you teaching me. And you could tell me to do anything to help me get stronger or learn faster. What would it be.¡± ¡°¡­ I would say¡­ Continue your exercises... What else can I tell you?¡­ If you disappear for an entire year, you''re fired so don''t do that. Um, I guess I can give you this last advice.¡± For a moment, I feel his odd behavior shift and stop for just a moment. His eyes stare at me with an unseen focus up until this point. ¡°Kite, stop putting all this pressure on yourself. The biggest problem with you is you are putting all of this unnecessary weight on yourself. Everything isn''t all on you. You are a small cog of a bigger machine, if you overwork yourself and burn out the entire machine stops working. Do the job of your cog, not all the cogs around you.¡± He gets up and walks towards his hair tonic. Proceeding to stir it. Before I leave he adds one more line. ¡°HIHEHAHO! You should use weights in your training though. Those weights are totally necessary compared to the emotional weights. You should take a few bottles of this hair tonic with you. They also make a great soup.¡± He takes a sip and immediately spits it out again. This is someone who ate a sharp rock with no problems. "Too much salt in this batch." ¡°N-no thank you. I''m fine with my hair and I''ve just eaten.¡± I separate from him and head towards the shogun. His advice is far more predictable. I guess because he isn''t a crazy person. I head to the time tree just as the doors open. Just like my pets, once the doors open everyone comes rushing out. Besides a few people. Everyone runs quickly towards the exit but Trice, Lance, Leon and Leaf¡­ I think I''ve found my training partners... Chapter 97 Time for an upgrade ¡°We''ll leave tonight. Get everything in order, as we''re going to be stuck inside for an entire year¡­ This is your last chance to back out.¡± Trice speaks up. ¡°I don''t think I could do an entire year, so count me out.¡± With Trice gone, the only female left in the group is Leaf¡­ ¡°Leaf¡­ I don''t want you to go.¡± She looks almost sad at me saying it. I quickly explain. ¡°I-it isn''t like that¡­ I just meant¡­ If I get a year older and you don''t¡­ We''ll be a year closer to the same age.¡± She turns away embarrassed. That is one of the reasons... I don''t want to tell her that if she was locked inside with me for a year I would get no work done. ¡°Remember we''re going in later tonight. You should have your answer on whether or not you can stay inside for an entire year by then." We talk for a few more minutes. I still have so much to do before we head inside. Every ounce of preparation before entering can help pass the time inside the tree once the doors are closed. I go and collect a dozen feathers from Darkclaw. He winces in pain from the first one, so I make some numbing poison before I remove the rest. His feathers are very slash resistant. Bludgeoning weapons work far better to hurt him, which most people wouldn''t have or expect for a dragon. I still need at least four more philosopher stones. I''ve adjusted it so my troops can collect philosopher''s stones by themselves. It doesn''t take the job to make philosopher stones. Only the transmutation circles, it seems that with the transmutation stone you gain the transmutation job without taking a job spot¡­ Meaning it is potentially one of the strongest items in the world. It is in my best interest that none of these fall into the wrong hands. One of the drawbacks is that the stone is very brittle, if you were to drop it on the ground it would shatter. Even the transmutation weapons are potentially more valuable than most rares or legendaries. As it can constantly make more philosopher stones¡­ I need to make sure that only me and the old man know the true value of the transmutation stones and weapons¡­ The old man is too crazy for anyone to believe the transmutation stone story anyways. I also doubt the old man is going to say anything. I head there to collect the stones. Two of each kind¡­ I guess I could try swallowing one of these transmutation stones¡­ They are fairly big though. At least the size of my finger. Eating a sharp rock the size of your finger isn''t a good idea. I think the pros outweigh the cons in this situation. I have to swallow it in one gulp though¡­ I put it in my mouth but can''t force it down¡­ How did this old man do this!? I need to get something to drink to trick myself into swallowing it. It might also help reduce the cuts to my throat as it goes down. It is pretty painful but I can se-. STOMACH PAIN! OUCH! FUCK IT HURTS! It feels like knots are being tied in my stomach, ahh! So much pain! Why do I do this to myself!
You''ve become a living transmutation circle
My pain starts to ease¡­ The pain slowly fades but doesn''t dissipate. I heal myself but I feel the transmutation stone cut into my stomach as I do. Almost embedding itself in¡­ This is going to be a painful next few days until this disperses. Aegis speaks up. ¡°Me next, you should also try drinking one of those false soul stones. If what Epieoth said was the truth, you should have mana mixed in with your soul that might work similarly to a monster.¡± I guess that makes sense¡­ Somewhat¡­ It might be dangerous to eat two stones this close together¡­ I''ll use Aegis as an experiment first. ¡°I heard that. I also don''t think that would matter, seeing as I am indestructible. Even if it would cause you more harm it would do nothing to me.¡± ¡­ I drink the liquid as I hand Aegis a transmutation stone. It doesn''t taste to ba-. FUCKING AGAIN!! More pain, another level of pain! It feels like regrowth did when I tried to repair my arm! So intense! It hits my stomach. AHHHHHHH! The two philosopher stones are mixing together! This pain is beyond anything I''ve ever felt before. I the pain is so intense, I lose all other senses except the one that feels pain. I grab for my heirloom sword. I''ll cut it out of me before I go insane! The pain of my stomach being cut open would pail in comparison to what I''m feeling inside of it. My hand shakes as I grab for it. My body starts to seizure and I can''t cut into myself¡­ It¡­ It feels like I''m growing! I pass out from the pain¡­
You''ve created a new race High human- (As the creator of a new race, your life will determine the characteristics of this new race)
Life span doubled
Grow faster towards peak form of fighting, stay in peak form for longer than normal humans
All main stats increased by 100
New high human passive skill gained Adaptability- Able to change to certain situations, every mistake is learned from, every failure is improved upon
¡°Greater gods note¡± Be better¡­ Be better for you now have the future of an entire race on your shoulders (p.s. I look forward to seeing what you do)
I wake up a few hours later with some pain still inside my stomach¡­ It seems that I''ve absorbed both philosopher stones¡­ DID I JUST EVOLVE!? What was the greater god talking about? What does p.s. mean? Aegis answers me. ¡°Hurry! You''ve been out for hours now! You need to go to the time tree.¡± Shit! I rush back towards the time tree. Even with some pain still in my stomach, I feel faster than normal. Lance, Leon, Leaf and Trice standing outside waiting for me. Leon yells out when he sees me. ¡°What the!?¡± ¡°I know, I''m sorry I am late.¡± ¡°That''s not it. Your scars are gone! It looks like you''ve grown a few inches too!¡± I look down at Aegis and use his metal as a reflective surface. What!? Scars I''ve had on my face since practicing the first few knife and knives cannons are gone! I take off my shirt and look at my left arm. The entirety of pinkish skin from my arm being blown off is gone. It almost looks like it was replaced with a new hand. Almost all of my previous injuries are gone¡­ Even so¡­ For there to still be a pain in my stomach¡­ Even after a life altering change in my body the pain was so strong it stuck around. Even the calluses from intense training are gone¡­ What about my strengthened bones? Aegis speaks up. I hope this pain dissipates... I hope the soul leech didn''t absorb any of the stone... I don''t think he did... That was more painful for myself then him most likely. ¡°Before we go in. Give me those two other philosopher stones.¡± Aegis'' memories I''m not sure when I was created or when I gained sentience. I knew I was different, born in a world of complete darkness the only thing I could do was focus on seeing. I learned sensory field showing me what is happening close to me. Giving me pseudo vision and hearing. The demigod of creation gave me the insatiable appetite for eating metals and gems. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He then starved me for hundreds of years in that dungeon. He had it in his mind to only give me away to a worthy adventurer¡­ Thus started the routine of people entering the dungeon, noticing me, getting very excited, pulling me from the pedestal, then being killed after attacking the demigod of creation. Hundreds of years of this routine. It continued this way with no exception besides the people who didn''t try to loot me. Apparently the rumor started of the unclearable dungeon. Which changed into the dungeon with the impossible death trap gauntlet. I had no say in the matter as I was just stationary with no voice. The worst part of it was, anyone who would eventually get me, I would be bound to until they died or I got cut from them. With nothing happening over the years. I took to trying to expand my sensory field. What was a field very close to my body. Expanded to that of being able to see 3 to 4 times further away. Life was boring, the only thing I felt was hunger. I couldn''t communicate it though, I could only sit around. Being stationary without the ability to speak. Until Kite''s group finally entered the room. It was¡­ An odd group to say the least. Several gnolls. Gnolls that were armed with weapons you would normally not see gnolls with. A female knight covered in so much armor it was difficult to tell she was a female. A hobgoblin, which is already rare¡­ Covered in armor similar to that of the gnolls. Finally the most unassuming of them all. A child entered the room. I felt bad when the giant killed children. He had before in the passed, some children seem to rush towards death like this one. Not waiting until they understand how dangerous the world is. The hobgoblin spoke when approaching me. ¡°Master, it seems there is a very strong gauntlet in here. We should take it!¡± Who is he talking to? Is it the female knight? Maybe the bigger gnoll¡­ The child spoke up. ¡°We have to be very careful Gobber, the gauntlet is on a trap pedestal. Anything could go wrong once we take it off the pedestal. Just get ready, we might need to flee the room in a hurry.¡± ¡­ This child is very smart for someone his age¡­ It looks like he hasn''t heard the rumors about this dungeon though. The second he lifts me off the pedestal I know his fate is sealed. The giant comes rushing in¡­ Something is different¡­ What is happening!? The child made no attempt to fight the giant. Because he didn''t, neither did anyone else. The giant chuckles¡­ This child is having a conversation with giant as if his life isn''t on the line. He said something that angered the giant. He seems to have calmed the giant down though. He continues to do this¡­ The giant gets mad again¡­ So mad he slams his club down right next to the child. The child doesn''t flinch, he just continues to explain his point. The demigod grabs me and I feel a part of myself being ripped off of me. The child continues to talk with the giant¡­ Then I feel something being added to me. The tiny portion that was ripped is instantly replaced with a power far above what was lost¡­ This child has just done what centuries of people couldn''t do. He just made a deal with a demigod, a deal in his favor. A favor that gave me a voice¡­ No one could here me no matter how loud I yelled though¡­ So hungry for so long¡­ I cry out hoping for an answer from someone. ¡°Feed me.¡± Aegis'' point of view The time I''ve spent with Kite has been the best of my entire life. Hundreds of years on the outside than hundreds of years inside the dungeon added to barely being fed. My time with Kite I''ve been fed more than all my other years alive. Not just quantity but also quality. I''ve been fed things I wasn''t even sure existed. Delicious things like a black sword, now I have the chance to eat more rare items. I''m not technically a monster. I am a item with a voice, I also act somewhat like a leech. Sort of siphoning Kite''s powers to change my form or give him a boost during fights. So I''m not 100% positive this false soul stone will even work¡­ The other one has, absorbing it instantly while Kite made a big deal about it hurting him. He also finished his false soul stone once he handed the transmutation stone to me. His reaction was far¡­ Worse than I thought it would be¡­ I was there when Kite lost his arm¡­ There when Kite tried to regrow it¡­ I''ve seen him in pain but¡­ That was almost unbearable for me. Kite speaks, handing the entire vial of liquid to me as I absorb it, glass and all. ¡°Here goes nothing Aegis¡­¡± ¡­ I feel nothing¡­ I''m disappointed more than I thought I would be. I feel as if I''m letting Kite down. While I don''t see myself as his pet, I do see myself as his partner. I just¡­ Want to be as helpful if I can¡­ This person who gave me mountains of good food¡­ I feel¡­ Something that I haven''t felt before¡­ What is this feeling?
You''ve become a monster
You''ve evolved into a living gauntlet
Unlocked the ability to learn classes
Living gauntlet passive skill unlocked Telekinesis- Can move things (including yourself) with you mind power (gets stronger with practice)
Whatever that feeling was, it is gone¡­ I''m not sure how to explain the feeling. It feels as if I let Kite down and I feel bad¡­ But not quite that¡­ Could the feeling I just felt have been pain? Kite speaks up¡­ ¡°I can''t inspect you anymore¡­ That must mean that you are classified as a monster now.¡± ¡°It seems my monster class is living gauntlet. While I won''t let you tame me, we''re partners. I don''t see you as my master. I will still follow you Kite¡­ It does seem greedy but after listening to Greed for so long, maybe he rubbed off on me a little.¡± Everyone around us is now staring at me¡­ Did I say something? I speak up again. ¡°C-can you four understand me?¡± I''m only greeted with four nods from Kite''s generals¡­ It seems I can communicate telepathically, somewhat similar to how Purple speaks. Purples was far more precise, able to target specific people. I feel that once I practice this more I would be able to communicate further away. Purple also had a limit, I feel I could communicate with everyone inside my telepathic range but everyone in range would hear it. Kite speaks again. ¡°Well¡­ I guess I''ll give you the last philosophers stone you need then. After this we''ll head inside.¡± Kite hands me the eye of the beholder. I absorb it easily¡­ This time there is no pain but I can feel another change, sort of the feeling I had gotten when the demigod gave me the symbiotic effect.
Additional monster variant added metal eating mimic
Metal eating mimic passive skill gained Metal consumption- Consume metal to increase your permanent mana and the strength of your telekinesis
Sensory field increased from 15 to 30 foot radius
New skill gained Sensory zoom- Look with far greater detail at an object than you naturally could, can focus your sensory field in one direction to increase the distance you can see
Chapter 98 Three way fight We head inside¡­ Going to the top floor¡­ I''m starting to get nervous again. It is just¡­ Being locked inside for an entire year¡­ No escape¡­ No normal person could train for an entire year straight without having mental problems¡­ I mean, when I was a child, before I came to Shienta I trained everyday non stop but this is¡­ Worse... It is different. Leon and Lance both look similar to me. Trice and Leaf came with us and look the same way. As if they are nervous for us. I''m surprised both decided to go through with it. Leon looks around the room for a moment. ¡°It doesn''t look like we have nearly enough food to survive in here.¡± ¡°Yea, we don''t need much food. The tree will give us a food supply.¡± ¡°How is that?¡± ¡°¡­ You were inside the room for two weeks. Did you not figure it out?¡± ¡°No, we almost ran out of food and had to ration it out the last three days...¡± ¡°¡­ Oh shit! I''m sorry, I should have told you about the fridge that the tree can form. It should have enough food for all three of us to live off of. I also have a 3month food supply just in case.¡± ¡°So you mean to tell me we almost starved because you forgot to tell us something!?¡± ¡°¡­ Yea¡­ My bad.¡± Well, now everyone is mad at me. I guess almost starving with that much food they didn''t know about around¡­ How was I supposed to know they didn''t know how to get food? Even Leaf looks at me angrily. I feel like such an idiot right now. I can think of all these complex patterns and ways to get stronger but little things like this slip my mind. ¡°Well¡­ Sorry again, little things just... Sorry you almost died because I''m an idiot... Leaf and Trice close the doors on the outside. Until they close the remaining doors the trial wont start.¡± Leaf''s point of view We close the doors locking in the three of them¡­ It feels like I''m losing again. It feels like Kite is leaving me behind. Once these doors open again they''ll be an entire year stronger¡­ It hurts my heart to think I''m slowly getting left behind again¡­ There is nothing I can do though¡­ Why am I so weak? I¡­ There has to be a way to get stronger. Trice seems to notice the frustration I''m having. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± ¡°It''s¡­ Just¡­ They''re going to get a whole year stronger¡­ What if Kite gets so strong he doesn''t need me anymore?¡± ¡°¡­ I feel the same way with Lance¡­ Well, I guess not the exact same¡­ Lance is so reckless I''m not sure I''ll be able to stop him from rushing to his death. Being in his party helps alleviate some of the stress but¡­ There is always some left...¡± ¡°Can''t we do something? I just¡­ I don''t want to get left behind by everyone.¡± ¡°Do you want to stay in one of these time chambers?¡± ¡°I thought you couldn''t handle it¡­ I don''t want to force you.¡± ¡°I said I couldn''t handle being stuck inside for an entire year. I think I can handle a month or two.¡± ¡°Just a month would help me feel better. It would help me focus more on training than anything else¡­ We just need to remember the fridge thing Kite was talking about.¡± ¡°Yea, before we enter. I would definitely like to gather some supplies. I doubt they''ll even know we didn''t close the doors yet. Let''s prepare before we lock ourselves in.¡± Kite''s point of view We''re going to have an actual battle to start. Sort of seeing how strong the three of us are. Once we exit here, we''ll have another fight to see how much stronger we''ve gotten. We square up like I did with Darkclaw and Sock. All of us standing towards the other two, sort of forming a triangle... Who is going to m-. Leon rushes at me. Big mistake, I have too much burst I can do now. I activate all my buffs. I form my shadow doppelgangers. Giving my shadow wings to my left clone which is Aegis. The will make his attacks more unpredictable since he can fly. I start to take in a breath for what seems to be a dragon breath attack towards Lance who is also running at me. He dodges out of the way¡­ It was a bluff the entire time. I shield charge into goblin punch combination at Leon. My attacks are coming out too fast for him to counter with his wooden training tonfas. He was also so focused on attacking that he barely even attempted to defend. He makes one punch which is easily dodged by me, far to straightforward of an attack. I punch with my retractile claws outstretched, Aegis pulls the metal back around my fingertips enough for this attack to connect with both hands. Soaking them in my numbing poison before hand. I don''t cut enough to leave scars. The attack is enough to beat Leon. He didn''t land a single hit before he was defeated... He should have thought his attacks through better. Just me against Lance now. Both of my shadow clones are still up, that entire fight with Leon was only a few seconds. We all rush towards Lance together. With all my buffs still activated, both my shadow clones still up. Lance will be on the ropes the entire-. Lance rushes in. What is he planning on doing!? I take an actual breath while preparing for him to get close. He thrusts his training spear at me while also throwing out a kick. Yea right, that isn''t going to work against me anymore. I block his training spear by palming it away from myself. His kick landed between my legs as I walked. I continued to walk, pushing his foot away off balancing him enough for his wooden training spear to miss completely. He looks amazed at my dodge up until he got a face full of poison breath. Enough poison to drop a troll, it phases him but isn''t enough to finish him off. HOW!?¡­ It is enough for my two clones to get two strikes on him, knocking him down since his body was weakened form the poison... What has Nami been teaching these idiots? ¡°Are you two for real right now? What was that!? You didn''t make any intention of hiding your attacks against me.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Lance and Leon answer almost together. ¡°Yea what was that!?¡± Lance took over the conversation. ¡°You move just like Nami does. It is like you know which moves we are going to do before we even do them.¡± ¡°I sort of do, every attack you used was easily predictable. You need to add variety to your attacks other than swinging your weapon around¡­ I guess my numbing breath is good enough to weaken you¡­ Sock wasn''t foolish enough for it to work on him¡­ Leon you barely got an attack off before you were defeated, did you really think you could beat me with a regular jab when I have all my buffs going?¡± This seems to deter Lance¡­ It feels like something is wrong with him. Lance wouldn''t fall for a trick like that so easily. I didn''t even need my poison breath against Leon¡­ Did Sock beat them when they were training together? It seems the only thing they''ve been doing against Nami is get beaten up. Neither have been fully learning from her at all¡­ I guess the only thing I can do is become their teacher as well. ¡°So what moves has Nami taught you two?¡± Leon answers this question. ¡°Just a bunch of unarmed techniques. I don''t think I''ll ever use them outside of unarmed sparring.¡± ¡°¡­You guys get your asses kicked by someone repetitively like that and don''t think maybe she is so strong because she is that strong unarmed? You both are too reliant on your weapons. If you don''t start soaking in this training your going to get left behind by everyone taking it seriously¡­ Like Sock.¡± It seems I was right. I guess neither of them put it together. Why was Sock (someone who lost to Gobber in one hit) suddenly so much stronger. It is because he cared about his training, taking the losses in stride to become stronger from them. To the point where he was so focused on learning he caught up and passed everyone else who was above him¡­ I guess losing to Gobber might have been a good thing in the long run. I had fought against them without Gear¡­ Gear is in here but he doesn''t have training weapons attached to his hands, he could seriously injure someone if he fought against them. Using him is essentially doubling the amount of people they are fighting, so it would feel like cheating. I haven''t needed to use him in so long that he has just been sitting in my room in the castle mimic¡­ Trice always has her Gear mk2 with her. I plan on upgrading Gear¡­ At least to the point where he can move on his own. So I''ll be adding folding legs to him, sort of like his hands. Maybe they can double as another pair of hands if he is in backpack mode. They have both went off to a corner to sulk. Lance is hitting a dummy with his spear while Leon is running laps around all the supplies I stored here. I could understand Lance''s loss, he wasn''t expecting a new breath attack. Still, he seems almost weaker than he was before... Maybe it is just my imagination? Maybe I''ve just gotten that much stronger. I call out to both of them¡­ ¡°So, do either of you know what you did wrong in that fight?¡± Neither of them answer, both continue doing what they were doing. I think I might have encouraged them both too much. ¡°Leon, I easily seen you moving towards me to attack as you rushed full speed. This gave me plenty of time to set-up a counterattack. I bluffed my dragon breath towards Lance so that you and him would be separated far enough for me to finish you off with no repercussions from him. Also you were so focused on attack I easily beat you before you could even land a single attack. You need far mo-.¡± Leon cut me off. ¡°WE GET IT! YOU GOT STRONGER AGAIN! YOU ALWAYS DO BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID CLASS! Stop rubbing it in our faces!¡± ¡°What are you talking about!? We''re all getting stronger, when you get beaten you have no one to blame but yourself¡­ What happened to you two?... You both used to put in more effort to get stronger...¡± ¡°We all just can''t bounce back from a loss like you!... When Nami beat me in our first fight, it was as if she wasn''t even trying to win. I trained my ass off since then and all that got me was more beatings from her¡­ Do you know how humiliating it is to lose to the same person over and over again?¡± ¡°¡­ Until a few weeks ago¡­ That is all I did was lose¡­ I guess you weren''t there from the beginning... When we set out on our journey. Me, Lance and Kattie, the first enemy I fought was a slime¡­ I almost lost to a slime¡­ Do you know how much of a setback that was from my last life!? I was clearing tier 5 and 6 dungeons easily in my past life. A group hired me to tank an easy dungeon for them and I ended up falling into a trap room with a very skilled enemy that killed me.¡± It seems what I''m saying is starting to sink in to him. Neither of them speak so I continue. ¡°I was forced to start over from nothing¡­ I knew what real strength was, so I tried to reproduce it with my weak body. Even still I continued to lose. Almost every single fight I was in, I lost or got knocked out. Every loss showed me a kink in my makeshift fighting style. Losing is nothing to feel bad about. Losing is the quickest way to get better. It shows your weakest points, the ones people better than you are going to exploit until you fix them¡­ Instead of fixing them you''ve given up¡­ Stopped getting stronger... I guess that is where we''re different. I''m just a better loser than you.¡± Leon finally speaks. ¡°¡­ How¡­ How do I get stronger then?¡± ¡°You try hit me. Until you can hit me you don''t stop. Every time you get knocked down you get up again and fix your mistakes. When you can finally hit me you are stronger than when you couldn''t hit me. Then you keep hitting me until you can beat me. Then beat me until I can''t even hit you. Then I have to get stronger otherwise I will get left behind¡­¡± We square up. My motivation has gotten him excited. The spark in his eye is back after that, the spark that Nami had put out. He charges at me and I sidestep him with circle walking and grab his arm that he tried to hit me with, slamming him down on his stomach with an aikido throw¡­ As excited as he is, he still has a long way to go to catch up to me. Chapter 99 Lusts first memories It has been a solid week of non stop sparring. Leon and Lance are both far more competent fighters when it comes to being unarmed. I''ve taken this time to teach them what my sensei have been teaching me. At least in the form of knowledge, not stances or techniques. I think if they start learning 2 soft forms. They''ll lose a lot of knowledge of their 2 hard forms. It seems that they have learned two from Nami. Something called karate that the shogun had taught her. Then the old man had taught her a style called taekwondo. Even though they were novices, I still managed to pick up both styles from fighting them.
Karate martial arts learned- (mastery level novice) Very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
Taekwondo martial arts learned- (mastery level novice) Very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
Karate is a very straightforward fighting style. The main thing is it includes an insane number of attacks. Punches, kicks, throws, holds, combinations of these are all a part of this style. Taekwondo is far suited for my style. Focusing almost primarily on kicks, ax kicks and round houses are extremely strong. This fighting style suits me far better than it does either of my generals. Lance had far less to go to be able to fight evenly with me. Even during our first fight before we started sparring. He used a combination attack. A direct attack from his spear mixed with a surprise attack (kick). If he didn''t give it away far before he was in range it might have worked. Even with the two new styles added to me. Both have started to get better and better at fighting. Leon has made the biggest improvements. It seems the fire I lit under him has finally started to take form. I wont lose though, my superiority in fighting right now wont stop me from improving every fighting style I''ve acquired. I''ve started to work on a useful attacks for each of the main types of attacks. For direct attacks I have kicks, ax kicks and round house kicks. Right now I can do a stronger version of the ax kick. The suicide ax kick, involving a front flip to build momentum, once I practice it more, I might be able to land it. As I am right now I normally, end up on my back regardless of if I hit with it or not. Making it useless now with the possibility that it will become better with practice. Making a singular move for counterattacking is impossible. The entire thought process behind counterattacking is to turn their attack against them. Honestly with my practice in aikido and circle walking I have this more than covered. Both fighting styles give me plenty of ways to counter attack. The best one I''ve found for a frontal attack is a open handed block followed with a palm strike. No matter which way the attack comes you can easily parry with both hands and attack with both hands quickly. For combination attack it is simple. Without using a skill I can just mimic the goblin combination punch. Throwing out rapid succession punches with little force that build off of each other. There is a particular throw Nami had used on me that I''m going to steal for myself as well. It is called a hip throw. One two punches are also effective. Immobilization attacks are completely covered by aikido. From joint locks to grapples to holds to pins. Aikido is completely defensive in that sense, allowing me to both counter attack and immobilize more effectively. Honestly the best immobilization attacks I have are the nerve strikes from circle walking. They can shut down almost anything if you hit the right spot. Feints are my favorite method of attacking. Often used in combination, these attacks are the ones that throw off Lance and Leon the most. With how much training we''ve had to block attacks they still do it almost instinctively. Throwing a feint at their face always leaves there body and legs open for attacks. Even with experience in taking hits it still happens instinctively and is the hardest thing to counter because of that. When I first open with a combination attack, I normally with throw a feint out to have them block then aim at the undefended areas. I haven''t thought of a set of moves that would use all five types of attacks together¡­ Maybe if I combined skills I could think of something¡­ I have almost a year to figure something out¡­ I still have so much more to do though. I go into a meditation. I have to go through Lust''s memories still. While training is fine it would be best to go through her memories earlier while in here. The bonuses I get might help me in my training. Greed gave me more bonuses than anything else once I absorbed him. Hopefully it is similar to him when I absorb her memories. Kite going through Lust''s memories The first memories I have are of my mother holding me. She is walking through town, speaking with everyone she comes across. When people tried to speak with me I turned away from them towards my mothers bosom. I think I was around 3-4 years old. It is hard to tell. The next memories I have are all of my house. Three people I had been living with. My mother, a chesty women with blonde hair. She was the beauty of the village. It felt like everyone had a crush on her and whenever I would walk around with her. Everyone would look at her. It was almost like she was a piece of jewelry that people were surprised to see whenever she blessed them with her presence. My father who would disappear for weeks at a time. From what I found out was because of his job as a merchant. Just like my mother, he was the most handsome man in the village when he was around. Well dressed but muscles still bulged out of his clothing where it was tight, showing that he was not afraid of doing work when it was necassary. The final member is a maid my father had hired to help with work around the house. While not as beautiful as my mother, she was still very pretty. Dark short hair shoulder length covered her head. She was very smart compared to most people and one of the few people I got along with as a child. Her name was Vesta. Even though I didn''t enjoy it. I still walked into town with my mother. She would buy fruits and vegetables, even though we have a maid, she still likes to help with the housework and cooking. Sometimes flirting the price down on items, not a single person disliked her. Vesta was a well known teacher before she fell on hard times. Sometimes children would come to learn and old students of hers would visit. While I already had two classes as I was a high born, I still learned many things from her. How to read and write, history of the world which isn''t commonly taught by any schools. Later in life, near my 6th birthday Vesta started to ask what I would like to do when I grow up. After weeks of prodding me, with me giving shy and sheepish responses. I finally responded with what daddy does for a living. From that moment on, she started teaching me the merchant job. She went out of her way to learn merchant in order to teach it to me. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I continued to be tutored on everything until I was ten. In that time I had started practicing my summoner skills. I conjured a cat familiar I named Twonk. I like calling things funny names like that. The studies began to become more focused at that point. Mostly with mathematics and business. Slowly becoming more reclusive as the time went on. I slowly stopped going outside with my mother¡­ She tried forcing me out a few times but my shyness continued to get the best of me. It had gotten to the point where when my father would return home. My mother would let me speak to him but quickly usher me outside to play with the village children¡­ I don''t like playing with them, one of the boys picks on me. His name is John, he has short sandy blonde hair. His clothing was always dirty or ripped from playing. His favorite method of picking on me was putting bugs in my hair, which I hated. He came from a poor family and I think that is why he picks on me. One time I stayed outside the house and peeked through the windows. It looked like mother and Vesta were trying to wrestle daddy. I''m not sure why but none of them had cloths on. Maybe they didn''t want them to get sweaty? Another two years have passed. John, who used to pick on me sometimes comes by to ask if I can come out to play. If me or Vesta answers, he doesn''t get an answer. But if my mother answers, she forces me outside¡­ He stopped picking on me but now he acts like me a little bit. I''m not sure if he is making fun of me or not. I think my mother is doing what is best for me. It still doesn''t feel very good as I enjoy being by myself more than with other people. Two more years like this had passed. I was now 14 years old. I started to realize that John had a crush on me. I didn''t want to hurt his feelings, so I decided to be his girlfriend. I started traveling with my father as practice for my future job. The few times he''s done business, I''ve had to correct his mathematics. It appears that he kept overcharging the people buying supplies from him. I had to make sure they were getting the right price. He told me what he was actually doing after that¡­ During my travels with him, I had brought Twonk with me. We had gotten into fights with monsters so my father told me to also summon another 2-3 familiars for fighting. I didn''t really need to use my white magic very often. So having a few familiars out at once isn''t much of a problem. I summon a warrior, black mage and bird familiars. Their names were Woorior, Magey and Buurd. I gave Woorior a piece of red cloth to tie around his head. It made him look different than just being the same dark blue color. Giving Magey a stick, which did nothing for his spellpower but made him look more like a mage from the story books I''ve read. Finally I tied a yellow handkerchief around Buurd''s neck so I could see him even when he was flying in the sky. My father was fairly respected as a merchant, he could easily hire help but he didn''t need too. While he was a good merchant he was a far greater fighter. The few monsters that attacked us were dealt with by himself, none stood a chance and my familiars were almost unnecessary. Traveling the villages and cities, I noticed it was almost like the cities themselves were being redesigned. Entire buildings were being demolished and pipelines for sewage were being ran. Some cities had the pipes ran already, while the smaller towns and villages were attempting to add them. Our village would quickly follow suit soon, perhaps even before we return. We easily handle business and head back home. The whole trip taking a few weeks, he sometimes takes a longer trip but with me this time he''s taken the shorter one. I feel I''ve learned more from this trip than an entire year of business school. You don''t learn how to trick people out of money from books. When we came back, John hugged me tightly, he missed me so much¡­ To be honest I barely even thought about him¡­ I don''t think I will ever fall in love with him but I don''t have the nerve to tell him that. It has been another two years since then and I am 16 now. I''ve traveled with my father a few more times. I kept up my studies and have started practicing my merchant skills at the local shops. Sort of mimicking things my mother had done. I also started practicing summoning magic far harder, getting it all the way up to 30. Which is very impressive for someone who hasn''t even fought in a real fight. My white magic is very under leveled though as I see no point in practicing it. I haven''t even gotten it to 10. The pipelines that were being installed while I traveled the first time have finally started being added to houses in our town now. John and I have had sex¡­ It wasn''t good, it was actually disappointing. Even so, he is the only boy who talks with me. Everyone else has already paired off, most people aren''t highborn and will grow up to continue their parents jobs or marry into a household to be a wife. I do plan on becoming an adventurer in the future, just to pass the time and build up funds to start my future business. My father will most likely help but extra money would never be bad. Another two years has passed. I''m 18 now¡­ Still with the same person¡­ John is talking about marriage¡­ My mother seems to also think I''ll marry him in the future¡­ I don''t want to though, I''ve grown to dislike him. He is so boring compared to the men I meet while traveling with my father¡­ I plan on breaking off from my father while traveling soon and joining a group of dungeoneers to start own life. One not decided by other people. I have no intention on becoming a housewife. Kite''s point of view Nothing too bad about her life so far¡­ The sex was fairly boring¡­ Oh god I sound like Lust! Lust begins to speak. ¡°Like that is a bad thing¡­ Something does happen soon. I mean, it isn''t that bad¡­ Not like Greed''s memories of losing Lindsay¡­ Be ready for it¡­ I''ve been wondering something¡­ If the first memories you''ve gotten were kindness, then greed and finally me¡­ What was this bodies original trait?¡± ¡°¡­ I''ve never thought of that¡­ Maybe shy like you?¡± ¡°No, even if it was shyness I would be able to tell¡­ Have you ever noticed anything different about yourself? Like something was off with yourself?¡± ¡°¡­ If it was it was so small I wouldn''t have ever noticed¡­ I guess I''ll have to think about it but is it really that big of a deal?¡± ¡°Of course it is. You sort of forced yourself into this body and have taken over its life. The life of the original Kite, I mean the Kite that would have grown up differently if you would have picked a different class.¡± ¡­ My very existence in this world has stopped a person from living their life... Chapter 100 Shocking revalation I put off finishing Lust''s memories for now. There is just so much left to do that I would rather split it up then finish everything close together. After taking in memories it is better to take a break to let everything soak in. I feel like I can empathize with that person more and more as I absorb their memories. Just like with Greed, I have the same feelings as they did at the time of the memories¡­ So I feel far more shy than normal. Disappointed with how slowly my life has been moving¡­ Which I know for a fact is the exact opposite of how I really feel. I wish I was older. I''m not even 13 yet and I''m leading an army¡­ With this tree, I can get closer to an age that is suitable for leadership. Even a single year difference might make me feel more¡­ Adequate. I need to get back to work though. So much left to do and¡­ That saying doesn''t work here because I definitely have enough time to do it. I start to work on repairing all the gear¡­ Hundreds of sets of gear, I lose track of the time and when I finally get out of it, it has been an entire week. I still need to enchant the gear with set bonuses. Enchanting them with a stat boost that would best suit their job. Even just a little help could be the difference between someone living and dying. Enchanting set bonuses takes around the same time it does to enchant a single stat or skill onto a piece of equipment. Which is fifteen minutes to add the mana to the item, then fifteen minutes to enchant it. The gear consists of boots, pants, a chest piece and helm. It takes 3-4 minutes to enchant each of the set bonuses with a weak enchant. While I could enchant them with a stronger enchant, it would increase the time it would take by quadruple per set of gear. Some quick math means that I can enchant 2 sets of gear per hour. I need to enchant somewhere near 1000 sets of gear. Totaling 500 hours of work altogether. Over 20 days of work is going to be spent on enchanting this gear. I start with doing 100 sets of gear then setting them aside. I take a break from enchanting to finally reveal the fridge to them. We''ve been eating our own supply of food as it will spoil if it is not consumed within the first few months of being here. Where as the food inside the fridge will last the entirety of our time in here. Grabbing us each out a ration and showing them how to get everything out and prepared. The fridge is how I thought it would be the first time I opened it before. While it looks like a small box it expands into a giant freezer. You could say it is bigger on the inside if you wanted too... I take three cups out that I brought and pour the greater gods concoction into it for us three. The liquid tastes almost like pure sugar. There are definitely hints of other flavors mixed in but the primary taste is that of sweetness. Leon starts to take a sip of the liquid and immediately spits it out. I laugh a little, some people just cant handle sweet things. This also has another weird characteristic to it, which is probably the reason he spit it out. The liquid bubbles and fizzes as you drink it. I enjoy the sensation of drinking it as it almost feels like my throat is being tickled. Lance also enjoys it, the sweets thing might be a younger person only sort of thing. I''ll have to remember that for later. Lance enjoys a new type of sweet as well, one I didn''t try before. The meals are far more assorted than before. It is something called ¡°peanut butter¡± and I dig out another meal with it to try. I need to eat more than normal because of the snake contract so I can easily eat two meals. What a unique taste. I enjoy both meals, still hungry I eat another ten fish and pound of lettuce for my meal. The amount of food I eat normally confuses anyone around me as I eat. Both Lance and Leon have gotten used to it and leave me to finish my meal as they go back to sparring. I finish up meal and get back to enchanting the gear. I manage to do another 100 enchants before it starts to get too boring to continue. I knew this would be the most tedious so I''ve started my work on them to get it out of the way. I still have another 800 sets to enchant... I still need to upgrade my own gear but it might be better to wait until the end of our time here. As I might grow out of a set if I readjust it right now. I can make a few hundred regen pills¡­ That sounds just as boring. Aegis speaks up. ¡°Well¡­ You could try to teach me a class now. With my new soul I can learn them.¡± ¡°Why did you wait so long!?¡± ¡°I''m in no hurry to learn. I''ve honestly been thinking of which ones would suit me the most¡­ An undying creature¡­ Which classes would best suit a long lifespan.¡± ¡°¡­ And which ones would you think suit you the most?¡± ¡°Blue mage is the only one I think would be the most beneficial¡­ For future ones¡­ I think scout would also be good, just classes that have more than the normal amount of skills. Blue mage, scout so far¡­ I''ll hold off on learning anything more than that¡­ It could be years down the line when you finally gain another class that would suit me better. Choosing all of my classes now could become a mistake I regret for thousands of years.¡± ¡°That is reasonable¡­ Sometimes I forget what you actually are. Sometimes I think of you as a¡­ Why haven''t you made a body for yourself out of metal? I know you''ve absorbed enough to.¡± ¡°It consumes resources to hold my form. The only method to get mana¡­ Was from you but if I learn classes that give resource restoration, I might be able to hold more form on my own¡­ Once you teach me blue mage, I might be able to passively expand to cover more without sucking up your resources.¡± ¡°You''ve technically went from an item to a monster. Meaning it was originally impossible for you to increase your fatigue points¡­ Maybe if you practice hard enough you can start getting fatigue points to spend every day. That isn''t tied to any class and can be used purely for expanding yourself.¡± ¡°...I shouldn''t be surprised by you anymore but I still am. I''ve been thinking this decision over for weeks already and you''ve brought two things up I haven''t even thought about.¡± I teach him blue mage for now. He''ll wait to learn scout once he is sure that is a class he wants. I take him off and place him on the ground, it takes a long time for him to start moving. Pulling himself forwards by the fingers of the gauntlet. It will take him several hours to move the same distance I can move in a few seconds. For Aegis, this is all new but it doesn''t phase him. It might take him years to build up enough fatigue points to expand his body to an adequate size. Everything he builds up now will go towards his future. I continue making the pills and upgrading the sets of gear. This is all beyond tedious. It takes a very long time but I manage to finish the pills, somewhere near 200. Having potions for my troops and pills for my generals. Each general will end up with about 10 pills. That includes my pets, I have the teeth I still need to enchant with void storage. I get to work on that, enchanting these teeth with void storage next and storing 10 pills in each. I ask Lance and Leon if they wish to do the same and they both agree. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I give them both numbing poison then rip a tooth out¡­ Lance seems to wince through the pain even though I used more poison on him than I did on Leon. I''m not sure why so I ask him. ¡°Hey Lance. How come your less effected by poison¡­ I think I remember you also resisting the effect of the mind control from the mind eel...¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ About that¡­ Some time after the test of courage, I got a prompt to upgrade to an awakened class¡­ I''ve done it but¡­ I lost some of my power by doing it¡­ Not just a little¡­ My strength dropped by 400 and my stamina dropped 300 when I picked it¡­ I lost all my skills above the rank up version and the awakened class capped at level 100¡­ I regret picking it ever since.¡± ¡°¡­ Shouldn''t you have extra class slots now? Which classes combined into the awakened class?¡± ¡°¡­ All of them¡­ All of my classes were above the first rank and every skill I gained after the rank up I lost¡­¡± ¡°WHAT!? You only have 1 class now? Do you realize how strong that class actually is? It has stats similar to that of four classes. If I can teach you more classes, your overall stats will go up rather than down after you level them.¡± ¡°I didn''t really think you would know what an awakened class was. I didn''t really think you would know how to fix the problem I''ve been having either¡­ I guess I didn''t think about it like that¡­ I should have told you sooner because I''ve been stagnant since I''ve unlocked this class. With no progression I gave up on leveling¡­ On getting stronger... If I have a reason again¡­ A reason to keep getting stronger¡­¡± He begins to teach me. If I know which classes go into his awakened class, I can experiment more¡­ Teaching him the remaining classes he doesn''t have might allow him to absorb them into his awakened class¡­ After hours of teaching, both of us about to give up it finally happens.
Would you like to learn Hero?
Warning! You will lose several other classes by doing so.
I accept.
Awakened class Hero passive skill gained Heroes resolve- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them
Classes removed Warrior, Knight, Dragoon, Guardian, Freelancer
Class experience added to Hero
Hero level 1 to 64
Level 1 Hero passive skill gained Heroic aura- Increase the stamina of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with stamina ballad)
Level 10 Hero passive skill gained Heroes resistance- Increase the chances of resisting effects
Level 25 Hero skill gained Heroic shout- Gain the attention of all enemies while boosting the moral of all allies (moral boost gives a small amount of regen)
Level 50 Hero passive skill gained Ally protection- Gain a boost to stats while protecting an ally
Unlike Lance, I suffer no stat loss¡­ I actually gain some stats. Freelancer mixed with all those tank classes¡­ While I don''t understand it. I do see that it gives Hero some sustain over the years. While most classes rank up, freelancer is different. Once it hits 100, it restarts back at level 1. Every single level gained gives a stat point in every main stat. Meaning at level 100 you would have gained an extra 100 stats in strength, dexterity, intelligence and stamina. With you resetting the class back to level 1 you can gain stats indefinitely. Most people avoid this class because it has a low yield with no skills to rely on. Even with a very long life span, it might add to an extra 1000 in each stat at maximum. With 2 classes being the normal maximum, it would normally result in wasted stats in at least two stats. Meaning if you had lets say warrior and freelancer. You would have an extra 1000 in intelligence and dexterity which you don''t really use in any of your skills. It had taken Lance almost drowning in the test of courage to unlock this class¡­ I feel sorry for him that I learned it so easily. I try and teach him freelancer. He looks at me oddly until he finally learns the class and it gets absorbed into the hero class. With that he gains an ever increasing stat boost as he levels up the skill growth, which levels with freelancer¡­ It doesn''t seem that it resets the entire hero class, just the skill itself resets. With the skill starting at level 1¡­ He still has 3 more classes he can learn¡­ I feel oddly worn out. Checking my fatigue points they are under half. WHAT!? Teaching Lance a single class at this point has taken me over half of my fatigue points. Perhaps because it was linked to the hero class? Not knowing the reason and still being tired. I put it off for now. Lance is finally showing his old self again now that he isn''t capped at a certain at level 100. He sets off to level up his new skill as I head to bed. Chapter 100.5 This chapter is going to be spoiler heavy. As more classes get shown in the story this chapter will be updated. I need this chapter to keep track of everything. Once again this chapter is very spoiler heavy. Strength based classes are Spoiler :
Warrior- passive skill gained is Survivability- decreases damage you take as you level, passive stat increase strength and total rage Level 1 skill Headbutt- smashes head into opponent to temporarily stun them Level 10 skill Heavy slash- puts weight behind attack to deal more damage (10 second cool down) Level 25 skill Charge- rush an enemy before they can retreat (1 minute cooldown) Level 50 skill Cleave- cut trough the opponents defenses Level 100 skill Frightening presence- make an attempt to scare an opponent, they won''t be able to get closer to you and are more susceptible to negotiation Combines into the awakened Hero class
Fighter- passive skill gained is Light armor proficiency- able to wear light armor with no detrimental effects to movement speed, passive stat increase critical strike chance Level 1 skill Opportune Strike- strike with increased damage and critical strike chance but only when opponent is off-guard Level 10 passive skill Combat Knowledge- improved reading on the flow of combat, trajectory paths of attacks Level 25 passive skill Athletics- increases your chances to dodge by a portion of your strength Level 50 passive skill Combat expertise- able to read the flow of battle and predict movements of enemies better, increases chances of dodging and getting critical strikes Level 100 passive skill Bravery- be courageous, immunity to fear and terrify effects Combines into the awakened Champion class
Berserker- passive skill gained is Berserking- go into a frenzy that increases damage dealt but prevents magic usage and lowers defense slightly, passive increase to total rage and rage regen Level 1 skill Frenzied Strikes- attack in succession with more force and power, need to be berserking Level 10 skill Rend- slash an opponent forcing them to bleed, if used towards fingers might chop them off (combines with Heavy slash to make Heavy rending slash) Level 25 skill Berserkers Rage- rage is constantly increasing while berserking Level 50 skill Enraged regen- spend rage to heal yourself Level 100 skill Blood lust- increases stats temporarily and restore health after you kill an enemy Combines into the awakened Champion class
Dragoon- passive skill gained Leap- able to jump higher as you level/ deal more damage based on fall distance, passive stat increase strength Level 1 passive skill Polearm proficiency- able to use polearms more easily Level 10 skill Jump strike- strike down at the enemy after a jump (more damage depending on the distance fallen) Level 25 passive skill Lessen fall damage- reduces fall damage to 1/4 what it would be normally Level 50 skill Dragoon combo- attack repetitively with your weapon, more focused towards accuracy than speed or power Level 100 passive skill Dragoons momentum- increases your dexterity by a portion of your strength Combines into the awakened Hero class
Barbarian- passive skill gained Unending rage- rage continuously rises even without being in combat, all the way up to maximum rage, passive stat increase strength and total rage Level 1 passive skill Rage empowered strikes- all melee attacks consume a portion of your rage to increase the strength of each attack Level 10 skill Rage shield- a portion of the damage you take is absorbed by your rage, capped at 20% damage reduction for 20% maximum rage Level 25 passive skill Indomitable might- increases the weight you can lift by a portion of your strength Level 50 skill Unarmored defense- having on less equipment increases your stamina Level 100 passive skill Brutal blows- increases the damage of criticals
Dexterity based classes are Spoiler :
Archer- passive ability is Ranged weapons proficiency- able to use bows, throwing knives and other ranged weapons more easily, passive stat increase dexterity and energy regen Level 1 skill Focused shot- puts more focus into your shot dealing more damage and accurately targeting weak points Level 10 skill Snipe- more accurate attack that deals devastating sneak damage but consumes a huge portion of energy Level 25 passive skill Dual shot- able to fire two arrows at once (takes practice, upgrades to Triple shot) Level 50 skill Pinpoint strike- aim at a body part for a different effect (head shot= blind, arm shot= disarm, leg shot= slow) Level 100 skill Multi shot- fire an arrow that splits into needles and rains down on enemies
Thief- active ability is Hide- harder to detect, easier to blend into crowds (cannot move or skill is canceled), passive stat increase maximum energy and energy regen Level 1 skill Steal- attempt to steal items Level 10 skill Stealth Strike- sneak attack that deals triple damage on unaware opponents (was learned early and replaced with assassinate) Level 25 passive skill Improved pickpocket- able to more easily pickpocket people Level 50 skill Evasive stance- take a stance that decreases chances of being hit (Combines with berserkering and complete defense to make Perfect stance) Level 100 passive skill Improved dual wield- can make attacks with both weapons simultaneously to deal increased damage from both Combines into the awakened Champion class
Beast tamer- passive skill gained is Taming- able to tame monsters to fight for you (can tame more as you level), passive skill increase maximum fatigue points and energy (bonded pets do not count towards tamed pets) Level 10 skill Lick wounds- pets now regenerate health twice as fast, 2nd pet tameable Level 25 skill Animal handler- able to more easily control animals, 3rd pet tameable Level 50 skill Empower pets- boost the stats of a pet for 1 minute (1 hour cooldown), 4th pet tameable Level 100 skill Telepathic commands- can give commands to pets telepathically, 5th pet tameable
Bandit- passive skilled gained Disguise- able to camouflage your appearance and skills, passive increase to dexterity and energy regen Level 1 skill Silent movement- your movements are silent (was replaced with Sneak) Level 10 skill Pilfer- able to steal money upon injuring them (was learned early and replaced with Mug) Level 25 skill Dual Edge- doubles the chances of dealing and receiving critical strikes(learned early) Level 50 passive skill Increased gold drops- have an uncanny ability to find gold where ever you go Level 100 passive skill Bandits guile- increases your intelligence by a portion of your dexterity
Beast rider- passive skill Mounted combat- able to retain all combat abilities while mounted, passive stat increase pets movement speed Level 1 skill Double strike- attack with your pet, very difficult to avoid both attacks Level 10 skill Quick Advance- rush a target quickly with the full movement speed of your mount Level 25 skill Trample- attempt to crush an enemy under your monsters feet Level 50 passive skill Mounted mastery- become almost one with your partner, no stat or attack penalties from you or your mount while you are riding it Level 100 skill Spirit bond- become bound to your pet, allowing health to be shared between each other
Viking- passive skill gained Energy Empowered Strikes- all melee attacks consume a portion of your energy to increase the speed of each attack, passive stat increase dexterity and energy Level 1 passive skill Lust for battle- the longer the battle goes on for the faster your energy returns Level 10 passive skill Cold Resistance- less likely to be harmed by ice magic attacks and cold weather bothers you less Level 25 skill Ragnarok- infuse the power of lightning into your melee weapons Level 50 skill Create runestone- create a runestone that you can channel energy into and call upon it later when it is needed Level 100 passive skill Bloodied battler- increases critical strike chance as your health decreases
Ninja- passive skill Way of the ninja- gain chi through combat, passive stat increase fatigue points Level 1 skill Ninjutsu- gain chi based skills that will help your deception of enemies (must learn the skills from a teacher) skills gained (shadow doppelganger, one with shadows, substitution, warm blooded, shadow snake, shadow wings, shadow run) Level 10 skill Taijutsu- gain chi based skills that will help your unarmed fighting (must learn the skills from a teacher) skills gained (serpent strikes, dragons touch, goblin combination punch, body strengthening, burst of power) Level 25 skill Genjutsu- gain chi based skill that will help in confusing your enemies with illusionary tricks (must learn the skills from a teacher) skills gained (dragons piercing gaze) Level 50 passive skill Shadow absorption- while in darkness, gain chi Level 100 skill Restore chi- uses fatigue points to restore chi
Ranger- passive skill gained Favored prey- after killing types of monsters or people repetitively, develop an innate ability to kill them, passive stat increase movement speed and dexterity Level 1 passive skill Rapid fire- increases the fire rate of bows as you level Level 10 passive skill Favored terrain- after traveling and fighting in different areas repetitively, develop an innate ability to fight in those areas (unimpeded by obstacles) Level 25 passive skill Quick change- dexterity increases the speed at which you can change between weapons (short boost to the associated stat of the newly equipped weapon) Level 50 skill Ambush- set-up an attack that will be a guaranteed critical if it lands, only succeeds if you have prepared the attack before hand (stacks with other attacks) Level 100 passive skill Nature adept- able to read the land easier, tracking is done passively and you can''t be tracked (gain favored prey and terrain more quickly) (can set up trapped ambushes)
Intelligence based classes are Spoiler :
Black mage- passive skill gained is Mana control- able to increase or decrease the mana and effect of most magics, passive stat increase intelligence Level 1 skill Fireball- cast fire magic (was replaced with Flare) Level 10 skill Ice bolt- cast a bolt of ice that can freeze enemies (was learned early and replaced with Freeze) Level 25 skill Mana arrows- able to make and fire arrows with magic (can use used as ammunition for bows as well) Level 50 skill Shock- cast a lightning bolt that can stun enemies Level 100 skill Conjure mana stone- create a crush-able mana stone that can be destroyed to replenish mana
White mage- passive skill gained is Mana recovery- able to convert fatigue points to mana, passive stat increase mana regen Level 1 skill Heal- cures injuries (cant heal certain injuries, recover limbs or cure death) Level 10 skill Dispel- removes some negative status effects from self or ally, cant remove curses Level 25 skill Weaken undead- weakens undead targets for 5 minutes Level 50 skill Pacify- calm a monster for a certain period of time, longer time on weaker enemies Level 100 skill Flash heal- heal a group of allies instantly (10 minute cool down)
Red mage ¡°Spell-sword¡±- passive skill Infuse- able to empower weapons with magic, passive very slight increase to all stats Level 100 passive skill Mages might- increases your strength by a portion of your intelligence
Blue mage- passive skill Monster copy- through watching monsters preform skills have the chance to learn from them, passive very slight increase to all stats Skills gained so far with this class Silence, Drink blood, Night Vision, String attack, Poison spit, Kings leadership, Feral roar, Improved water affinity, Blink strike, Ogre''s strength, Ogre regeneration, Absorb, Bad breath, Ink spray, Acid production, Osmosis, Wind wall, Scan, White wind, Flash bomb, Charm, Spirit fire Level 50 skill Mana shield- a portion of the damage you take is absorbed by your mana, capped at 20% damage reduction for 20% maximum mana
Purple mage ¡°Warlock¡±- passive skill Darkness absorption- able to absorb mana more quickly during the night time, passive stat increase to maximum mana Level 1 skill Ignite- burns the target causing fire damage over time. Level 10 skill Plague- causes any wounds on an opponent to fester and rot Level 25 skill Soul pact- able to form pacts with living creatures to gain and share power Level 50 skill Curse- attempt to curse an enemy permanently attaching a piece of equipment they are wearing to them (can be cut or ripped off) Level 100 skill Dimension door- form a door linking two locations together (30 foot range, 1 hour length and cool down)
Grey mage ¡°Time mage¡±- passive skill Quick thinking- increased thought processing speed as you level, passive stat increase to mana regen Level 1 skill Haste- increases the movement speed and attack speed of allies it is cast on Level 10 passive skill Shortened incantations- reduces the time it takes to say chants by 50% Level 25 skill Slow- cast magic that reduces enemies movement speed and attack speed for a short period of time Level 50 passive skill Instant incantations- removes the need to chant spells Level 100 skill Time stop- able to stop time within a fifty foot area around you, drains 10% of your mana every two seconds
Orange mage ¡°Illusionist¡±- passive skill Sharp mind- harder to be controlled by magic, passive stat increase to intelligence Level 1 skill Throw sound- can toss sounds to distract opponents Level 10 passive skill Voiceless incantations- able to now use chants silently (happens in your head, rendered useless by Instant incantations) Level 25 passive skill Detect magic- able to read mana in the area (helps with sensing magic traps and telling if the areas mana heavy) Level 50 skill Invisibility- turn yourself invisible, cloths do not change with you Level 100 skill Mind trick- attempt to change the mind or opinion of a person for a short time
Green mage ¡°Nature mage¡±- passive skill Natural Absorption- able to absorb mana more quickly from surrounding nature, passive stat increase to health regen Level 1 skill Nature shift- able to move earth and able to increase the size of wood slightly (replaced with Control nature) Level 10 skill Regrowth- helps grow plants faster, can be used on people to regrow limbs, may cause insanity from sheer pain Level 25 skill Barkskin- can apply a boost to defenses of one ally (makes them more susceptible to fire magic) Level 50 skill Healing water- fuses water with natural healing magic Level 100 skill Communicate with animals- can now understand and talk with animals Combines into the awakened True elementalist class
Summoner- passive skill Mana cost reduction- permanent reduction to all moves that consume mana by 10%, passive stat increase intelligence Level 1 skill Summon Familiar- summons a familiar to do your bidding, can control whats made with thought, any summoned familiar reserves 10% your mana per familiar Level 10 skill Summon food- able to conjure food out of the mana, tastes very bland, might cause mana poisoning if consumed to frequently Level 25 skill Conjure lesser elemental- can summon an elemental spirit to help fight for you (combines with elementalist to make Conjure elemental which is a larger/stronger version of the lesser spirit) Level 50 passive skill Mana reserved reduction- cuts the cost of reserved mana from summoning by 50% Level 100 skill Summon greater familiar- summon larger animals to do your bidding, reserves 20% mana per familiar
Elementalist- passive skill Control elements- have slight control over all four elements earth, fire, wind, water, passive increase to experience gained Combines into the awakened True elementalist class
Spellthief- passive skill Anti magic runes- able to apply runes to your weapon to cut opponents spells apart (upgraded to Infused anti magic runes) Level 1 skill Counter spell- able to turn an opponents mana against him causing feedback damage dependent on the spell (1 minute cool down) (upgraded to Improved counter spell) Level 10 skill Mana slash- uses mana to extend the reach of your melee attacks Level 25 skill Spell steal- able to take a single magic attack cast at you and store it indefinitely, occurs a 5 minute cooldown once spell is cast Level 50 skill Steal defenses- lower the enemies defensive stats while raising your own Level 100 skill Mages deftness- increases dexterity by a portion of your intelligence
Aqua mage- passive skill Water absorption- able to pull mana from the surrounding water, passive total mana increase Level 1 skill Water spout- able to form a spout of water to shoot out at your enemies (upgraded to Jet stream) Level 10 skill Buoyancy- able to float more easily in water (upgrades into Water walking) Level 25 skill Downpour- form a rain cloud that will soak an area (upgrades into Healing rain) Level 50 skill Monsoon- increases the chances the weather will be rainy (upgrades to Rain dance) Level 100 skill Cleansing waters- create or purify water that can remove debuffs and cure diseases Combines into the awakened True elementalist class
Witchdoctor- passive skill Melded magic casting- can combine multiple magic skills together to make them stronger, passive stat increase mana cost reduced for combined skills Level 1 skill Disease locus- summon a swarm of bugs that can add the diseased debuff to enemies Level 10 skill Raise zombie- summon a zombie that will fight for you (upgrades to Summon greater undead) Level 25 skill Mojo magic- reduces or increases the luck of an ally or enemy Level 50 skill Fear- fear an enemy causing them to back away and be afraid of you (weaker enemies are feared for longer) Level 100 skill Voodoo curse- attempt to curse a person so that they wont be able to use enchanted equipment
Wind mage ¡°Blade mage¡±- passive skill gained Wind absorption- able to absorb mana from surrounding air Level 1 skill Wind slash- launch a wind based attack from your weapon (upgrades to Wind blade) Level 10 skill Wind shield- uses wind as a shield to stop projectiles (upgrades to Wind armor) Level 25 skill Quick wind- increases your movement speed in one direction (upgrades to Swift wind) Level 50 skill Slow fall- uses the wind to slow your fall speed to a point where you would suffer no fall damage (upgrades to Levitate) Level 100 skill Air orb- create an orb of spiraling wind that can be used to transport small objects anywhere in your sight (upgrades to Air ball) Combines into the awakened True elementalist class
Fire mage- passive skill Fire absorption- able to pull mana from surrounding fire, passive stat increase magic piercing ability Level 1 skill Fire spray- conjures a powerful jet of flame in front of you (upgrades to Flamethrower) Level 10 skill Ash breath- spew out ash to attempt to blind enemies (upgrades to Smokescreen) Level 25 skill Flame touch- attempt to ignite an enemy by contact (upgrades to Combustion) Level 50 skill Fire seal- attempt to seal the classes of an enemy by burning a seal onto their body (upgrades to Greater fire seal) Level 100 skill Lesser flame control- can control and create a small portion of fire (upgrades to Pyrokinesis) Combines into the awakened True elementalist class
Yellow mage (bow mage)- passive skill Magic shots- attacks with the bow that would normally take energy, can instead take mana, passive stat increase mana and energy regen Level 1 Tether arrow- shoot an arrow that will attempt to wrap the opponent in mana fibers (upgrades to Electric arrow) Level 10 skill Tracker arrow- attempt to strike an opponent with an arrow that will allow you to know exactly where they are (upgrades to Tracker mark) Level 25 passive skill Love shot- shoot an arrow at an opponent in an attempt to confuse them (upgrades to Cupid''s arrow) (constantly drains mana) Level 50 skill Conjure arrow rain- fire an arrow straight into the air, as it comes down it splits into many arrows (upgrades to Conjure arrow storm) Level 100 skill Smoke shot- shoot an arrow in an attempt to reduce the enemies vision, also reduces your own (upgrades to Smog shot)
Stamina based classes are Spoiler :
Druid- passive skill Shape shifting- able to change into different types of animals, passive stat increase to stamina Level 1 skill Rejuvenate- casts a healing effect on an ally that persists for a whole day, heals 10% of there health every hour but causes mana backlash for half the value of the spell making the mana unusable unless sacrificing health equivalent to the backlash (can shape shift into a mouse) Level 10 passive skill Poison resistance- improved resistance to most poisons (can shape shift into a fox) Level 25 skill Mark of the wild- boosts all the stats of a single friendly target (decreases defense) (combines with Barkskin to make Gift of the wild) (can shape shift into a goat) Level 50 skill Frenzy- while shape shifted, gain a buff to the stat that the shape shift form boosts (can shape shift into a bear) Level 100 passive skill Half form- take a half version of a shape shifted form, giving you the boost to stats while holding your human size
Monk- passive skill Unlock chi- able to use chi which is hidden/stored energy within your body through meditation, passive stat increase to stamina Level 1 skill Chi wave- uses stored chi to cause damage to everything in front of you Level 10 skill Iron will- take up a defensive posture reducing magic damage taken (combined with Defensive stance to make Complete defense) Level 25 passive skill Improved meditate- increases the chi gained through meditation by 50% Level 50 passive skill Sun absorption- while in direct sunlight, gain chi Level 100 skill Restore fatigue- uses chi restore fatigue points
Shaman- passive skill Totem user- able to use totems that give buffs to surrounding party members, passive stat increase to fatigue points Level 1 skill Purge- removes a beneficial effect from an enemy Level 10 skill Hex- magical spell that reduces the strength, intelligence and dexterity of an enemy Level 25 skill Create totem- able to create totems with wood (depending on the moon cycle changes the totem made) Level 50 skill Spirit guide- call upon the powers of your spirit guide, will guide you to safety from dangerous situations and can be given to an ally for protection Level 100 skill Astral recall- bind your spirit to a location, allowing you to form an astral projection in that location (can also use your spirit guide with this skill
Knight- passive skill Endurance training- decreases fatigue point consumption by 50%, passive stat increase stamina Level 1 passive skill Stamina boost 1- increased stamina by 10% Level 10 passive skill Stamina boost 2- increased total stamina by 10% Level 25 passive skill Stamina boost 3- increased total stamina by 10% Level 50 passive skill Stamina boost 4- increased total stamina by 10% Level 100 passive skill Stamina boost 5- increased total stamina by 10% Combines into the awakened Hero class
Guardian- passive skill Heavy armor proficiency- able to use heavy armor with only slight negative effects to movement speed, passive stat increase to health and health regen Level 1 skill Defensive stance- take a more defensive stance dropping your attack stats to increase your psychical resistance Level 10 skill Taunt- gains the attention of an enemy and makes them focus there attacks towards you Level 25 skill Shield slam- smash the target with your shield stunning them (combines with Charge to make Shield charge) Level 50 skill Spell reflect- bounce a spell off your shield back at an opponent Level 100 passive skill Second wind- when health drops below 20% health regen doubled, second wind starts automatically Combines into the awakened Hero class
Chemist- passive skill Pharmacology- doubles the effects of potions as well as removing the chance to reduce your regeneration from drinking them, passive increase to all regen effects Level 1 skill Injection- able to inject potions, stat boosting potions are more effective but have less duration and regen potions are instant but less effective Level 10 skill Increased potion tier- increases the potions you craft by one tier automatically Level 25 skill Mad scientists potion- boosts 1 stat for 5 minutes by a tremendous amount, random stat, can''t be used with other potions Level 50 skill Neverending potion- can create a vial that will become a never ending source of that potion Level 100 skill Sacrifice potion- a potion that will restore the lost life of an ally at the cost of their own life
Samurai- passive skill Chakra- convert mana into chi, passive stat increase stamina Level 1 skill Chi strike- add chi to a strike from your weapon Level 10 skill Mana strike- add mana to a strike from your weapon Level 25 skill Soul strike- add a portion of your soul to a strike from your weapon Level 50 skill Titans grip- able to wield a two handed weapon with a single hand Level 100 skill Way of the samurai- increases your stamina by a portion of your strength
Charisma based classes are Spoiler :
Blood knight- passive skill gained Bloody strength- attacks are strengthened with the assistance of blood (uses your own unless you''ve drawn the enemies blood), passive stat increase charisma Level 1 passive skill Blood strike- every single attack against an opponent that draws blood strengthens the next attack Level 10 skill Vampire strikes- attacks that draw the blood of enemies can be used to restore lost health (combines with Drink blood to make Blood tap) Level 25 skill Blood weapon- create a floating weapon out of blood that will assist you in fighting and will grow in size as it absorbs the blood of enemies Level 50 skill Desecrated ground- corrupt the area around you, while undead monsters are on this land they gain a boost to all stats (permanent unless consecrated) Level 100 skill Create blood crystal- can store the blood of enemies and be crushed to use for attacks or the restoration of insight if needed
Bard- passive skill gained is Insightful recovery- Regenerate all of your energy when an insight is used Level 1 skill Strength ballad- play a song that increases the strength of all allies that hear it Level 10 skill Intelligence ballad- play a song that increases the intelligence of allies that hear it Level 25 skill Dexterity ballad- play a song that increases the dexterity of allies that hear it Level 50 skill Stamina ballad- play a song that increases the stamina of allies that hear it Level 100 skill Inspiration- play a song that will boost the morale of allies that hear it (morale boost gives a small amount of regen) Combines into the awakened Champion class
Pirate- passive skill gained Treasure finding- can find more items and gold than normal, gives you a feeling when hidden gold is around, passive stat increase critical strike damage Level 1 passive skill Ship fighting- remove the penalties for fighting on ships, also gain a dexterity boost while fighting on boats Level 10 skill Plunder- attack an enemy with the attempt to disarm them and take weapons and armor from them (upgrades to Stealing strikes) Level 25 skill Persuade- use insight to gain a huge advantage in convincing someone through talking Level 50 passive skill Water combat- greatly improves your fighting capabilities in water Level 100 skill Pirates charisma- increases your charisma by a portion of your dexterity
Saboteur- passive skill Play dumb- harder for even experienced interrogators to read you, can easily act like a fool if necessary, passive stat increase dodge Level 1 skill Expose weakness- attempt to find the weak point in a person or object, bigger/better/stronger objects or people take longer to find the weak point of Level 10 skill Exploit weakness- attack the found weakness of an enemy, damage done and critical strike chance doubled Level 25 skill Subterfuge- use insight for a huge advantage in confusing an opponent, increasing the chances of them missing and you landing strikes Level 50 skill Wire tap- place a mark on an opponent that allows you to hear them even from long distances (constantly drains energy) Level 100 skill Sleep attack- attempt to kill a sleeping opponent, damage done and critical strike chance doubled (stacks with Exploit weakness)
Warden- passive skill Insight boost- Increases insight by 4 instead of 1 and your defensive spells length is tripled from using insight, passive stat increase to mana Level 1 skill Shield- casts a defensive shield that reduces physical damage Level 10 skill Shell- casts a defensive shell that reduces magic damage Level 25 skill Absorption shield- cast a shield that will absorb magic if cast at you and turn it into mana (much shorter duration than shell) Level 50 skill Magic link- link yourself with an ally, splitting damage they would take Level 100 skill Guardian angel- cast a permanent guardian angel on a single person, protecting them from a deadly attack once (only one guardian angel can be cast at a time) Combines into the awakened Rainbow mage class
Paladin- passive skill Charismatic- doubles the speed at which insight is restored (30 minutes for full restoration), passive stat increase to charisma Level 1 skill Mock- use insight to provoke the enemy into making a mistake (can make the target attack you if it fails) Level 10 skill Rallying cry- use insight to increase the regeneration of all nearby allies Level 25 skill Smite evil- attack that deals 8 times more damage to undead targets (combines with Weaken undead to make Turn undead) Level 50 skill Lay on hands- heals all health and negative effects of a single ally, need to be in contact with them (1 day cool down) Level 100 skill Consecrate ground- attempt to purify the area around you, while undead monsters are on this land they suffer heavy penalties to all stats (permanent improvement unless corrupted, if insight is used provides a buff to the paladin as well)
Necromancer- passive skill gained Blood magic- can use health as a resource for casting magic, passive stat increase charisma Level 1 skill Reanimate dead- turn a corpse into a controllable puppet Level 10 skill Mana leech- very slowly absorb the mana of an enemy Level 25 skill Promote undead- use insight to increase the rank of a single undead, boosting its stats permanently or until another undead is promoted Level 50 skill Bone armor- pull the bones out of nearby corpses that will deflect attacks and projectiles Level 100 passive skill Phylactery creation- Create a vessel to house your soul after death to become a lich, drawback includes the loss of your humanity over time
Specialty classes Spoiler :
Scout- passive skill Visual perception- increased field of vision as you level, passive stat increase to movement speed and reduces the fatigue point consumption from running Level 10 skill Thermal vision- changes vision to see heat signatures Level 20 skill Tracking- attempt to track a certain opponent Level 30 skill Disengage- launch yourself away from an opponent Level 40 skill Sense trap- able to more easily locate traps, (a feeling in your spine) Level 50 skill Sense presence- able to more easily locate hidden people Level 60 skill Mental mapping- can conjure the image of the world inside your head Level 70 passive skill Speedy retreat- increases movement speed when running away from an enemy Level 80 passive skill Escape artist- able to more easily escape from traps and restraints Level 90 skill Lightning reflexes- a portion of your movement speed is applied to your dodge Level 100 passive skill Keen senses- improved all 6 senses (6th sense is the senses learned from skills) Combines into the awakened Champion class
Freelancer- passive skill Growth- gain more stats from leveling (one to each stat every level), passive slight increase to all stats Combines into the awakened Hero class
Scholar- passive skill Speed reading- able to read faster, learn more from each book, passive stat increase in leveling from reading Level 1 skill Calculate- able to do math more easily, helps keep track of money easier Level 10 skill Consume knowledge- can absorb books literally! Able to learn books instantly but consumes the book in the process plus mana and fatigue points Level 25 passive skill Learning from reading- able to more easily learn things from books, increases the experience gained towards jobs and classes from books Level 50 skill Appraisal- able to see extra information on items, whether it has any unusual uses, new information can be added and shared with other scholars Level 100 skill Steal knowledge- rip the knowledge from an enemy (retain more if you are precise on what you are looking for, can be used to confuse an opponent as a quick attack)
¡°Master of Learning¡±- passive skill Learning from seeing/Learning from doing- able to learn classes, jobs and skills from seeing or practicing towards becoming it, passive increase to memorizing Level 10 boost to experience gained for all other classes Level 20 boost to experience gained for all other classes Level 40 boost to experience gained for all other classes
"Master of Teaching"- passive skill Efficient teaching- able to more easily teach and halves fatigue point consumption from Heavy lesson, passive stat increase to students retention for everything taught Level 1 passive skill Mold Breaker- able to teach one extra class and job to humans or two classes or jobs to subhumans Level 10 passive skill Full potential- creatures move towards the best version of themselves by just being around you, teaching them can increase their max potential Level 25 skill Learning through teaching- increases experienced gained from other classes while teaching those classes Level 50 skill Give knowledge- give a portion of your knowledge away, the knowledge given is no longer in your memories Future skills for Master of Learning and Teaching will be added once they are revealed, they are being witheld as they are spoiler heavy to the future of the story
Dragon bloodline- passive skill Absorb dragon essence- any dragon killed close to you gives you a portion of it''s essence, passive stat increase to all stats Level 1 skill Dragons breath- gain the ability to breath fire from your mouth Level 10 skill Elemental alignment- a chosen elemental breath attacks are strengthened while in dragon form (upgrades to Elemental attunement) Level 25 skill Word magic- spells can be cast with a single word (stronger than Instant incantations, makes enchanting easier) Level 50 passive skill Dragon scale creation- your body can produce scales if wished Level 100 skill Dragons seal- uses powerful magic to seal power away, the power can be unlocked later or given away
Awakened Classes Spoiler :
True elementalist- passive skill gained Elemental absorption- able to pull mana from all surrounding elements Level 1 skill Conjure elements- form any element out of mana Level 10 skill Manipulate elements- control elements and move them as you see fit Level 25 skill One with the elements- communicate with the elements Level 50 skill Elemental shield- form a shield with all the elements blocking magic and projectiles over a large area Level 100 skill Control weather- with enough effort and help, can make amazing effects (rain storms with thunder, large scale tornadoes and even meteors) controlling nature will draw worshippers to you
Hero- passive skill gained Heroes resolve- retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them Level 1 passive skill Heroic aura- increase the stamina of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with Stamina ballad) Level 10 passive skill Heroes resistance- increase the chances of resisting effects Level 25 skill Heroic shout- gain the attention of all enemies while boosting the morale of all allies (morale boost gives a small amount of regen) Level 50 passive skill Ally protection- gain a boost to stats while protecting an ally Level 100 passive skill Leadership- people are naturally drawn to you, most people will see you as a leader, even if you are not
Champion- passive skill gained Champions talent- retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them Level 1 passive skill Champions aura- increases the dexterity of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with Dexterity ballad) Level 10 passive skill Champions strike- depending on the situation, will automatically use the best move for each situation (opportune strike, assassinate or flurry strikes) Level 25 passive skill Champions momentum- increase your damage by your movement speed you are going when you attack Level 50 passive skill Calm during battle- block out all unnecessary noises while fighting (helps keep focused and make important noises easier to hear) Level 100 passive skill Resolve- willing to do anything for your cause, you may gain many followers for your goal in life
Rainbow mage passive skill gained Rainbow charm- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them Level 1 Rainbow mage passive skill Weapon master- have an almost innate ability to use anything and everything as a weapon, increases the weapons effectiveness in your hands Level 10 Rainbow mage skill Rainbow focus- apply a special imbuement to your weapon that will permanently strengthen it with three types of magic and anti magic(replaces infused anti magic runes) Level 25 Rainbow mage skill Rainbow beam- Attack with a beam of energy (can be fired out as magic, strengthening an arrow or increasing the length of your sword strike) Level 50 Rainbow mage skill Mimic- Steal an enemies or monsters ability temporarily to use as your own, can only have one mimic skill Level 100 Rainbow mage passive skill Resource cost reduction- Reduces the cost of all skills by 10
Sage passive skill Sage''s knowledge- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them Level 1 Sage skill Sage''s Aura- Increase the intelligence of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with intelligence ballad) Level 10 Sage passive skill Sages power- as your mana decreases, your magic attack power increases Level 25 Sage skill Combo magic- Cast along with another spell to triplicate it''s effect (10 minute cool down) Level 50 Sage passive skill Expand magic- The more mana put into a spell, the larger it becomes Level 100 Sage skill Magic creation- Can continue to experiment and create new types of magic after testing
Jobs Spoiler :
Alchemist- able to make potions and poisons more easily
Blacksmith- able to make metal based weapons more easily
Woodworking- able to make wood based products more easily
Jeweler- able to make jewelry more easily
Leatherworker- able to make leather based equipment more easily
Chef- able to cook monsters to make them less poisonous and increase in food produced
Tailor- able to make cloth based equipment more easily
Engineering- able to make mechanical based products more easily
Gatherer- increases you''re capacity to harvest everything needed for other jobs
Fisher- increases success rate for fishing
Doctor- able to diagnose illnesses and treat injuries
Farmer- increases production of plants grown as well as animals raised
Detective- upgrades Inspect skill to Detect, increased chance to prevent, detect and stop crimes from happening
Tutor- able to teach people skills, jobs easier (some skills can only be learned from tutoring)
Land Owner- able to manage land more easily
Construction- able to draw up plans and build structures more easily
Deconstruction- able to see weak points in objects you can take advantage of, helps deconstruct items more easily
Mason- able to build concrete based objects more easily
Merchant- better buying and selling rates through haggling
Enchanting- able to add stat boosts to items or add magic spells to items (Not both will cause explosion) unless enchanted with a rare quality enchant
Synthesizing- able to combine two like objects the stronger one has more dominant characteristics in the finished product
Automaton Creation- able to make living dolls that can understand and do basic commands like cleaning and fighting
Tinkerer- able to make improvements onto other jobs with the jobs you have
Librarian- able to more easily find books you need, slightly faster reading speed
Burglar- able to more easily pick locks and harder to detect when doing crimes
Transmutation- able to combine or mix things together to make them better
Miner- able to mine more effectively, passive skill Geode finding
Bowyer- able to make bows of superior quality
Strategist- Skillfully manipulate the troops on the battlefield to your advantage, able to make more politically sound decisions
Topographer- Knowledge of land for the creation of maps and strategic placement of troops on the battlefield
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Titles and Achievements (that give bonuses) Spoiler :
Heir- increased gold gained throughout ones lifetime
Child- increase learning speed for classes (upgraded to adolescent then genius youth)
Gardener- able to grow plants and herbs faster and with more effect (stacks with farmer)
Inventor- able to see potential inventions easier
Murderer- increased damage to humans by 10%
¡°The bigger they are¡±- kill a person twice your size, bonus to accuracy
Criminal- able to more easily get away with crimes
Slime slayer- increased damage to slimes by 10%
Goblin slayer- increased damage to goblins by 10%
Regicide- you managed to kill the king of a group, able to more easily kill kings more likely to be seen as a king
Against the odds- survive a fight you weren''t weren''t meant to, increased chances of surviving deadly encounters (upgrades into Against all odds)
Rare slayer- increased damage to rares by 10%
Army slayer- increased damage to large groups of enemies by 10%
Avenged- 10% of parents class levels are added towards yours
Navigator- able to transverse the oceans easier from knowledge of the ocean
Crushing Victory- kill a boss far faster than the average time it would take, skill gained Quick return- Able to quickly return to the entrance of the dungeon after beating it
Lord of the mountain- killing the owner of the mountain has made the monsters of the area less likely to attack you, mental map expanded (now includes the mountain you just conquered)
Impossible victory- kill a raid boss by yourself, 10% increased damage to raid bosses
Speed runner (raid)- kill two raid bosses within 30 minutes of each other (speed run challenges unlocked, next achievement, kill 2 within 20 minutes) (continues to upgrade)
Captain- able to perfectly operate a ship
Food connoisseur- able to enjoy food more than other people
Mapping expert- able to path out the safest routes when traveling
Employer- able to hire people for cheaper than normal, people are more likely to work for you if offered
Aikido- (mastery level adept) beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic aikido throws and holds
Baguazhang (Circle walking)- (mastery level adept) beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic circle walking techniques
Karate- (mastery level adept) beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic karate attacks
Taekwondo- (mastery level adept) beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic taekwondo kicks
Unnamed style- unique style all your own, as you practice and improve your own moves will be added to this style
Dance fighting- (mastery level novice) very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
Pact maker- form at least 2 pacts in your lifetime, decrease the discomfort of the pact monster while forming the pact
Tactician- Able to think farther ahead, able to devise more elaborate battle plans
Commander- Able to more easily lead larger amounts of troops
War hero- Single handedly save thousands of lives during a war, stat boost to all men under your leadership
Vino- Cover yourself in the blood of your enemies, passively drink the blood through your skin granting a very small health regen bonus
Artist- (sub category- sculpting, painting, crafting and design) know the very basics of art, can sometime make something truly beautiful if you are lucky
Art critic- can see the flaws in art even when no one else can, allows you to appreciate truly beautiful art more
Stats Spoiler :
Strength- determines how strong your melee attacks are, also effects blocking ability and total rage
Dexterity- determines your attack speed, also effects dodge and total energy
Intelligence- determines how strong your magic is, also effects magic resistance and total mana
Stamina- determines how much damage you can take, also effects total fatigue points and total health
Charisma- determines your buff duration and reduces cool down time, also increases your lowest stat by 20% of your charisma
Auxiliary stats
Critical strike- increase the chance of inflicting extra damage every hit
Resistance- increase the chance of resisting status effects
Hit chance- increases the chance of hitting attacks
Dodge- increases the chance of avoiding attacks
Health regen- increases the speed that your health naturally recovers over time
Mana regen- increases the speed that your mana naturally recovers over time
Energy regen- increases the speed that your energy naturally recovers over time
Resource stats
Health- amount of damage your body can take before you pass out or die (replenishes over time)
Mana- a resource that depletes as you cast intelligence based skills (replenishes over time)
Energy- a resource that depletes as you use dexterity based skills (replenishes over time)
Rage- increased through dealing and taking damage (used for most strength based class skills)
Fatigue points- determines how quickly you are worn out from physical activities, also determines your carry weight without being worn out
Chi- form of stored power in your body, can only be increased through meditation but there is no cap on the amount that can be generated
Insight- a resource that boosts the power or duration of other skills by 50% and used to power certain skills
Merged skills Spoiler :
Steal + Pilfer = Mug- able to attack with a chance to steal items and gold from the enemy
Hide + Silent movement = Sneak- much harder to see or detect, slows movement speed in favor of being completely hidden
Control elements + Fireball = Flare- deals slightly more damage and covers a far bigger area than fireball
Control elements + Ice bolt = Freeze- deals slightly more damage and covers a far bigger area (no addition to freeze time)
Control elements + Nature shift = Control Nature- able to shape and move wood and earth more easily
Sneak attack + Goblin race = Assassinate- attack that deals eight times normal damage if the target hasn''t noticed you yet, completely silent
Heavy slash + Rend = Heavy rending slash- an attack that deals double normal damage and also causes the target to bleed
Defensive stance + Iron will = Complete defense- reduces both physical and magical damage done to you while active
Infuse + Anti magic runes = Infused anti magic runes- empowers weapon with a permanent buff that imbues your weapon with a magic and also allows your weapon to cut through magic
Silence + Counter spell = Improved Counter spell- causes a feedback effect that injures mages with their own magic they are trying to cast, also silences for thirty seconds (1 minute cool down)
Inspect + Detective = Detect- adds more information to everything you inspect
Predict lies + Detective = Interrogate- can put captives through questioning that will lead to information you wouldn''t normally be able to gain
Mock + Persuade = Cunning words- attempt to fluster an enemy by convincing them to either join your side or anger them into making a mistake
Rognarok + Shock = Lightning rod- channel lightning down into your weapons, allowing you to focus it towards an enemy
Invisibility + One with shadows + Sneak = True stealth- become impossible to detect
Snake eyes + Evil eye + Dragons gaze = Dragons piercing gaze- attempt to petrify, paralyze or charm an enemy (the effect is dependent on the strength of the opponent)
Dragoon combination + Frenzied strikes = Flurry strikes- attack with a weapon several times, each attack striking harder than the last
Absorption shield + Spell steal = Spell copy- absorb the mana component of a spell, mimicking its production at the same mana cost to launch the spell again (same spell is reusable, only 1 spell can be held to use)
Rage empowered strikes + Energy empowered strikes + Burst of power + Chi strike + Mana strike + Soul strike = Perfect strike- attack with the power of all resources at once
Treasure finding+ Sense geode + Sense trap + Sense presence = Sensory map- focus to find things close to you (more things will be added to the map as you gain more sense skills)
Secret Skills Spoiler :
Early bird- wake up two hours earlier than most other people with no repercussions to your health
Insomniac- able to stay up two hours later than most people with no repercussions to health
Capable liar- able to more easily lie to others
Predict lies- able to tell whether someone is lying more easily
Summon Undead- summons a skeleton to fight for you
Bear''s ferocity- empowers your berserking to deal heavier blows and regenerate rage faster
Sprinting- able to boost movement speed at the cost of fatigue points
Regenerate- able to fix injuries previously impossible to fix with other healing magic (cannot heal lost limbs)
Improved haggling- shortens the time it takes to haggle and increases the amount you can haggle by 5% (totaling 15%)
Caterer- able to obtain more food from all sources, store food for longer and serve food faster and to more people
Trap proficiency- able to make and set-up traps
Quick return- able to quickly return to the entrance of the dungeon after beating it
Valiant- as your health decreases your stamina increases
Wolf form- shape shift to that of a wolf (increase to critical strike chance and dodge)
Ambidextrous- able to use both hands with similar skill
Tracer arrow- creates an arrow that follows the same trajectory path as other arrows fired
Eagle eye- increases range of vision when activated (great for viewing things closer from the sky)
Spirit quest- unlock the ability to make a special unique to you totem from going on an out of body experience
Dragon speech- can communicate with dragons
Dragon form- shape shift form to that of a dragon (increase to all stats)
Griffin form- shape shift form to that of a griffin (increase to movement speed)
Elemental strengthening- increase stats with the help of the elements
Swashbuckling- increases dexterity by a portion of your charisma
Magic damage reduction- permanently decrease the damage taken from magic attacks by 10%
Sacrificial doll- make a doll that will take one attack that would kill the person it is attached to
Lancet- fling a spear with more force than an arrow
Ax specialization- know the ins in outs of the ax, better throwing with less chance of ever missing your attack
Mana to matter- from excessive knowledge of multiple jobs, You can create things out thin air with mana, you can create anything as long as you''ve inspected or used detect on it before
Snake form- shape shift from to that of a snake (increase to poison production)
Claw production- fingernails are replaced with sharp, retractile claws
Rabbit form- shape shift form to that of a rabbit (increase to dodge and movement speed) become more cowardly while transformed
Adaptability- able to change to certain situations, every mistake is learned from, every failure is improved upon
Hasten time- able to increase the speed of time within a fifty foot area around you, drains 1% of your mana per second
Slow time- able to slow the speed of time within a fifty foot area around you, drains 1% of your mana per second
Fox form- shape shift form to that of a nine tailed fox (increase to all fire and illusion based magic)
Speak with the dead- Can communicate with the corpse of a creature and ask it questions
Lich form- shape shift form to that of a lich (upgrades necromancer skills)
Transform small creature- Because of your proficiency with shape shifting into creatures, you can now shape shift into any small creature
Weapon of war- Gain movement speed, attack speed and resource regen during huge scale battles
Dragon slayer- Increased damage dealt to all dragonkin, decreased damage taken from dragonkin
Signature moves Spoiler :
Rock cannon- uses a tier 3 wind scroll to fire a rock (replaced with knife) at enemy (takes an entire day of making the scrolls) (1 day cool down)
Knives cannon- fires 6 Knife cannons at once, extremely strong and applies every single negative effect Kite can infuse onto weapons (1 week cool down)
Control nature uppercut opportune strike- forms the earth or the wooden sword into a fist that surprises the opponent allowing for you to attack with it combining with opportune strike
Fast rush special- uses all movement speed increasing skills to get an attack in on a surprised enemy
Hidden blade opportune mana slash strike- uses the blade stored in Aegis to attack an unsuspecting enemy with an increased range opportune strike
Activating harmonicas- uses bard skills and wind magic to automatically play buff songs
Activating Aegis stat boosts- uses the stats and resources Aegis has been siphoning from you, can be scaled to amounts needed and single stats can be increased instead of increasing every single stat (20 stack boost can only be active for the max of 5 minutes before it starts destroying Kites body)
Stat potion injection- injects a stat boosting potion that Kite has made himself (can be drank for a longer lasting, weaker effect)
Drink regen potion- drink a potion that slowly regenerates resources over time (can be injected for instant resource boost)
Double barrel knife cannons- fire both knife cannons attached underneath both arms (replaces rock/knife cannon)
Poison potions- uses made poison Kite has produced to injure or blind enemies
Explosive bolts- fire an arrow that has an explosive chemical on the end, once exploded it sets off a tier 4 flare scroll to increase the damage and scale of the explosion
Chi wave- last resort attack that fires a portion of the stored chi in Kites body to attack, the more chi put into attacks, results in bigger attacks.
Strengthened dragons breath- uses a vial of explosive liquid and wind scrolls to strengthen the breath attack
Explosive/Corrosive satchel- a void bag filled with vials upon vials of poison takes 1-2 weeks of preparation to make
Spinning tail/ax strike- combine every power increasing skill possible into a single direct attack
Combination combo- apply ever single skill that attacks multiple times together
Tornado- uses your wind and fire manipulation to make a perpetual tornado, the tornado can be expanded slowly
Quagmire- makes a very difficult to pass through bog trap that will slow, if not stop an enemies advance
Ice slick- cover the ground in ice that can slow and impede enemies movements
Tiny spikes- form miniature spikes to slow an enemies movements, also might cause injuries to enemies feet
Earth fists- form as many control nature uppercut opportune strikes as you can in a certain area, hopefully injuring several dozen enemies at once
Generals Spoiler :
Kite''s classes- Master of learning, Master of teaching Kite is an extremely smart thinker. Trying to gain any advantage for himself and his army that he possibly can. He isn''t afraid of getting dirty if it is too save the lives of his men. Until recently, he was shorter than average for his age. After he had been made a high human he had a growth spurt of over an entire foot. Putting him at 6''7", he has dark red hair. Until recently his entire body was covered in scars but since his transformation into high human it isn''t anymore. He has far too much equipment to go through in his description.
Lance''s classes- Hero, Samurai, Monk, Barbarian, Farmer, Blacksmith In his childhood he would always have a smile on his face. As he had gotten older and more tragedy had happened to him, he grew out of it. Lance is very fit for someone his age (13). He has auburn colored hair he keeps short so it doesn''t get in his eyes while fighting. He is 5''8" tall. Being able to easily lift twice his body weight. His equipment consists of throwing spears he uses with his secret skill lancet. He was the first general to unlock an awakened class. He surprisingly has no scars across his face because of his abilities as a tank are too great. He wears more heavy equipment then most of the other generals. Fitting basilisk plating armor over top of his leather set. He is Kite''s right hand man.
Leaf''s classes- Black mage, Summoner, Time mage, White mage, Tutor, Farmer She was a very drawn to Kite by his personality and it made her fall in love with him. She is taller than the average girl her age 6''1". This was one of the reasons she was afraid to be with Kite. She trains secretly because she doesn''t think it is very feminine to. This means she is the most fit mage in Kite''s entire army. She has light green hair that almost shines when under sunlight. She was the first general to break the class limit. She has never been struck except during training. (Lance is too good of a tank to let that happen) So she has no scars. She is the only mage to wear leather gear under her heirloom mage robe.
Leon''s classes- Champion, Freelancer, Ninja, Saboteur, Leatherworker He had a very happy go luck attitude until he girlfriend Kattie was killed. He became suicidal for a short while until Lance managed to convince him to try to change the world. Leon see''s Kite as the quickest way to get stronger so he has more influence. Leon used to have a constant smile on his face with a similar attitude as Lance''s. He has golden blonde hair and is tall and skinny in comparison to the average 20 year old person. Peaking at 6''6" Another motivating drive for him was his rivalry with Nargzar until Nami had beaten them both so easily. He was so frustrated that he wanted to get stronger any means necessary. Including locking himself in the time tree even though he couldn''t handle it mentally.
Trice''s classes/jobs- Scout, Blue mage, Spell thief, Yellow mage, Tutor, Farmer, Librarian Trice is the weakest member of Lance''s group. She pushes herself mentally to make up for that. Quite possibly the smartest person in the entire army, she often corrects Lance''s mistakes after the battle. She is very short for her age 4'' 6" and has black hair with hints of brown and a few blonde streaks running through it. She is also the second most fit mage in Kite''s entire army (only behind Leaf by a small margin) She hasn''t gotten to practice her gardening since she''s moved to the fortress because the plants/crops grow too quickly, which irritates her a little.
Kattie''s classes/jobs- White mage, Bard, Druid, Tutor, Librarian Kattie was an above average healer. Without a doubt she had done better than any healer that would have joined Lance''s group. She gained a crush on Leon and eventually started dating him. She was always looking to get better as a healer. She was very happy to learn anything from Kite (a person she had taught when he was younger). She was killed by a warrior named Burke who had become angry enough at Kite to attempt to kill his friends. The sneak attack was so abrupt she couldn''t heal it. Her death was almost instant... This was the first death in the story.
Gobber''s classes/jobs- Archer, Blue mage, Beast tamer, Chemist, Hero, Champion, 2 open class slots Gobber is beyond any of Kites other troops. He is his strongest general by far, he''s smart, strong, fast and attractive. Even though he is so strong, he still is bound by a family now. He yearns to get back onto the battlefield to get strong but his children and wife are holding him back from realizing his full potential. He loves his wife and children too much to abandon them though. So he just waits quietly with them until he''s able to fight again. He is 7'' tall, light green skin, dark green hair. Using many unique weapons such as a giant crossbow, drill rapier, Kite''s old scroll bag, a knife cannon, and a pouch of smoke and incendiary bombs.
Gargarz''s classes/jobs- Nature mage, White mage, Black mage, Time mage, Doctor Gargarz is a very practical person. As a gnoll he is covered in fur with a dog like snout. Very short, barely surpassing 4''. Gargarz is shorter than the average gnoll. Being the single caster in the first teaching of the gnolls. The smartest of all the gnolls. Most look at him for leadership while Kite was gone. He dislikes the attention. Often hiding inside the library and reading in a tucked away corner.
Nargzar''s classes/jobs- Archer, Thief, Bandit, Blue mage, Fighter Nargzar is a very tactical fighter. Waiting for the best time to attack, even longer than most other dexterity class focused people like Leon. You could say he is the opposite of Leon''s rush head first into a problem. Circling the problem looking for the best/safest solution. Losing the bulk of his stealth troops made him put more effort into safety. Slightly bigger than most of the other gnolls. His focus towards dexterity gives him a much leaner body than most, which is hard to tell because of the layer of fur over him.
Zergnar''s classes/jobs- Berserker, Beast rider, Beast tamer, Dragoon, Knight Zergnar is the biggest and strongest of all the gnolls. Evolving into a variant of gnoll known for their strength and size. A mega gnoll. He is unique in this manor, taking longer to evolve than most of the other gnolls but evolving through a hard trial by fire where he fought enemies for 3 days straight. Equaling the height of an average full grown human. He has many wives but is thinking about divorcing them because they are too hard to deal with. For a few moments before Brick joined he was the biggest/strongest person in Kite''s army.
Hilda''s classes/jobs- Fighter, Knight, Scout, Tutor, Detective, Construction,, Land owner She makes sure things run smoothly when she isn''t watching her children. Although there is a daycare like system in place, she refuses to let anyone else teach her children. Opting to teach them instead. She is by far the best teacher in the fortress and it shows in her children''s speed of learning. She loved her job before but seeing Gobber, it was love at first site. She used to wear a full knights body suit, now opting for more comfortable living cloths. She has long blonde hair, a very fit/active body from constant training and wearing heavy armor. She disagree''s with some of the methods Kite uses like mind control/torture and cowardly tactics.
Sock''s classes/jobs- Warrior, Druid, Knight, Monk, Guardian Sock was Kite''s first pet. While Kite tamed him in order to protect himself without any real intent on keeping him. He quickly became strong enough to defend himself and his allies. His several transformations led him to evolving into a direwere which looks like a human shaped wolf with a white foot which is how his name came to be. Losing to Gobber put him on the path of constantly wanting to get stronger. He might be the best candidate for leading the army because of his ruthless tactics and surprisingly brilliant mind.
Pokodo''s classes/jobs- White mage, Time mage, Nature mage, Elementalist, Warden The first pet that naturally bonded with Kite. She really loves naps, attention and healing the injured. She has the fastest response time when it comes to healing. Almost an unnatural sense of detection when it comes to danger. Perhaps because of her small size she would need an innate sense of self preservation. Through many different transformations she evolved into a pure white ferret that had extreme strong healing magic that cured many of the crippling injuries of many people. She likes rolling around in dust then taking a bath to (fun fact, Pokodo was originally going to be a thief class specialized pet because ferrets love to steal things but was changed after she used the healing scroll to save Kite''s life)
Blue''s classes/jobs- Black mage, Elementalist, Time mage, Aqua mage, Warlock Blue originally disliked Kite. Seeing him as a person who would quickly die because of his weakness. He had an owner previously that died in a bandit attack which he couldn''t prevent. It gave him trust issues and pushed him to be guarded towards getting close to anyone. He was already evolved to the point of being a blue imp. He was the first pet that could talk before he was tamed by Kite. His last evolution turned him into a true male siren, a blue body and hair covering his head. He has the ability to charm women even though he looks like an adolescent boy. More cute than handsome.
Purple''s classes/jobs- Ninja, Wind mage, Scout, Illusionist Purple was originally a plain dartwing bat when Kite had tamed him. Through evolution he become a very strong variant called the mind meld bulletwing. This variant of bat had poison secretion along its body and could link mentally with up to 6 people. Purple didn''t really have a personality until that point in time. Once unlocked he slowly became more curious about the world as he linked with Kite and started to develop questions that couldn''t be answered. Often running impossible plans inside his head which fairly often lead him nowhere but very rarely work. He might some day leave Kite to explore the world when his curiosity gets the best of him.
Morpheus''s classes/jobs- Knight, Berserker, Monk, Blue mage Morpheus was captured by Zergnar for becoming a mount for Kite. With Kite''s progression learning dragon form he no longer needed a mount. Leaving Morpheus without a real purpose for the army until he evolved into the transformling. He could take the shape of any person, animal or monster. Not gaining their unique abilites though. He misses his family, his entire purpose of living is for his family. Once he had gotten out of the tree he headed towards his old home to look for his family. His appearance is constantly changing.
Darkclaw''s classes/jobs- Pirate, Thief, Fighter, Scout FIrst pet to form a soul pact with Kite. A portion of Kite''s soul (Greed) had been placed into him. Upon strengthening the soul with a false soul stone Greed had activated, leaving a helpful voice inside his head. He is potentially the strongest thing in Kite''s army when he puts his mind to it. Even without trying he is the fastest thing in Kite''s army. He is a dragon/griffin hybrid. Making his skin covered in black, scale like feathers. He often gets distracted by gold, food or anything that might be fun/helpful to him. Even to the point where he is willing to defy Kite
Kline''s classes/jobs- White mage, Black mage, Time mage, Tutor, Construction, Wood worker Kline was a very unenthusiastic person until he met Kite. He would avoid growing close to anyone because of his work as a spy. When Kite had saved his life by killing the basilisk, he saw it as a sign from the god of life. He then proceeded to work towards becoming friends/allies with Kite at any means, even betraying his country. Eventually he found out that Kite wasn''t a demigod but instead what he actually was, he still wished to follow Kite. He has a 2 inch thick beard on his face. Patches of red peak through his brown hair. He still likes to laze about but his real skill shows from telling stories. He might have the lowest fatigue points out of all the generals.
Epieoth''s classes/jobs- Spellthief, Red mage, Warrior, Leather worker, Construction Epieoth had went to the magic university as an ambassador of his people. Born of the demon tribe, a red skinned race with black eyes and horns. Also a spy who was looking for the help of anyone who possibly could to get the demon tribe off the front lines. After defeating Kite in battle very easily, he asked Kite for assistance, which Kite eventually provided. The demon tribe have a rivalry with the elementalists, the elementalists had pushed his race to almost extinction on this continent so he holds a grudge against them. Epieoth is very stubborn on most subjects, one opinion he will never relent is his hatred of the elementalists.
Brick''s classes/jobs- Elementalist, Guardian, Nature mage, Tailor, Tutor, Doctor Brick is one of the last elementalists on this side of the world. Brought all the way from the north east continent to fight against the demon tribe. Once they had almost wiped out all the demon tribe they were killed by the army that had forced them to fight. Brick is a giant of a man. Easily pushing 400 pounds of muscle 8''2" tall. Elementalists are a very tan race of humans. He could potentially be the tallest man in the entire world. He will only practice/use the elemental class now for the sake of his people.
Methodis'' classes/jobs- White mage, Warden, Druid, Doctor, Alchemist A thin but tall demon tribe member. He was pulled in as a general by Kite to fill out his raid group more. He is the leader of the healing troops because of his work ethic. Very weak even considering that he is a mage. He is trying to become stronger though. He is secretly in love with Green, a elementalist. While most demon tribe members have a severe hatred for elementalists and the same goes for elementalists. He doesn''t, he realizes that it was two sides pitting them against each other. He mixes potions as a hobby, being taught by Kite in his down time. He is starting to take a liking towards enchanting/transmutation.
Green''s classes/jobs- True elementalist, Warrior, Barbarian, Berserker A fighter of the elementalists. Very muscular for a women, 220 pounds of muscle 6''6". She is even more tan than most other elementalists. Chooses to use no weapons when fighting because she likes to feel the bones crack under her fist. She has a very dangerous fighting style, taking hits to make sure she can continue to attack. She has a scar across the lower left part of her face. Many scars on her back from being whipped while she was a slave for insubordination. She has the biggest grudge against the demon tribe and also the army to the north. She is willing to die to extract her revenge against them. Even if it is only one more kill she''ll fight until she drops dead against them. She fights with such ferocity that she once bit a chunk out of Brick during a sparring match before.
Fast''s classes/jobs- Thief, Bandit, Pirate, Scout, Ninja Small compared to other lizard men. Greyish green scales cover his body. He is by far the fastest lizard man in his tribe. With his classes now focused towards dexterity he has become even faster. His only focus is getting faster, faster than Kite who had beaten him in a contest of speed. Every day he would run at least 2 hours a day to get faster. Faster is his life...
Swift''s classes/jobs- White mage, Time mage, Warden, Druid, Blue mage Swift is the only other small lizard man. Purplish grey scales cover his body. He is by far the smartest lizard man in his tribe. He enjoys being secluded. Kite coming to their island was the best thing to ever happen to him. The short time they''ve known each other, he''s gotten far smarter than he ever thought possible. Constantly taking books from the library to read in the comfort of his home. His brothers who constantly annoy him are the only thing keeping him out of a book. He loves them though, enough to constantly work to get smarter to protect them.
Strong''s classes/jobs- Barbarian, Warrior, Fighter, Berserker, Pirate Strong is the biggest and strongest lizard man in the village. Pure green scales cover his body. Strong might be the only one who regrets Kite coming to their island. While he has gotten stronger by leaps and bounds. One of his brothers/rivals was killed by Kite. He respects his people enough to not outright challenge Kite but he does want some form of revenge against him. He is now the oldest brother, so it falls on him to protect his younger brothers. That is the only reason why he hasn''t tried to duel Kite yet... Until he knows that he can beat him he wont be foolish enough to attempt it.
Tough''s classes/jobs- Barbarian, Guardian, Knight, Shaman, Monk Not has tall as his brother Strong, he is still the second biggest in the village. Dark green scales cover his body. His scales are thicker than all the other lizard men''s. Giving him an extra layer of defense against attacks. He enjoys pain... To the point where he purposely tries to pick fights to feel the rush of blood through his body. Since Kite has visited the island, he''s been constantly sparring with anyone he can to get hurt. His new classes make him even stronger when he takes damage and more resistant to it. Giving him a far longer rush for each fight. His fighting style is to take the blows head on to build his rage faster.
Shikki''s classes/jobs- Witch doctor, Black mage, Warlock, Illusionist, Scholar Shikki is a kobold. A race of tiny lizard like people. They can grow hair somewhat... As the village elder, shikki has spent his entire life growing a goatee beard out. His beard is almost a foot long, about half of his height. It is a sign of his age, growing hair is very difficult for kobolds. Works his hardest to protect his masters(Kite''s) beliefs. He follows Kite in an almost religious sense. Doesn''t drink Kite''s blood, refusing to take part in the consumption of his master. He allows his people too though. Very strict punishments are carried out on any kobold that would disobey master or any of his beliefs.
Red''s classes/jobs- Fire mage, Warlock, Black mage, Witch doctor, Illusionist Once traveled with Greed. (Kite from a former life) Is a very beautiful women, wearing a kimono into combat that Kite had made for her. She is very arrogant, often times seeing herself as better than other members of the army. She loves to pick fights. Although she is a mage she fights while moving, making her a much more dangerous/elusive opponent. She loves Kite... Kite is the only person who she will listen too... Her rivals are... Any other spell caster, if someone is better than her she''ll work on getting stronger than them.
Fayeth''s classes/jobs- Archer, Fighter, Ranger, Thief, Wood worker, Bowyer, Blacksmith, Construction, Tutor The single elf of Kite''s army. She had a tough life, at a very young age she was put into the elven guard of the village. Learning ways to hunt... Fight and protect the village at any cost. She was so good at her job of protecting the village that it started to get too big. The village leader had started selling off the outcasts of the village. She was the first to be sold off, for her ability as a fighter. She killed her first owner for attempting to rape her and continued to live a hard life. Elf''s have pure white skin, taller than average humans, pointed ears and an unnatural beauty they can use as a weapon. Fayeth is no exception to this rule.
Supporting characters Spoiler :
Ashely Ashely is Kattie''s twin sister. While Kattie had chosen the role as healer, Ashely instead chose the role as chef for her mission in life. After a very unfortunate turn of events. Ashely was taken hostage with the remaining villagers from Kite''s home town. The cercumstances of Kattie dying drove her back to live with her aunt and uncle in the city of Shienta. She misses living in the fortress now but doesn''t have the courage to go back.
Kora Besides Lance and Trice. Kora is the only remaining person staying in Kite''s fortress who came from Kite''s home town. She loves helping with anything she can and has become somewhat of a supervisor for several of the jobs to make sure everything is running smoothly. Sort of a behind the scenes boss to help with things Kite would be too busy to worry about. She has a similar hair color to Kites. A slightly lighter color of red that is very long. Very average body type that often gets worn out by strenuous activity. One of the very few relatives of Kite''s that is still alive.
Gyzmo Gyzmo is Kites first ever created automaton. It has gained sentience and even teh ability to talk through his class illusionist. While he spends most of his time alone. He has slowly started spending more time with his sibling automatons. He is th emost likely to become the automaton leader in the future.
Merlin He is an old, wise enchanter in the village of Shienta. Most of what Kite knows about enchanting is through the help of this man. With the help of Kite he has quickly become one of the most well known enchanters in the entire south west continent. He has started up a school to teach enchanting and Kite still drops in from time to time to check up on him and ask for help.
Greed Greed is a past life of Kite. Once Kite had gained enough levels in his class. He unlocked Greed''s memories. Eventually Greed had manifested himself as a voice in Kite''s head. Greed loved traveling and his dream in life was to own his own boat. After being attacked by pirates, he vowed revenge against them and it cost his wife Lindsay''s life. He did eventually kill all of the pirates who had taken so much of him and eventually became the leader of the pirates years later. His empire is still around in Kite''s lifetime. When Kite formed the soul pact with Darkclaw, Greed was ripped from Kite''s psyche. He eventually reemergase inside Darkclaw''s mind.
Gem The real leader of the group of bandits that attacked his village. She isn''t cut out for fighting so after the fighting had died down, she was found hiding in the bandit''s main building. She tried to do anything to get her revenge against Kite and had told him the future plans of her sister. The leader of the pirates in an attempt to make him go off and fight against her. She is also Greed''s granddaughter.
Gold The current leader of the pirates that plan on attacking Shienta. She is a natural born tactician who has used her wit to take leadership of the pirates. Potentially the most deadly person Kite will ever face. At this time in the story, very little is known about her other than her ruthless/calculating nature.
Nami Nami is the head ninja of her village. The pirates attacked an wiped out all the seasoned fighters, leaving her as the oldest living combatant of her village. She has made it her mission in life to rescue the kidnapped children of her village. Since that day she has not skipped a single day of training. Constantly fighting to get stronger any means necessary. Including looking to an outsider for help. She is a murine folk (mouse looking humanoid) pure white fur covers all of her body. Because of her training, many of the other ninjas look at her as the future leader of the village.
Lust Lust is the second manifestation of memories Kite had acquired. While she was alive she started the first merchants guild. She is a sexually liberated person. Often having sex with many men in over a small period in time. She had three sons all to different men. Business savvy to the extreme, often flirting with customers or other merchants to get better deals. She amassed a huge fortune in her lifetime and inspired other types of guilds to form up.
Shogun The leader of the murine folk. Over 500 years old, he has become a teacher of aikido to Kite. Very wise, one of the few people who saw through Kite''s lies upon first meeting him. He has bouts of depression because of the children of his village getting kidnapped without him being able to do anything to stop it. He is willing to give his life to get them back.
Old man/transmutation master Kite doesn''t know his name. This old man is the teacher of transmutation, circle walking and dance fighting to Kite. The old man is quite frankly crazy. Very few hints of the intelligence can be seen behind his craziness and Kite attempts to find every piece of information this person can give him. He often drinks poison and uses food for other things besides eating. His favorite thing to make is a hair removal formula he thinks regrows hair. Because of this, huge patches of fur are missing from him. He isn''t from the island, he is a nomad who had come from a different murine folk village.
Neko Neko is the pet of Zergnar and the rival of Red. She has a dimwitted personality that often misconstrues information and gets her in trouble. She has a crush on Kite because of this she often tries to manipulate situations where they can be together. Kite doesn''t view her or any of his pets as monsters. Giving them the same treatment he would a normal humanoid person in his army. She could very easily become a general of his if she becomes less ditsy. She is short compared to Red, looking like her younger sister. She has blondish orange hair with a single patch of black in her human form and calico fur in her cat form.
Kikaa A pet of Gobber. He is a tengu who is based on using bluffs to avoid fighting. Slightly cowardly but has an innate sense of an enemies fighting style. Can pick apart a fighting style to avoid attacks at an almost unnatural level. He also has a few oddly enchanted items. Overstating the quality of the items as bluffs against enemies. He would much rather sit back in a fight and if someone attempts to fight him he will most likely run away.
Raid boss strong allies Spoiler :
Rock A giant golem who had gained sentience of living. Kite had met him in the school he went to. Kite originally planned to gain him as an ally before he fought with the bandits but it was pushed back. He enjoys the company of animals and is very in commune with nature. More of a pacifist than a normal golem. Often letting enemies attack him and run away instead of fighting. He will fight if he has too. If it is for a good reason he will fight at full strength against an enemy.
Troll Troll is a... troll Kite had bought from the slave auction. Trolls are known for their incredible healing capabilities and often used as damage sponges on the front lines of war. Kite had put in extra effort to protect his vital areas like his head and heart so he would be far harder to kill. He also gave him a bat like club and a giant bow making him far more dangerous than he was previously. He enjoys eating food and has almost gotten into fights with some of the people in Kite''s army, only staying in line because Kite will kill him if he attacks Kite''s men.
Tenshi Tenshi is an oni (red skinned ogre) Gobber had acquired as a servant by tying a string around his horn. With an almost immunity to pain until his horns are grabbed. He has skin of a similar toughness to iron, strength almost unequal to any creature of a similar size. He is given a bat similar to Trolls and he loves fighting just as much as Troll. They develop a close relationship as they are so similar and the very few people in Kite''s army that can speak the giant language. Unlike Troll however, instead of eating huge amounts of food like Troll, he consumes huge amounts of alcohol to sate himself.
(Kite''s main stats) (strength- 2660) (dexterity- 3070) (intelligence- 2800) (stamina- 2660) (charisma- 1950) (total = 13140)
(Kite''s auxiliary stats) ( critical strike- 42%) (resistance- 45% {double resistance to mental attacks and immunity to poison}) (hit chance- 120%) (dodge- 33%) (health regen- 15% per hour) (mana regen- 300% per hour) (energy regen- 100% per 1.5 minutes) (buff duration and cool down reduction- 39%)
(Kite''s resource stats) (health- 35000) (mana- 25000) (energy- 257) (rage- 238) (fatigue points- 33250) (chi- 507k) (insight- 10)
Chapter 101 Lusts rocky start I wake up to the sound of Lance still training. He has focused on leveling up his new growth skill the entire time I was sleeping. When he sees me awake he comes over and talks. ¡°Classes. Which ones do you think I should learn?¡± ¡°...If I was being honest¡­ I would say, it might be best to wait to learn more until I unlocked more myself. That way I could give you the best classes¡­ I doubt you want to wait though¡­ I would say you have three choices now. You can continue to go down the tanking path, learn some damaging classes or go for magic ones¡­ Any path you choose could be the right one for you.¡± ¡°Well, can you go over each path more? As in which classes do you think would be best for each.¡± ¡°For tanking, I would suggest barbarian, monk and samurai¡­ Damage I would suggest fighter, berserker and ninja¡­ Lastly for magic I would suggest red mage, blue mage and spell thief¡­ Sort of like utility instead of full on magic. You might not be able to learn these classes though. We''ll only know for sure when I try to teach you.¡± ¡°Can you pick classes¡­ That don''t overlap with Trice''s?¡± ¡°So that would take away blue mage and spell thief¡­ Would you be okay with time mage, red mage and¡­ Let me try to teach you true elementalist.¡± It takes five hours of trying to teach it¡­ No, it seems teaching these awakened classes might be impossible. I''ll have to make sure completely first. Once a few of my other generals break through the class limit, I''ll try teaching them both my awakened classes. Lance looks bored and a little upset he couldn''t learn it but that is understandable. He breaks the silence. ¡°It''s fine¡­ I didn''t really want to learn magic anyways. I want to continue down the path I started. The path of protecting everyone around me. Let me learn the tanking classes.¡± I teach him the three classes he wanted to learn. Barbarian will give him constant rage regeneration, which is very helpful for his classes. Monk to give him chi, he will also get the merged skill complete defense, which will help him out. He''ll have to meditate from now on, which seems weird for Lance. Finally samurai gave him a mana resource class to use plus allows him to convert the mana into chi. I see him doing far more often than meditating. Perhaps if he uses it similarly to how I use it. For big attacks... I don''t see Lance as the patient type of person who will hold onto his chi though. So many new classes for him to master. He''ll become far stronger once they level up a bit¡­ I doubt I''ll remain ahead of him in fighting ability for very long now. He gets back to training, teaching him took more than normal but not nearly as much as teaching him the class linked to his awakened class. Leon approaches me right after that. ¡°Hey¡­ I''ve broken the class limit...¡± ¡°Oh great. Which class do you want to learn?¡± ¡°...I''ve already learned ninja¡­ But I couldn''t get any skills for it¡­ It says I need a teacher.¡± It starts to make sense now. I remember Leon sitting by me when I taught Fast the ninja class. Why he was so angry that he wasn''t getting stronger. Ninjas can''t level unless you have a teacher. He should have come and asked me about learning more¡­ I would have taught him¡­ I teach him everything I can with ninja. He couldn''t learn any of the animal skills I gained¡­ Why are all my generals idiots? I decide to dive back into Lust''s memories. I still need to finish that¡­ It just takes so much out of me to do it. I always feel¡­ Not myself when I do. Lust begins to speak. ¡°You told me to warn you when you were getting close to bad memories¡­ Just thought you should know so it doesn''t sneak up on you¡­ Just, don''t overreact to it¡­ That was a thousand years ago to me so¡­ I''m over it completely.¡± ¡°Thanks for the heads up I guess...¡± Kite going through Lust''s memories It has been another 2 years of me collecting money for my attempt to finally break off and become my own woman. I''ve collected an entire gold to buy adventurers gear, that is more than enough to get started. With that gear, I can ask at the local adventurers guild for a support or healer position. Until I collect enough money to start my merchants job. Me and my father head towards a city close by¡­ The moment we enter I break away from my father and head towards the local blacksmith. I''ve met him before as we''ve done business with everyone in the next few cities many times. It takes awhile, I copy my mother. Flirting with him, he is an old man but it doesn''t matter to him. I talk him down an extra 10 silver on the cost of a knife, dagger and sword. Not for myself but for future familiars I summon. The weapons they''re formed with are far below iron in quality so these weapons will be an upgrade. I hate to leave my father but taking baby steps to start adventuring will end with me never doing it. I buy more things I''ll need on my adventure, some healing and mana potions. I already have most supplies I need for long journeys. I''ve been practicing another job, enchanting to help with future business. All self tutored because no one in my village had known it. I myself had to buy the book on one of my fathers trips. I''ve learned enough to make myself a mana regen ring. The equipment I have are the heirloom staff and robe. I enter the adventurers guild. It stinks like beer and sweat, I''ve never had a drop of it but maybe I will in the future. I head to the counter and talk with the attendant until I finally get my membership. It isn''t a card or anything, sort of like a sheet of paper. I kind of thought it would be a cool card though... I''m not supposed to lose it or I will have to start back at rank F. The sheet has statistics for me. 0 missions complete, 0 missions accepted, healer/support role, 0 experience in dungeons. From what I was told, it isn''t a magical sheet of paper. Every time I complete one of the things, I have to come back to have it updated with proof I did accomplish those things. It takes ten missions to move from rank F to E. Which doesn''t seem like much, some missions give more than one point towards completion. They are ranked but you are allowed to go above your rank, the rank of the mission is more along the lines of suggested rank than anything. I move towards the board before a handsome man cuts me off before I get there. ¡°Hello there beautiful, I''ve seen you around here before and know that you are a healer. I''ll let you know that our group is looking for one of those. Any chance you would like to accompany us into a tier 2 dungeon?¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°H-hello! Umm¡­ Yes! I would really like that!¡± He is very handsome. A smile was smeared across his face. traveling with his group I know now that the smile rarely fades from it. I learn everyone''s name. The handsome man was a thief, he had short black hair that looked well maintained. Slightly pointed ears showed signs of elfish heritage, he is at least half elf. His gear seemed higher than that of a new adventurer. I have a feeling that he brought me into the group because he is liked me¡­ Which I''m fine with¡­ Just a little nervous now. His name was Mex. The tank of the group wasn''t nearly as attractive, he still had a charm about him, just not my cup of tea. He had long blonde hair, adorned with heavy armor that looks worn down, as if it was passed down through his family. Most likely a knight. He still looks young, even younger than myself. He has a sword to big to use with one hand accurately but he still tries to use it. His name was Owen. The archer of our group was the only other female. Short length pixy styled red hair. Fancy leather gear that looks more suited for decoration than actual combat. Like Mex, she almost always had a smile on her face. Her name was Fiora. She was almost always happy, even too the point of annoyance but I quickly became friends with her. The final member of the group was another new one to the group. He looked like¡­ I''m not sure what he is exactly. A mixture of tattered cloth, leather and heavy armor gear. Three different weapons, on his back is a longsword. A crossbow on his belt and a short spear on his other hip¡­ What the hell is this person? Besides his weird equipment, his face is covered in scars. Scars show over every part of his body that is showing skin. No hair covered his head and every time I see him look at me I feel slight fear¡­ His name is¡­ He didn''t say, so I''ll call him the unnamed man. We make our way to the dungeon close by. Only a few days of travel, we''re attacked by a few monsters but the group is far too strong to have been bothered by them¡­ No one has had to do anything besides the unnamed man¡­ We enter¡­ It is a very mysterious feeling. Both excitement and fear are mixed in. The group pushes through. Most of the enemies are rock type ones. This must be a rock dungeon or something¡­ I''m not sure, I haven''t really researched dungeons that much. This dungeon is far below what this group can clear. We easily make it to the end boss. He is a huge rock elemental, rocks shift around a core that would normally be difficult to hit without being pelted by the rocks circling around it. The unnamed man picks out his short spear and crossbow. Firing both simultaneously, both striking the core¡­ Defeating the boss instantly¡­ What a powerful man. We leave the dungeon. The gear and gold dropped are both being held by Mex. We''re heading towards another dungeon. This time tier three, in our travels I finally talk with the unnamed man. One night sitting around a campfire I finally speak with him. At least more than a single word or two. ¡°So¡­ What''s your story¡­ You seem far to experienced for this sort of group.¡± ¡°¡­ I might be¡­ I''m just sick of fighting¡­ I want to take a break from my life constantly at risk...¡± ¡°What did you do before you started traveling? What could leave so many marks on you?¡± ¡°¡­ To the north of here¡­ There is a city with a coliseum¡­ Inside the coliseum you can fight for money¡­ But also for cheers and applause¡­ I''ve made my fair share of money doing that¡­ Enough for me to never need to work again in my life¡­ But the feeling of¡­ Fans cheering is more than I could leave behind. I just¡­ My body is so worn down¡­ I needed a break¡­ We gladiators tend to watch our own backs but... You should be careful with that thief¡­ He''s going to break your heart.¡± That night we slept, I wondered exactly what he meant with that last line he spoken¡­ We continue onwards, towards the next dungeon and after a few days of travel. The entire time traveling I''ve been flirting with Mex. He initiated and after some time I started to respond back. I don''t think I love him but¡­ I could see myself being with him in the future. I asked the unnamed man a few times what he had meant but he wouldn''t answer. We head inside the dungeon. This time the floor is covered in water. Not much but enough to be an annoyance¡­ I slow the group down the most, I need to constantly rest. I wish I had been keeping up with exercises or walking along the caravan of my fathers. All that travel and I''m still so slow in comparison¡­ I''ll have to improve my fatigue points so I don''t feel like a burden to everyone else. Once again, we easily clear most of the dungeon. The unnamed man is just far too strong. We are only there for cleanup of the enemies he doesn''t slaughter with his longsword. We see an item trap. The unnamed man looks closely at the trap. It appears to be a sword, one that would help Owen far more than the unwieldy one he currently has. The unnamed man begins to speak. ¡°This trap looks like it will be a difficult one to deal wi-.¡± Mex pulls the sword off the trap. The door closes behind us, as the holes inside the room start pouring water into it. The unnamed man speaks. ¡°YOU FOOL! YOU JUST KILLED US ALL!¡± The room fills slowly¡­ This is it then¡­ The unnamed man slams against the door. It is a thick wooden one. It would take hours to be able to cut through it¡­ That is if we didn''t have a monster in our group. Swinging so fiercely he sinks a few inches of his longsword into the door. He continues doing this until he starts to finally chip holes into the door. Something that should be impossible to do in the time we have isn''t for him. He beats through the door. Gallons of water come rushing out along with us. The unnamed man walks over and beats the ever loving shit out of Mex. Breaking his nose, swelling his eye closed and knocking out a few teeth. It takes all three of us to pull him off of Mex. I start healing him but his nose has a permanent crook in it now. A small scar from the swelling near his eye is also not healable. ¡°W-w-what the hell was that for!?¡± ¡°ARE YOU SERIOUS!? You almost got us all killed even after I warned you! You''re lucky I didn''t fucking kill you on the spot when you pulled that off.¡± I see fear inside Mex''s eyes. He knows the unnamed man wasn''t lying. We sit in silence for a few minutes¡­ The unnamed man finally breaks the silence. ¡°We still need to finish this dungeon. Let''s move on before the mobs respawn on us.¡± We continue towards the boss. It is a giant water slime which absorbs water. Normally hard to kill but with the unnamed man we finish it off without much trouble. Leaving the unnamed man speaks again. ¡°Give me my share now. I''ll leave the group since I don''t respect its leader.¡± ¡°We can split the money once we make it back to a town.¡± ¡°Give me¡­ My share¡­ Now...¡± Mex doesn''t try to talk him into continuing with us. He hands over the portion of money we''ve collected for the dungeons. It isn''t much, 30-40 silver per person. Still a good amount for a beginner. He takes his money and leaves. We are traveling back towards the city. I become a nurse towards Mex, healing his injuries as much as I can. One night while traveling back Mex seduces me. When I wake up in the morning, all of my equipment besides my heirloom robe and staff are gone¡­ All the money I had been saving up, all the items I... We had gotten and even my mana regen ring was stolen¡­ Three of us remained¡­ Mex was gone¡­ He had stolen everything¡­ Chapter 102 More of Lust Everything¡­ Everything is gone¡­ All of my money¡­ All of my items¡­ Besides the things that would disappear if he had taken them¡­ Those are the only two things I have in my possession¡­ Even my heart feels hurt. He seduced me and slept with me, knowing he was going to steal from me and everyone else that night¡­ He''s taken more than just all that¡­ He''s taken my trust in people as well¡­ The next few days are the worst of my entire life. I had to make it back to town with no food, water or any of the luxury I have become accustomed to¡­ The other two also left me to make my way back to town by myself. Owen split, he had the only food remaining as it was in his backpack which he used as a pillow... I didn''t make it out without losing everything... At least they still had some of their belongings. Fiora left me as well¡­ The first wolf she killed she took her skinning knife and cut into it. Tossing me a chunk of the meat before threatening my life if I didn''t leave her... We had survived by eating my conjured food up to that point. I had a single piece of meat in the three day trip back to the village¡­ Conjured food is edible but it is dangerous to eat consistantly as you can become sick from it... It is also tasteless. No water in the whole trip. I make it back to the town. Collapsing at the edge of it¡­ I cry at what has become of me. Never again will I trust a person with my heart... Weeks of squalor, I barely make enough money from the low ranking adventurers guild missions to feed myself real food. I''ve been sick because of mana poisoning from eating my conjured food. Often sleeping in alleyways with garbage, I begin to stink¡­ Perhaps I should quit this and go back to my family¡­ Would they even take me back? I can''t find a single group that would take in a new healer like myself. I try talking with people but none of them seem to even notice me¡­ It is almost like they are looking right through me. Mex must have looked at me the same way. Right through me and seen I was an easy target. Why didn''t that unnamed man warn me more about Mex. He said he was going to break my heart. I didn''t expect him to steal everything I owned though¡­ I start to grow resentment towards everyone from that group¡­ If I ever get back on my feet, if I ever recover from this¡­ I''ll hire people to track that piece of shit Mex down and kill him. It''s been an entire month¡­ I''ve thought of suicide more times than I would like to admit¡­ I think I''ve given up¡­ Nothing I do seems to work, being a good person has gotten me nothing but trouble¡­ Maybe it is time to be a bad person¡­ I head back into the adventurers guild¡­ This time not looking for a group but looking for a target. One of the biggest warriors who sits at the bar every day. He drinks and laughs and talks with his friends. I know he keeps a sack of money on him¡­ I approach and start to flirt with him. He isn''t attractive at all, I''m not doing this out of attraction though. After convincing him to have sex we leave and do the deed¡­ Once he is asleep, I steal everything that isn''t on him. I had gotten him drunk so he wouldn''t wake up. I steal almost three gold, all of his equipment and even a gold ring across his finger¡­ I''ve become like the person I wanted to hunt down and kill¡­ The money is enough to make my way out of the city and start fresh in a new one. Kite''s point of view Coming out of the memories¡­ I feel sick to my stomach. What the fuck! All those feelings from the month of death Lust was put through. Living in squalor¡­ Having sex with people you don''t want to¡­ Just to survive¡­ I feel sick¡­ How could she make it through that¡­ I reach up and put both hands on my face. Unknowingly, I had been crying the entire time. Lance and Leon were both standing over me¡­ Lance finally asks. ¡°Y-you okay?¡± ¡°¡­ Yea¡­ Just these memories I''m going through¡­ They are pretty rough to handle¡­¡± I need another break after that. A rather long one¡­ I begin to enchant the gear¡­ It is hard to shake off these feelings. I enchant another 200 sets of gear¡­ These feelings just can''t be shaken off. It is almost like my body is accepting them as if it had happened to it... I enchant another 200 sets before the feeling. A feeling that had stuck with me for weeks finally goes away¡­ I''ve continued to spar every day. Sometimes for multiple hours. Lance''s improvements in fighting are beyond impressive. He''s quickly blown passed me in fighting again. Even Leon is now better than me at unarmed combat. He''s learned all my tricks and easily counters my counters. Just like that I''ve suddenly fallen back into my position at the back¡­ I''m totally fine with that now, I''m just glad they''ve continued to improve. If they stopped getting stronger, I have no doubt they would get left behind by everyone else. A lack of improvement would most likely be the end of their lives too. I''ve started trying to put skills into my unarmed combat, maxing my unarmed potential. I can''t fight Lance or Leon like this because it would be too unfair. Unfairness against my enemies though is a good thing. My strongest attack is a spinning tail strike while in dragon form. I can re-purpose that attack to be used in conjuncture while in human form as a spinning ax kick. Enhancing it with so many skills it is hard to keep track. Chi strike, mana strike, burst of power, body strengthening, cleave, jump strike, opportune strike, rage empowered strikes and energy empowered strikes¡­ Finally all of this can be done while using my leg to launch a wind blade¡­ The attack is strong enough to cause an explosion against the wall as it hits. Waking up both Lance and Leon up as they were sleeping¡­ It is by far my strongest direct attack. Maybe even stronger then my strengthened dragons breath. I try to make a new combination attack. Using all my skills that attack multiple times at once. Goblin combination attack and frenzied strikes are my only combination attacks I currently have. I''ll add more once I unlock them but with just the two it isn''t very strong. With the frenzied strikes building up damage with each subsequent attack though. I can see potential once I gain 1-2 more combination moves. I know from asking Lance that dragoon gets one at 50. I call this new attack my combination combo. Next is immobilization attacks. I have quite a bit in this field actually. I start with a miniature tornado slowly expanding it. I add spider silk to the tornado, as it spins it holds the spider silk, I can also add my poison to it but the spider silk might become less sticky. It depends on the situation I guess because I can also add fire to it. I can make quagmires by weakening the earth and adding water to it. Almost making a quicksand trap. I''ve only practiced outside, as I can''t pull water from the tree. If I cover the ground in water I can freezing breath the top layer to make an ice slick almost unpassable without slowing down. Using control earth, I could form tiny spikes covering a spot permanently, this would be good for slowing enemies down, almost like caltrops. The biggest problem would be almost all of these attacks would effect my own allies. I can also make a wind wall which is very difficult to pass through and add fire to that¡­ All of these immobilization attacks can be strengthened with the help of other elementalists (also wind, fire, aqua and nature mages)¡­ I wonder how big a tornado we could make¡­ There is no need to use skills to form feints. Just enemies seeing me use these other attacks will instinctively run away if I act as if I''m going to breath fire on them. Or start spinning in mid air¡­ So many ways to scare people into turning their backs towards me. The strongest surprise I have is assassinate. It is hard to pull off though, at least I haven''t had a perfect situation to use it thoroughly. With ninja, it should be easier to get into assassinate range now. I have snipe as well to start the fights. Even once the fight starts I still can use surprise attacks which I''ve been doing already. My control nature uppercuts were able to give me opportune strikes. With true elementalist, I could form more than one, almost 50 fists could be formed at the same power of it previously. I could land surprise attacks against a giant group of enemies. This new attack is called earth fists. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Even with all these new attacks I still don''t feel fully prepared to fight against an army. The preparation to fighting still can be perfected¡­ That is why I am in here. To get stronger, I''ve already increased the chances of survival by doing this. Every improvement can save lives. I still have hundreds of sets of gear I need to enchant. I''ll put that off for now¡­ I''ll try to finish Lust''s memories. The improvements are worth risking myself in her feelings. I need to get stronger and going through her memories is the easiest way to do that. Kite going through Lust''s memories It has been a year since I first started my journey as an adventurer. Over the years I''ve collected a good portion of money. I''ve slept with more men then I would like to say for the sake of money but I can finally start my business as a merchant. 5 gold pieces cling to my hand, I''ve bought a cart and hired a guard to help protect my wares. I''ve had this idea in the back of my head for awhile now¡­ I still need more funds to start it though. Traveling to towns ,we don''t really have much difficulty. My guard''s name is Percius, he is the definition of a guard. Fully armored at all times, a handsome face pokes out of his helm. He has a quirk where he brushes his blonde hair out of his eyes. He is a bit of a romantic. I''ve had sexual relations with him but have since broke it off because he wanted to take it further than what it was. We''re strictly professional now... Sort of... He is too kindhearted to ever steal from me. Even so he doesn''t know how much money I have on my person. Approaching a town one time we met with a group of bandits who tried to attack us. I throw a handful of coin to distract two of them while my familiars had taken one out. I switched to five black mage familiars as my entourage¡­ I even de-summoned Twonk... I lost my childish ways when Mex¡­ That is a lifetime ago. The black mages light up one of them as Percius cuts through another. Four left to kill, we are outnumbered but not out skilled. My mages aim at another bandit while three gang up against Percius, he is an adept fighter but the numbers are against him. He manages to parry most of their attacks but takes a slash across his face. I heal him as quickly as I can as my black mages finish off the other bandit. The bandit managed to kill a black mage and I immediately summon another. I''ve gotten to the point where having 5 summons out only reserves 25% of my mana. I continue to summon more. 6 mages, 7 mages, 8 mages. Percius takes another hit. My 8 mages fire off 8 weak fireballs but they are enough to finish off another one just by the sheer number of attacks. The 4 who were originally summon and are still alive, all have enchanted wands with intelligence on them. The remaining 2 bandits try to run. My mages take aim but can''t finish off either of them as they are more focused on dodging and surviving that before. Percius makes no attempt to chase I knew he wouldn''t. Too kindhearted just like I said. Percius still needs to be healed. The last cut had struck his hand knocking the weapon out of it. He takes off his glove so I can see the injury more. As I heal him he talks. "Thank you. It is always nice to have a healer around for this reason... Especially one as powerful as you... I''ve never seen any summoner have that many out and also have them strengthened with enchanted items." "Yea... You learn how to deal with things when you are the only one you can rely on." I''ve healed his hand but I still bandage it. It might help to reduce the size of the scar once it heals completely. He brushes the hair out of his face as he speaks again. "You know. You don''t have to rely on just yourself anymore... We can become husband and wife." "I... I''m not like a normal woman... I don''t see the point in staying with a single person. I don''t see the point of marrying someone. Marriage just seems like a cage to me. I have dreams... I have ambitions... I''m... I''m not housewife material... Just forget about me and move on... I''ll just hurt you if we stay together..." He brushes his hair again. Scratching at the new scar on his face from the bandits attack. I make him take his helmet off and get a bandage to wrap it around his face. Taking extra special care to try to reduce the size of the scar he''s going to get... His handsome face now permanently blemished by an injury. He begins to speak. "I can''t do that. Even if you don''t want to be with me... I still want to protect you. Even if we can''t be together. I still want to protect you. We... We can try it your way. I love you but... I''ll let you do the... Things... You want to with other people." I can''t hurt him. He is like a little puppy dog... At least until we separate I won''t sleep with anyone else. I have gotten a list of all the prices of everything in each town. Flirting the prices higher when selling or lower when buying. I''ve luckily inherited my mothers good looks. I slowly amass the money I need for my venture. It is another year of being a merchant¡­ I''ve gotten myself pregnant... It is hard to tell but some of the symptoms I''ve clearly seen. Morning sickness and weird food cravings. I play it off that I''ve gotten mana poisoning from eating too much of my conjured food to Percius. Moving into the biggest city to the north. I''ve let Percius go since I will no longer be traveling... I don''t tell him about the child... Telling him will only bind him to me... He still has a chance at happiness if we aren''t together. The city is the one the unnamed man was from. The city is called Roma. It is lucky that my idea will need me to remain in a town for at least a few years to establish my building. I''ve decided against calling it a company. Companies sound too business like. People don''t really like businesses, so I''ll disguise it under a different name. What my company will be called is the merchants guild. I buy a building for 2 gold. The price is that high because of the size of the building and the location close to the coliseum. I then start marking it with similar marks as adventurers guild, only slightly different as to not completely steal there indicators which might cause problems later. I want people who have been a part of the adventurers guild to believe this might be a branch of the adventurers guild. It will help us in the long run by doing that. The entire idea behind the merchants guild, is we''ll take requests similar to the adventurers guild. Except we''ll take requests for items. The mark up price will be for 15% more than what the item would cost if they went and got it somewhere else. With the main focus being on hard to acquire items. This way any merchants passing by can sell these specialty items at a mark up of 5% then the guild can collect the remaining 10%. Membership is purchased, which is different from the adventurers guild. Purchasing a membership for 1 gold allows them to collect 10% instead of 5%. This will help promote better business practices, also allowing me to hedge my bets of this new company. In the long run, purchasing membership would result in more money. I also allow crafters to set-up business here. Establishing jobs to refine their skills while also selling at a discounted 10% price to members. Again trying to push benefits to get more people to join. The biggest problem so far is the lack of people coming in to put in requests for items. We''ve started to get a few regulars in though. The local blacksmith always putting in requests for ore. The alchemist putting forth requests for rarer herbs (many I''ve never even heard of which are hard to price). Finally, an older man requesting. ¡°books he''s never read before¡± Because of his request, I''ve started building up a supply of books. I''ve started selling the books to everyone else as well. With the idea of buying things as well from merchants and selling to the local inhabitants. I''ve started spending more money in the hopes of earning it back. I buy everything at a marked down price of course. I don''t particularly buy food... At least to sell anyways. I''ve started buying different foods that I''ve never had before. Even paying above market for some things that pique my interest. Food has become a big part of my life since I''ve become pregnant. Speaking of which, I''ve given birth to a bouncing baby boy. I name him Percius¡­ Named after his father. Chapter 103 Lusts final memories It has been another two years. Percius and my merchants guild keeps me completely busy. I''ve hired a crew to run the guild while I''m not there. The business is doing beyond well. One of the new recruits has started talking about opening up another merchants guild in a different town if I fund him the start-up money¡­ I of course don''t do that, if I give someone the money it would take to start a new guild, that money would be gone. Instead, I could open another guild myself as I have more experience with starting them up. Before I can leave. Someone I haven''t seen since entering the town shows himself. Percius (the father) enters my merchants guild. He looks very happy, surprisingly happy¡­ I start to think about telling him about his child¡­ Until a woman enters behind him. She looks¡­ Surprisingly like me¡­ In her hands is a baby. He speaks before he''s even noticed me. ¡°Hello! I''ve come to ask abo-.¡± His eyes widen when he sees who is behind the desk. I finish his sentence for him. ¡°You''ve come to ask about what?¡± ¡°A-Ah¡­ My daughter was just recently born¡­ I was wondering if I could put in a request for baby toys.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ That will be a 15 silver for custom made toys. If you don''t have that much... I think we''ve got some spare ones from a family recently. They''ve just lost their child to a disease and sold everything involving the child to us for full price. I''ll sell you the entire set for 5 silver.¡± ¡°I''ll take the custom made toys¡­ I haven''t seen you for so long. It looks like you''re guild is doing well.¡± As if he timed it perfectly. My son enters the room. He was being watched by a maid but he is allowed to enter if he misses me. He walks over in front of the stand. In front of his father¡­ Walking all the way around to get to me. Percius just looks confused by the small child walking into the room. My son doesn''t know many words, just enough to ask for things he likes. My son speaks. ¡°Up.¡± I move to pick my son up¡­ Gears start clicking in Percius'' head. The age of the child and when we left each other. His eyes finally start to get wide again, like when he saw me. I speak, cutting him off before he says anything that he will regret saying in front of his wife. ¡°This is my son, he''s such a pushover like his father. Always wanting attention from me. So with your payment. It will still take the in house woodworker 1 week to make the toys. We can talk about a discount if you want since we''re friends.¡± Percius just looks at me confused for a few seconds before he snaps back to reality. ¡°R-right. Here''s the money, my job as a guard at the coliseum pays very well so I don''t need the discount.¡± He pays me. We talk for a few more moments. I have to lie about some unknown man who is the father of my child¡­ I could have told him but he looks happy in his life now¡­ I can handle a child on my own¡­ The thing that surprised me the most was the pain I felt when I seen the wife he brought in¡­ I guess I did have feelings beyond carnal for him¡­ I wish I would have known before it was too late... His wife walks to the door, Percius turns around to speak to me one more time. ¡°Well¡­ It was nice seeing you¡­¡± ¡°Yea¡­ It''s amazing how fast time goes by when you''re not expecting it too¡­ Have a wonderful life Percius.¡± He walks away. I can hear his wife ask a muffled question as they walk away. ¡°Who was that.¡± Percius says. ¡°Just someone I knew years ago.¡±¡­ I exit the city¡­ I need to get away for awhile and starting another merchants guild location seems like a good reason to run away. Leaving the business to the most trustworthy member. Once again a female who is too kindhearted. It might be exploitation but I know she wont ever steal from me. I''ve given the meanest person under my leadership the job of punishing those who would try to steal from me. I''ve caught 3 different people attempting to steal from me already. They were all dealt with accordingly. Starting a business with a young child¡­ Has proven more difficult than doing it while pregnant. So I''ve decided to buy a house in the area. The money I''ve been making from the merchants guild is a lot already. Even with just a single building, I could live off it. I don''t want to just stop at a single building though. I want to make something that will last even once I''m gone. A legacy like the adventurers guild. I leave my child in the new house with a maid and start focusing on the cities merchants guild. The biggest problem so far with the business, is the lack of people buying membership cards. I''ve had almost a dozen people buy membership but more people don''t. It also isn''t a very friendly practice to new merchants. I''ve decided to give membership to those who become workers for 1 year. The price of membership is an entire gold. A measly year of work to pay for membership is beyond a good deal. I have 5 hopefuls approach me after I advertise that deal. I think I''ve just found my method of expansion. I leave this guild to the most hopeful of the 5. Taking my son with me to the next town, I leave the maid at my newly purchased house. Expanding my building count to 4 in total. If this merchant guild doesn''t work out, I could become a land lord. I repeat this process, expanding the amount of merchants guilds to all the neighboring cities. The idea of the merchants guild has been accepted by everyone. The money I''ve made with this guild has been more than I would have made in my entire life being a merchant. The merchants guild has started to grow into an idea that will last even after I''m gone. It has been 5 years since then. I''ve had another son, this time to a man who''s name I didn''t know. He was very attractive and didn''t have enough money to pay for items he wanted. I had him pay in a different way... My second sons name is Julius, after my father. Percius looks just like his father, blonde hair covers his head now. He brushes it out of his eyes the same way his father does. He even has his kindheartedness. I fear for him because of that. Because he might get taken advantage of later in life like I did. I''ve started to get requests to open up new merchants guilds across the lands. A portion of the money will go towards the main merchants guild but the benefits of being part of the main merchants guild branch is too big to try and start their own merchants guild. For one, they get the ability to hand out membership cards. This helps them be recognized by the other merchants as a credible business. People who''ve paid for membership would rather go to a guild where that is a benefit. I made my membership cards very difficult to replicate. So I haven''t seen a counterfeit version yet. This entire guild has gotten¡­ Too big for me to handle by myself¡­ I''ve decided to add ranks similar to the adventurers guild. Percius has started showing interest in my field of work, I''ve tried to hired a tutor for him and Julius. For the reason to teach them similar to how Vesta had taught me¡­ It has been years since I''ve thought of her. I doubt we will find someone as skilled as her to teach my children, which makes me feel sad in a way. I go to the slave auctions. The one thing my guild will never sell is people. I''ll sell anything besides slaves¡­ I''ve realized the biggest mistake I''ve made in my life was that I stopped learning. So I''m looking to hire a tutor not only for my children but also myself. It takes awhile, it is a disgusting practice. I hate the idea of buying someone¡­ I figure it is better than them being bought for something more nefarious. I end up buying a few more than I thought I would¡­ I ended up feeling bad for them, so I bought more than I should have... I guess I unintentionally have become a slave owner. The first was a dwarf. He was actually tall for a dwarf, still an entire foot shorter than me. His name was Lanister. He had a full length brown beard he loved more than anything else. He wasn''t very smart but he knew common. The main thing I was looking for was slaves that knew common so we could communicate. I bought a female elf and another male human. The female elf looked slightly mean, her eyes were very piercing. I still felt an¡­ Unnatural attraction towards her. Like she was convincing me to buy her¡­ I accepted her in that way¡­ The male human was the main reason I had went there. After putting out a request for tutors and turning them all down because they didn''t meet my standards. He looked very scholarly which is why I had purchased him. The auctioneer had talked up his intelligence, even mentioning that he could be used for the purpose of a tutor. The female elf''s name was Fayolen. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The male teachers name is Albert. He wasn''t an unattractive man¡­ Some would even say he was attractive. He looks very weak compared to other men I''ve slept with but that won''t stop me from trying¡­ If he''s so smart it makes you wonder why he ended up a slave in the first place¡­ One year later, both of my children have been learning from their new teacher. The house I''ve been living in has went under extreme renovations. I have a staff now of maids, butlers, chefs, guards and workers. I''ve put Fayolen to maid work, her body was very attractive but she wanted nothing to do with me. I would never force myself on her if she didn''t want to. She had a mysterious way of convincing people around her to do what she wanted, it turned out it was her class. I had Lanister handle the heavy lifting and farm work. I like to keep fresh produce so that is his work. He had the farmer job already. I''m pregnant with my third child¡­ I think it could be Albert''s¡­ It could also be Lanister''s though¡­ I''m not 100% sure who''s it is. I guess we''ll find out when I give birth. My father came to visit me. It was a very¡­ Guarded meeting. He said he was surprised to hear that the head of the merchants guild was none other than his daughter. Months later, he brought my mother with him and even Vesta. My mother looked¡­ Far older than before, I could see wrinkles under her eyes, most likely caused by me leaving. I started to feel bad until she smiled and hugged me. Just happy to see I was alive¡­ She noticed my two sons and my big belly and was happy to see that she had grandchildren. I begged them to move in with me, to catch up and get to know their grandchildren. They accept, I have more money than I know what to do with. Years go by like this. Vesta helping with tutoring my children, now they have two amazing teachers. My third child was full blooded human. I wouldn''t have really minded if it was half dwarf. I kind of like their little spunky attitudes. Always trying to pick fights. He is named Al after his father. I did end up settling down with Albert because of this. I know that my children need a father too ask questions. Soon enough, they''ll be looking at girls the same way I look at boys and will need someone they can talk to... I also don''t mind settling down now. Albert is a fine man, I do find him boring unless I''m doing embarrassing things to him. My mother passed away last night¡­ I knew it was going to happen soon. She hasn''t been looking well for a few years now. Father mourned her for a few weeks before passing away himself¡­ Only Vesta was left from my childhood. Losing both parents so close together hurt me far more than anything else in my life. I would give away my fortune to bring them back but I know that is impossible¡­ I''m upset with grief for months after it happened. Vesta came to console me¡­ I had completely forgotten that she was both my parents lover¡­ She was as brokenhearted as me from what happened¡­ We leaned on each other for support after that. My sons are all getting big again. Percius has enlisted in the royal guard, he takes after both his father and mother. Julius has gotten big to start getting into trouble with the girls around town. Looking up their skirts and playing with them. He is going to grow up to break hearts. Al was very close to his father. A sickly child who enjoyed reading books more than anything else. He had taken after his father the most. The next few days, on a whim I decide to finally visit the coliseum. I''ve lived here for years but have never been there. Once entering, I understand exactly what the unnamed man meant. Cheers from hundreds, if not thousands of people. All looking towards the center where two men are fighting. I could get addicted to watching them. There is also betting during these events. I start betting a lot on each match. I become very good at predicting the winners. Sometimes betting upwards of an entire gold per fight. I almost always end up ahead in money from entering. A few years of winning and I''m banned permanently from betting. I still enjoy the spectacle of it all. Men fighting in an arena, sometimes to the death. Sometimes against monsters. While leaving one night, I''m mugged in the process of trying to make my way home. They don''t just steal my money. One of them knocks me down and starts ripping my cloths off. I put up as much of a fight as I can. Summoning black mages to help fight as I kick the man climbing on top of me. I manage to summon two black mages as they are crushed by the two other members of this band of men. I scream for help before he slaps me across the face. The man on top of me stuffs some of my ripped clothing into my mouth. I hear a guard yell out. Before I can turn to look towards him I get my throat cut. The three men run off as the coliseum guard chases after them. I Tried to pull the cloth out of my mouth so I could heal myself. My hands just don''t have the power to remove the cloth, I doubt I could even speak anyways¡­ Goodbye I think to myself, unhappy I didn''t get to say that to my children.
Trait removed Shy
Trait upgraded Lust--> Love- You have a tenderness in your actions towards loved ones, can see the value of your loved ones
Summoner level increased 47 to 71
Level 50 Summoner passive skill gained Mana reserved reduction- Cuts the mana reserved by summons in half
White mage level increase 42 to 65
Level 50 White mage skill Pacify- Calms the mind of a monster for a short period of time (weaker enemies are subdued for longer)
Secret Merchant passive skill Seducers prices- Able to haggle an extra 10% from the opposite sex
Mental map expanded
Title learned Boss- Know how to perfectly run a business
Title learned Descriptive- Notice more things about people, from their appearance to their characteristics
Dancer location revealed
Merchant level increased 48 to 67
Enchanter level increased 57 to 69
Chef level increased 61 to 80
¡­ What an awful way to die¡­ I almost feel sad for Lust. Lust speaks up. ¡°It wasn''t the worst way to go out though, I could have been kidnapped and raped repetitively by those same men... At least I died where my body could be found... At least I died having fulfilled my life long goal...¡± ¡°WHAT THE HELL!? You''re still here?¡­ I guess I just assumed you''d disappear like Greed did.¡± ¡°Heh, you can''t get rid of me that easily. I look forward to seeing what you do in your life.¡± I don''t look forward to all of your comments about sex though¡­ I think to myself knowing that she can hear my thoughts. Lust speaks again. Chapter 104 Upgrading gear I''ve decided to finish enchanting the gear. I need to get it out of the way and I''ll be able to focus more heavily once it is done. Finishing the rest of the enchants I hit level 70. Only 30 more levels to go until I get to pick a rank up job. I''ve had some ideas on how to use dungeon making. I really need to learn in detail everything about it. Once we get out of here, maybe after the war with the pirates. I''ll try to re-purpose the dungeon we have. Days of work on the gear and now I''m done¡­ Whew that took forever but I''m glad I did it. I feel more prepared than before, another advantage my troops have against our enemies. I''ll take every one I can get. It has been¡­ How long has it been? I ask the tree. ¡°Hey, how long have we been in here!?¡± ¡°Two months...¡± ...Really¡­ Only ten, long excruciating months left. Maybe I should have left some of the gear to enchant just as something to stave off the boredom in a few months. Well, I know I''ve talked to the three people I''m locked in here with more than enough. Lance, Leon and Aegis are probably sick of talking to me¡­ Maybe the tree can hold a conversation. ¡°Hey tree¡­ Do you have a name.¡± ¡°¡­ Nope.¡± ¡°¡­ Do you want one?¡± ¡°¡­ Nah.¡± ¡°...Alright¡­ What are you then?¡± ¡°A tree.¡± ¡°¡­ I mean¡­ Are you a monster, an item, are you one of a kind? Are there other time trees?¡± ¡°I''m part monster, part item. I am one of a kind, so no there aren''t more trees.¡± ¡°Can you see us?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ I can see everything inside me. Everything in this mimic.¡± ¡°¡­ Don''t you get lonely? You''re the only one of your kind.¡± ¡°No¡­ I would like to see the sun¡­ The real sun once in my life.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I''ll try my best to have your dream met in my lifetime¡­ Moving a giant tree would be too difficult to do myself though¡­ Perhaps I can ask a treant on the outside how they move and that might help you¡­ I''m not sure this would work but, do you want to learn a class while I''m in here?¡± ¡°...Not really¡­ I guess I will though.¡± This tree is so apathetic. He has no opinion on anything¡­ Nature mage would help him the most. Time mage might also be helpful to him. He might learn a different type of skill because of his innate time magic properties. I teach him both. It once again takes a very long time. Longer than even teaching Lance. Perhaps it is because he wasn''t a complete monster. Suddenly, the tree starts to move the wood around on the inside of the room. Small at first eventually turning into waves. Knocking over the freshly stacked gear, some of the other things were knocked over. Thankfully nothing had broken. Aegis has gotten¡­ No visible increase in speed. Still crawling across the ground. It is almost comical if it wasn''t someone trying so hard to get stronger. Grasping at any method to make himself better. I scan him and notice he''s gained 10 fatigue points. I feel sad for him but every single fatigue point he gains now will be useful to him for potentially 1000s of years. I move on¡­ I still have so much to do when it comes to preparation¡­ I''ve been neglecting myself since I''ve been in here. Only practicing unarmed combat. I brought the equipment to make some very good bows, so that is what I plan on doing. With bowyer, I realize how awful my last bow really was. It is amazing I was able to kill anything with it. The draw weight was under 20 pounds. At that weight, the arrows had barely any piercing speed behind them. Now that I think back, most of the arrows I would fire were easily retrievable. Only sinking in an inch at most. I can''t make the perfect bow for every situation. I''ll need to make at least 2 for the optimal amount of situations. A compound bow for fighting mid to close range and a long bow to fight very distant opponents. The compound bow will have an adjustable draw weight. I feel I can handle 50 pounds easily now. The bow feels¡­ Very comfortable in my hands¡­ As if it is perfect for me. I fire at a target, going to accuracy over speed. Firing 15 arrows with enough piercing to dig several inches into the target in one minute. The target was made of wood. If I were to use the old bow, most would have bounced off. If I had used triple shot and tracer arrow I could fire 90 arrows per minute still. The longbow I''ve made has a draw weight 100 pounds. It is longer than me. The arrows are almost twice as long as my compound bow arrows. Around twice as thick as well. Firing at the target, the arrow pierced completely through the target of wood. What insane power! Even compared to my automatic crossbow, I could easily fire twice as many arrows at 4 times the power now that I''m a good archer. Another drop in the amount of arrows fired per minute down to 60, with triple shot though, the accuracy and speed at which I can fire a single arrow is reduced. It might be better to just fire single arrows with tracer arrows for the longbow. I still need to practice this class to get it to level 10. So I''ll start target practice with the bow everyday while the other two are sleeping. I should easily be able to hit level 10 within a few weeks. I also still need to practice both bows. Even with my full strength I''m going to need to build up the muscles that pull back the bow string. Hopefully by the time I exit, I''ll have made another longbow at 120 pound draw weight and be able to fire it repetitively. I''ll give the 100 pound longbow to Fayeth if she can handle it. I still need to redesign the gear of my generals. I''ll hold off on upgrading Lance''s until I upgrade my own¡­ I''ve got some ideas for his, that is the reason I''ve picked up so many dragon feathers. For his and my sets of gear. I start working on another 2 bows. One compound bow and another longbow for Fayeth. I have no idea how much she can pull back so I''ll start her longbow''s draw weight 80 pounds. Now having 3 different draw weight longbows. Making her a new set of leather gear with pieces of heavy armor for extra protection. I''ll make sure that it doesn''t impede her firing abilities. I''ve had them load the room with a few trees. Just in case I was inspired to make something different¡­ I think I have an idea. I take an entire 10 foot tree and start to shape it. I''m going to make the biggest bow I''ve ever made. One that no normal person would be able to pull back. But Troll might be able to¡­ I get the shape down, a normal string would snap under the pressure though. The one I''ve made for it is almost an inch thick spider silk woven together. I call for Lance and Leon. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Hey. I need your help stringing this bow.¡± They both have to pull the bow down for me to string it. I half expected it to break but since it was a single piece of wood. The bows I designed for myself were made out of three different kinds of wood. Hardened treant wood for the core, the ninjas bamboo wood for the back of the bow, and finally some enchanted softened oak tree for the belly of the bow. I had brought in some hide glue to firmly attach the three pieces of wood together. While the bow had finished, I had a set place to bend both my bows slightly forwards. After letting the bows set for a week I sanded them into shape. All 4 bows are beyond anything you would find anywhere besides an elven village. The giant bow I just created is something that even an elven village wouldn''t have. Tillering the bows was fairly difficult with no equipment. I had to make a makeshift work area¡­ I''ll have to make a bowyer work area for making bows in the future. The entire process for making these superior bows had taken over a week of work¡­ No way would it be possible to arm an army with these superior bows quickly¡­ Maybe if you made hundreds of bows at once it would only take a few months to do. Just looking at the difference in my old bow¡­ Wow! So many things were done wrong with my last one. No horns or arrow plates or grips for comfort. The bow wasn''t checked for balance, even the string was far better than my previous one. I''m so glad I had Fayeth explain this job fully. Even after I had learned it. I''ll have to teach some of my woodworkers the bowyer job and how to make these superior bows. Yet another advantage my army will have over the enemies. It is sort of funny that this mishmash group of people are potentially one of the most well equipped armies in the world. We also have one of the biggest class pools of any army. Most armies tend to have 5-10 classes as the bulk of their army. That wouldn''t matter at all against future armies though. As we are outnumbered incredibly¡­ The thing our army is lacking more than anything else is numbers. I hope to gain another 100 troops by freeing the murine folk the pirates have hostage. Now that I''ve made Troll a bow. He needs a melee weapon, a set of gear also wouldn''t hurt but he doesn''t really need it¡­ Maybe a helmet and a chest plate to protect his vulnerable areas. Even just a plate guard in front of his heart would help him stay alive. For a weapon I''ve taken another one of my trees I had stored here. Trolls normally use crude clubs or entire trees as weapons. I''m going to make a smooth club for him. Grinding the club down so that is easier to grasp. He''ll be able to use it single handed instead of needing both hands to grasp it correctly¡­ Freeing up another hand for him to use. I enchant his giant club with control nature and triple strengthen it. I could make him a shield, but it would take a lot of my remaining wood and hide glue to make. I''ll hold back now, I think having archers with superior bows would help more than an almost unkillable creature a shield. Starting the process to make another 10 bows, I start to redesign my followers gear. For the cloth wearers, I''ve stitched the dragon feathers over their hearts. Taking out the metal plate, reducing the weight as well as increasing the defense. This uses up about half of my feathers. Piercing the feathers with a needle was a difficult process that takes my entire body weight to push through. My other generals don''t need their gear improved, their weapons do though. The cold iron is sharp but not very tough, so using it for weapon tips works better than using it for entire weapons. It also makes fairly awful armor because of this. I got most of the mithril tips out of the weapons. I had lost my armor plating because of this¡­ Hopefully we get that adamantine soon to help make the dragon slayer armor. I have to make a few more sets of gear. All the lizardmen the kobold chief and Green and Fayeth need sets of gear. I make them all specially made for each person. Fayeth has an arm unguarded. This will help her loose arrows better without the chance of her clothing getting caught in the process. She''ll have to wear a bracer to stop the bowstring from wearing her arm down. Lizard men don''t really wear armor. So I can''t make them their sets. I believe the kobold chief will wear anything I give him. I make a spider silk robe and add another dragon feather to it. Green''s gear was by far the most different from everyone else. I had made arm and leg protectors made of treant bark. As well as spider silk gloves with grounded dirt mixed in and strengthened. Finally her chest piece contained a fibrous piece of clothing. This was light but before battle she would soak it in water to help increase her defense. She had aqua mage so she has better control over water. I made her an extra weapon. Hollowing out a piece of metal and enchanting it with a flame enchant. The metal heats to a high temperature. The metal almost glowing red from heat, I add a cover for it so it doesn''t accidentally burn her. Inside will be water almost at boiling temperature. She''ll be able to use this water to really hurt a single person¡­ It is scary thinking about who she''s going to use it on. Many of my generals refuse to use helmets¡­ The lizard men and elementalists are the main culprits. I would never enter a battle with my head unguarded. I plan on making a specialty helmet out of the dragon feathers. They most likely have fire resistant properties. I''ll be able to pull it down, covering my face. It gives me an almost animal like look when it is down. I has the mouth open so I can use my strengthened dragons breath I use glass to protect my eyes, so I can have it down in combat. Finally done¡­ The entire process wasn''t as long as I thought it would be. My head won''t change in size so I can make my helmet now. It takes four of the remaining feathers, leaving 5 left¡­ Perhaps I won''t upgrade Lance''s gear like I had originally planned¡­ I should have gotten more material... I''m done with my work for now. Asking the tree how long it has been. ¡°It has been¡­ Four months.¡± There isn''t really much to do besides train now¡­ I guess that''s what I''ll do until near the end of our time in here. Then I''ll upgrade mine and Lance''s gear. I had given all my generals the day off¡­ I wonder what they''re up too¡­ Chapter 105 New pet Zergnar''s point of view Master had entered the time tree for an entire year. I couldn''t even think of being trapped in a room for an entire year¡­ He''s given us the day off¡­ I''m not sure what I should do though, I''ve been practicing non stop for the past few months. Even since I''ve boarded the ships I haven''t taken a single day off¡­ It feels kind of weird. I take a stroll through the village. The mouse people are all nice but they are too stiff. My wives have all been hounding me about spending more time with them. I''m too busy to worry about that right now. This is actually the only break I''ll get away from them where I can enjoy myself¡­ Having as many wives as I do, it is hard to learn everything about each of them. I''ll bring them all flowers but 2 of them don''t like flowers. It is impossible to please them all. I head out of town. Going into the woods I find a clearing. I really wanted to find some weird pets for me to tame. I lay down in the clearing to relax, looking up at the sky, birds fly far overhead. I fall asleep. I wake up and open my eyes. In front of me I see a beautiful woman. What is a human doing on this island? I sit up and she continues to stare at me before speaking. ¡°It is dangerous to fall asleep here. You could be attacked by powerful spirits if you aren''t careful.¡± ¡°Ahh¡­ Don''t worry, I''m very strong. If anything tried to attack me, I''d just beat it to death.¡± ¡°Hahaha. You''re so funny. How can you beat a ghost to death.¡± ¡°I''d find a way.¡± I smile at her as I brag about my strength. Once again I am drawn to her beauty. I hadn''t noticed before but she has cat ears instead of normal human ears¡­ She''s as beautiful as Kite''s fox pet. Maybe a younger version of her. Maybe they''re related? ¡°Are you by chance related to the fox spirit around here?¡± The smile that had crossed her face until now has disappeared. Her mood went from calm to angry in an instant. She shouts. ¡°You think I''m related to that ugly bitch! I''ll kill you for thinking that!¡± The cat girl attacks me with lightning tipped claws. I grab both of her hands but even from a distance I can feel how jolts of electricity. I kick at her but she jumps over my foot. Fine then, I''ll break her hands! I put my strength into bending her hands back. Her face changed from anger to fear. ¡°He''s very strong. With your help I could easily kill that ugly bitch.¡± The second line she said was almost inaudible. It would have been if I didn''t have good hearing from being a gnoll. She continues to speak. ¡°Stop stop stop! I surrender please to don''t hurt a beautiful lady like me.¡± I let go, carefully, not leaving myself open to attacks. I doubt she could kill me. If she hit me after asking me to let go. I would have no mercy on her. ¡°I need your help. Inside the village is a fox girl you were talking about. She won''t let me in no matter how much I beg to enter.¡± ¡°Why should I help you? You''ve done nothing for me.¡± ¡°I could.¡± She brushes her hand across my face. ¡°Do things for the you.¡± She brushes her hand across my waist. ¡°That others wouldn''t be able to do.¡± ¡°Do you have anything better to offer? I have plenty of sex every day and it is honestly getting to be too much trouble. I''m thinking about getting rid of some of my wives.¡± The cat girl looks beyond confused. Surprised I could turn her down. My love life at home consists of my wives constantly throwing themselves at me. The three lizard women wives are constantly trying to have strong children. My three gnoll wives want to have sex when they are in heat. Even my single demon tribe wife loves to have sex¡­ ¡°...Well¡­ I don''t really have anything else I can offer you¡­ Besides my loyalty to whatever cause you support.¡± ¡°So do you want to form a partnership then?¡± ¡°Sure, as long as you help me get into the village.¡±
Pet tamed Bakeneko
What a weird name-. ¡°YOU WERE A BEAST TAMER!? SHIT! SHIT! I WASN''T GOING TO HONOR THAT AGREEMENT!¡± ¡°So why were you trying to get into the village?¡± She looks down, almost as if defeated. I''m fairly sure if I forced her to with my hunter class, she would have to listen to what I asked. ¡°¡­ I¡­ I was going to¡­ Just play a few pranks on them. Nothing serious¡­ Maybe steal a child and hide it from them for awhile.¡± ¡°¡­Don''t do that.¡± She converts back into a cat version of herself. Still able to talk, her voice changes in tone though. ¡°S-sorry master¡­ I promise not to.¡± I let her crawl onto my shoulder. I''m just glad I tamed another pet. A weird one too! I''m slowly become more like Kite. I''m stopped at the village entrance by a guard. ¡°Halt, that is a bakeneko on your shoulder. Don''t let her in, she''s a trouble maker.¡± ¡°She''s my new pet. If she causes trouble, I''ll kill her myself.¡± I hear her speak very quietly to me. ¡°That isn''t very nice to say master.¡± ¡°It''s true, don''t act up while here or I''ll punish you. These people are going to be our allies soon. I can''t have you causing problems.¡± As we walk through town, we get plenty of weird looks. My new pet seems to be enjoying it though. For someone who was going to cause trouble, she sure changed her mind quickly. I see someone walking through town I would have liked to avoid today. Nami notices me at the same time. ¡°Hey you, no practice today. What is that on you-.¡± She reaches for her weapon as my new pet crawls behind me scared. I interrupt her. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Easy! I tamed her, she won''t be able to do anything bad right now.¡± Nami slowly drops out of her ready to fight stance. ¡°Fine. Just watch her closely. Bakeneko are very tricky to deal with.¡± I guess I shouldn''t be walking around the village with her. I move towards the exit. Outside the old house on the village is a familiar person. I see Red, Kite''s new pet¡­ I feel tiny claws dig into my back from my new pet once she see''s Red. I can hear anger in her voice. ¡°Master! With your help I can easily beat her now! Please help me!¡± ¡°Lets talk to her first¡­¡± I feel the claws retract out of me. As I approach Red she almost senses our presence and wakes up. Yawning, it is very weird to see a fully grown woman laying in the doorway of a house. She looks at me and notices my new pet. ¡°Hahaha, I see you''ve gotten a new pet Zergnar. Be careful with her, she''ll try to do bad things if you don''t watch her.¡± ¡°I''ve been warned about her. Is there anything else I should worry about.¡± ¡°Well¡­ She isn''t very strong, if I could tame animals, I wouldn''t bother with her.¡± My pet hisses at her when she said that. Red only smiles and talks again. ¡°I''m teasing, she used to be almost as strong as me. We''ve had some very intense fights. I would beat her into the ground now though.¡± ¡°Hiss! I don''t believe you! We''ve fought this month. There is no way you could have gotten that much stronger in a few weeks.¡± I have to interrupt them. ¡°Please don''t¡­ I''m sorry I didn''t even ask your name yet. What is your name.¡± ¡°My name is Nekoma.¡± ¡°Can I call you Neko for short?¡± ¡°I don''t mind that.¡± I feel her tail swish against my back when I asked her that. ¡°Fine Neko. Red isn''t lying, she''s been training under my master. I have no doubt if you were close to the same power before, she would easily beat you now.¡± Neko looks in almost disbelief at what I just said. It can''t be possible she must think. She jumps off me and turns into her human form. Moving closer to see if Red looks stronger... Neko is much shorter than Red now that I see them that close to each other. Red speaks up, encouraging her to a fight. ¡°If you want to fight, I''ll prove my new power.¡± ¡°MASTER! GIVE ME PERMISSION TO DESTROY HER!¡± ¡°Go ahead¡­ It isn''t going to end how you want it to¡­¡± Neko smiles at my encouragement of her fight. She unleashes her lightning claws like before. Red begins to hold two blue fireballs in her hands. Neko can see that Red''s fire is stronger than before her last fight. Two skeletons, long since dead and buried pop out of the ground. They are immediately covered in a blue fire that destroys them quickly. Neko looks beyond shocked at what just happened. I have a feeling that Red couldn''t do this during their last fight. Red giggles again and then asks. ¡°Are you sure you want to fight me?¡± Neko growls at her and charges in. Before she reaches her, Red''s makes two more fireballs, they start to expand. Getting twice, then three times the size they were. Red starts to charge at Neko now. Neko is startled by how fast Red is moving. Just before they are about to reach each other, Red slams both fire orbs down into the earth. This kicks up enough dirt for me to need to cover my eyes. Neko who was much closer must have been blinded by the attack. Red jumps into the air, catching her foot around Neko''s shoulder. Landing on the ground she throws Neko with her leg, like a lever launching a boulder into the air. Neko slams hard into the ground. Red quickly moves over and pins her to the ground. The match has a clear victor. Red begins to speak now. ¡°I didn''t have to hold back you know. I could have hit you with those orbs and scarred you forever¡­ I''ve been learning a lot of things from my new master and one is when to hold your punches¡­ I would never go all out against a weak opponent like you.¡± Neko starts to cry. This confuses Red as much as it does me. ¡°It''s not fair! The villagers look at me as if I''m some sort of menace. I''ve never once hurt a single one of them. I played a few pranks when I was smaller and no one trusted me after that. I just¡­ Want to be everyone''s friend again¡­ But you wouldn''t let me. I just wanted friends again but you wouldn''t let me in.¡± ¡°Neko¡­ You started a fire that burned down three houses¡­ Of course they would be mad with you.¡± ¡°It''s not my fault! How was I supposed to know that their fish oil would fall over onto a candle! I couldn''t put the fire out either.¡± She looks down at her hands. I just notice they are covered in burn scars¡­ Neko continues to speak. ¡°Living in the mountains for years by myself¡­ It is enough to make me want to get revenge on you for stopping me from getting in. I wanted revenge on the person who stopped me from having friends. Before the accident I looked at you like a sister... After it though all you were was my tormentor...¡± Red just looks at her¡­ What Neko had done was bad but Red didn''t know she tried to stop it. ¡°Well¡­ It''s good that you let Zergnar tame you then. Now you can be a part of our family here. Getting stronger along the way¡­ Anytime you want a rematch. I''m game.¡± Neko just looked at both of us confused again. All Red could do was just smile. I guess Neko hadn''t noticed the ships anchored off shore. I call out to her. ¡°Come on. Let''s go home.¡± She gives a quick smile as she converts back into her cat form. Crawling back onto my shoulder as we walk to the ships. I can feel her tail swishing across my back again when we get within sight of the ship. I just quietly say to her. ¡°Welcome to your new family Neko.¡±
Neko bonded with you
Chapter 106 Two more stories Leaf''s point of view It has been a few weeks of training against Trice. She has gotten far stronger since I''ve met her. Since she''s been introduced to the party¡­ I have a feeling her driving reasons for getting stronger are pretty close to mine. She jumps in the air kicking at me as I catch her leg lifting it even higher. Slamming her on her back. She kicks at my feet with hers, tripping me as well¡­ We both lay on the ground. Covered in sweat, trying to catch our breath. She starts to speak. ¡°So¡­ What do you see in Kite¡­ Why are you so attracted to him?¡± ¡°¡­ I don''t really know¡­ I guess it would be how prepared he is for everything. We would have all died against the Lich boss we fought heading to Shienta¡­ He was able to balance so many things at the time. Running between people and healing them, helping people get to safety when they didn''t realize they were being targeted by the Lich''s ice bolt. Giving us all items to help keep us alive¡­ Even though he was so weak, he was strong at the same time. You could say I wanted to be Kite more than I wanted to fall in love with him in the beginning.¡± ¡°What happened to change your mind?¡± ¡°¡­ It just got to the point where he kept getting better and better. No matter how many times people made fun of him or belittled him it never slowed him down at all. Everyone who had any potential started to get lazy, he was the exact opposite. Every ounce of power he got he used to gain more power. Never stopping. I guess you could say, the more I watched him. The more I realized I liked him and I didn''t want to be like him. I wanted to be strong enough to stand by him.¡± ¡°I guess I could see that¡­ I just can''t see him like that. He''s always been exactly how you''ve described him. Even when we were young he was always training. His kindness is a new thing. Earlier in his life, it seemed he only seen people as stepping stones to get stronger¡­ It was like he had broken down the value of each person for his own purposes... It feels like recently though he is showing his true kindness... Now that he is strong¡­¡± I could see that someone not in love with Kite would see him that way¡­ It is very accurate, Trice seems to look at everything analytical. She continues to speak. ¡°¡­ He''s starting to act like his father. That kindness he had. Constantly fighting to try and protect his villagers. Even from the heavy taxes the kingdom was levying against the village. Paying out of pocket when other villagers couldn''t make the payments¡­ He had taken the blame for everything when something went wrong¡­ Even listening to the greedy actions of his son most of the time. Throwing him a party that his son turned against him. Only not helping him when it would have put Kite in harm, like buying him a set of armor when he was only 6.¡± I guess I didn''t know much about his parents. I''ve only heard pieces from when we were captured by the bandits. ¡°What was his mother like?...¡± ¡°She was the exact opposite of his father. Very mean and angry¡­ At least that is what she looked like on the outside. She did love Kite''s father¡­ You would think the two wouldn''t get along but¡­ The few times I had listened to them while they thought they were alone, you could tell they were both very much in love. She wasn''t afraid to act kindly towards Kite in front of everyone¡­ Piss her off and she would go berserk. She even killed Lance''s real mother.¡± I unintentionally shouted. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I guess Lance''s mother had dementia. She had these crazy thoughts in her head and held a knife over Kite''s bed one night. Kite''s mother had known she had dementia when she hired her. She did it from the kindness of her heart. I guess that made her snap, that someone would take her kindness and try to punish it¡­ I told Lance a year ago¡­ We were heading back from our year long trip to get stronger¡­ Lance was angry at first but as time went on he slowly calmed down about it¡­ I think he knew already¡­ He just didn''t want to accept it.¡± ¡°...That is¡­ I feel spoiled somehow¡­ My life has been somewhat peaceful considering¡­ It is almost as if any hardship I''ve been through was only because of my proximity to Kite''s hardship¡­ The thing about it is¡­ When he approached us the day we entered¡­ He looked different¡­ It scared me thinking that he looked more attractive¡­ That now that he isn''t covered in scars more women will try to be with him...¡± ¡°¡­ We all have our problems¡­ I''m in love with someone I''ve known since we''ve been children. He was practically adopted by my mother. Everything practical says I shouldn''t love him¡­ But is still do.¡± ¡°¡­ Since you''ve asked me¡­ Why do you love Lance.¡± ¡°¡­ I don''t know¡­ It could be through familiarization of him. Just by being in proximity, I could have grown to like him over time¡­ I would say the main reason though is because he is so genuine. I''ve known him for so long and I''ve never heard him lie to a single person. He reminds me of the hero in books I''ve read since I was a child¡­ Almost every action he takes is exactly what one of those heroes would do¡­ The main difference in those stories is¡­ There isn''t a sister the hero falls in love with.¡± ¡°Come on. You two are together right? What''s it matter that you lived together with each other since you''ve been children. That just means you know everything about each other.¡± ¡°Still¡­ I wish¡­ He didn''t know everything about me¡­ That way I could surprise him sometimes.¡± I don''t get what she is worried about. Those two are meant to be together. Everything about them just says so. We stand back up after resting on the ground for a few minutes. Trice speaks again. ¡°Hey¡­ If I broke the class limit like you did¡­ Which class do you think would help Lance the most?¡± Darkclaw''s point of view I''m flying over the ocean. My back itches where master pulled my feathers out at. Greed says. ¡°You should have made him pay for those feathers. You''re a dragon, everything on you is valuable.¡± ¡°Yea but it was for master. He''ll use it to get stronger and eventually that will lead to me getting stronger.¡± ¡°I guess¡­ It would be easy to get stronger if you would just eat his gold.¡± ¡°No¡­ Master has been kind to me, I can''t force myself to steal his gold... I''m okay with eating other peoples gold though.¡± ¡°Yea that''s why we''re flying back the way we came. I know where a sunken ship is.¡± The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Isn''t it kind of dangerous to travel by ourselves? I can''t swim very well, I''m also a dragon so almost all my attacks wont work underwater.¡± ¡°That''s right you are also a dragon! Do you realize how lucky that is!? You can boss around anything you want and it''ll run away just because you''re a dragon.¡± ¡­ I don''t feel great about this idea¡­ Water is definitely not good for me. It also takes me a few minutes of drying my wings out until I can fly again. If there isn''t land close by I''ll be in trouble¡­ ¡°Don''t worry there was land near it. Just fly a little to the left, it''s that way¡­ I''m with you now, so I don''t want to drowned any more than you do.¡± A few hours of flying¡­ I haven''t needed to fly this long before, my wings are starting to get a little tired¡­ ¡°Just stick it out another few minutes and it will come into sight.¡± Just like he said, there it is. It is like he was able to pinpoint it''s location. I land on the island to catch my breath and take a quick break before I go diving into the water. Dragons can hold their breath for 10 minutes. Bigger dragons can hold their breath longer as they get stronger. I take in a deep breath then dive in. Using just my arms and legs for propulsion, my wings catch too much water, they can''t be used to help my speed. I start to sink to the ship¡­ I looks very old. ¡°I''ve actually known about this ship before I died. This ship was sunk too far off the coast for my swimmers to be able to come back up¡­ That didn''t mean I didn''t lose a few men testing that theory.¡± ¡°That''s cold. You''re so much worse a leader than Kite is.¡± ¡°Hahaha¡­ Yea¡­ I''m still surprised every time he does something. I thought I was gone forever but he unintentionally brought me back.¡± ¡°He didn''t do it for you¡­ I''m still pissed you convinced me to antagonize him during our fight. He beat me just like I said he would.¡± ¡°Yea, I just needed to see how much stronger he had gotten¡­ It could affect his future if he remained as weak as he was. I would have had you take over leadership¡­ For him to come that far so quickly¡­ He is a literal monster.¡± The entire time we''ve been talking I''ve also been swimming to the ship, just making it after almost a minute of swimming. I ask greed something. ¡°What kind of ship was this?¡± ¡°It was a transport ship¡­ Their could be anything in the cargo hold, they tried to run and were in a faster ship. I could only sink them in the hopes they would head closer to the island¡­ They didn''t...¡± I swim into the stomach of the ship. Inside is¡­ What is all this shit!? I look around and all I see is boxes of old, water logged food. Some rusted equipment and a box full of blue crystals. Greed speaks up. ¡°Grab that box, Kite is going to want to see this. Also, you should check the captains quarters before we pull that out of here.¡± I abandon it for now. Swimming back through the open thingy on the deck. Greed speaks up. ¡°It is a deck hatch¡­ We swam into the hold of the ship¡­ Not the stomach.¡± Well whatever, I swim up to the captains room. ¡°The captains cabin... I just said it''s name like 3 seconds ago.¡± ¡°Can you stop that! I don''t care what everything is called.¡± ¡°It is just very ignorant sounding when you call it stuff like that. It would be me calling your teeth, mouth daggers¡­ Just try to learn what the parts of a ship are because it is distracting when you call everything by the wrong name.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ I''ll just think less then so I don''t bother you.¡± The captains CABIN is locked. I slam my tail against it and the door falls off. I''m still too big to fit. Greed speaks up. ¡°Go human form, you should be able to fit.¡± ¡°Oh yea, I keep forgetting about that.¡± I enter¡­ At least 100 gold is here! I run over and start eating it¡­ Before I realize I''m underwater and just use up a good portion of my oxygen supply! Shit! Greed speaks up. ¡°YOU FUCKING IDIOT! Go look under the cock boat for air. It will be stale but it will give you enough air to get to the surface.¡± ¡°The cockwha?¡± ¡°The little boat out side this room. Probably on the port... Left of the door.¡± I exit the room and there is a tiny boat right where he said there would be. How did he know about it? Did he see it coming in. ¡°Most of these boats follow the same design. I spent a good portion of my life learning and living on ships like this one. So every time you say something stupid like tummy of the ship or whatever it pisses me off.¡± I catch my breath¡­ The air does taste wrong but it is enough for me to resurface and catch my breath. ¡°Go into human form. Grab that box of mana crystals. Then load as much gold as you can into the box.¡± ¡°That''s a good idea.¡± ¡°I bet your glad to have me.¡± ¡°Only when your useful. Otherwise you''re just an annoying asshole.¡± ¡°Love you too buddy. Eat that gold as payment for the mana crystals you''re about to bring Kite.¡± ¡°...I guess I can do that.¡± I spend a few minutes eating all the gold as I prepare to fly back to the ninjas island.
Increased mana pool and dragons breath power by 12%
Chapter 107 More points of view Green''s point of view Me and Brick are sparring. We''re not fighting Nami today and I want to get as much practice in to finally beat her. That smug bitch keeps beating us all into the ground and not a single one of us has beaten her yet. That two weeks we spent in that fucking tree is going to sneak up on her next time we spar. Brick swings his fist wide at my head. Completely telegraphing his attack, as if he wanted me to dodge it. I punch him in his gut before yelling at him. ¡°FUCKING TRY! How am I supposed to get better if you don''t take this training seriously!?¡± Brick only rubs his gut with his hand, not saying anything like normal. This man is beyond useless. ¡°Fine, we''re done sparring until you grow a dick.¡± I kick him between his legs. What a weakling. He''s so damn strong but can''t fight seriously against living enemies. He has guardian class leveled very high too, almost in its second rank up but he refuses to use it. Because. ¡°We need to respect our traditions¡± Look where that got us. It got almost our entire tribe wiped out. If the elders had tried to teach methods to learn faster, maybe 90% of our fucking tribe would still be around. I angrily punch the wall¡­ I need to find an opponent that isn''t afraid of fighting me fairly¡­ Who though? No one is strong, strong enough to fight evenly with me besides the few generals training against Nami¡­ Fighting her is like fighting the wind, I can''t land a single damn attack on her because she can read me. Even yelling only flusters her enough for her attacks to become less accurate. If she could get over that, none of us would stand a chance against her. And that pisses me off. I see one of those demon tribe. I''ve been told to hold my tongue against them from both Kite and Brick. That doesn''t mean I can''t beat the shit out of them. ¡°Hey you! Go a few rounds with me.¡± ¡°Ahh! Umm¡­ I was going to go start my shift in the clinic¡­ I''ll ask someone else to cover my shift.¡± He rushes passed me towards the clinic. He better not be stalling for time¡­ Now that I think about it¡­ Why would a healer want to learn unarmed fighting? His entire job description is to hang back and make sure he stays out of the fight. He comes rushing back to me. ¡°A-Alright! Where are we training at?¡± We head outside to spar. The air inside the cave starts to get to humid if you spar inside. Smells tend to linger as well. So we take it outside to one of the training areas. Entering a sparring circle we both take our stances. Once again I''m not sure why this healer wants to learn because he is a terrible fighter. After slamming him on the ground about 50 times, I start to get bored. My curiosity has gotten the best of me. ¡°Hey¡­ Why does someone so freaking weak want to get stronger at fighting?¡± ¡°¡­ The stronger I am the less chances I have at dying¡­ If I die all the men I could have saved die as well.¡± ¡°...What''s your name?¡± ¡°M-Methodis.¡± ¡°Well then M-Methodis. Every day after training. We''re going to continue practice, just us two in secret. I''ll beat you into shape then you can help me get stronger. I have one rule though. If you hold back against me I will break you. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± Swift''s point of view My brothers have gotten the day off of training. Most of the lizard men still live in our village. So days off, we head home through the portals. I''ve went through Kite''s books at the fortress and pulled out a few I thought I would enjoy. My three brothers are all sparring outside, making a huge fuss. All three have gotten so much stronger from their training, maybe Kite should offer a regimen for us casters to follow. Since we''ve joined his army, our village has improved leaps and bounds. A giant net blocks off the crescent shaped beach from the ocean. Sealing in many delicious fish that were far more difficult to catch than his method of doing it. I''ll have to do more research on all his creations to see if there isn''t any way to improve them. I hear Tough like steel yell over towards me. ¡°WATCH OUT!¡± Boom! My hut explodes, what is he doing!? I go to look outside and his shield and billowing blue smoke from firing the launcher portion Kite built in. If we didn''t strengthen our houses with wood from the forest near the main fortress it would have been exploded into splinters of straw with me inside. Tough like steel has the launcher half hidden behind his back. As if I don''t know who just blew the front portion of my house away. ¡°Watch what you''re doing you imbecile! What were you even firing at?¡± He points to a rock conveniently located between us. ¡°Can you aim at a target that isn''t in line with my house please.¡± ¡°Come on Swift like water. All you do is stay in your room and read. Come out and train with me.¡± ¡°What will training do? My intelligence is what I use. What good would having big muscles do for casting healing spells?¡± Strong like bull yells towards me next. Also encouraging me. ¡°Come on! When was the last time we trained together? It''ll be like the old days where it was just us... Five... I guess it will never be like the old days anymore...¡± He unintentionally just made himself sad. With our brother killed because of the unsanctioned duel none of us have been the same... Fast like wind also chimes in. ¡°Please! We need to spend time with you every once in awhile. You might disappear soon brother... It isn''t like we''re trying to peak on the girls showering or something. And I promise not to leave you behind like normal if we do that again.¡± ¡°Fine! We should all train. You know what good training would be for us to do? Fixing my house!¡± Shikki''s point of view Master has given us the day off. All the kobolds have returned home to celebrate our day of the dead. Where we pass over our dead and the village chief eats a portion of them so they continue to exist in this world. I would have liked for master to do it but he is busy. We also pushed it back which is normally sacrilege, master hadn''t given us any days off until today. Some of the people who tried to come back even though we all agreed to stay on the ships until master had given us days off are being punished still. Kobolds skin gets very dry if they remain in the sun. So we have the deserters on drying racks as punishment¡­ Master would probably disapprove of our methods to make sure no one grows to complacent for his cause. ¡°Bring your dead forwards! The ritual will begin!¡± Only 6 deaths. Compared to 2 months ago before master came, we''re down below half the normal amount. Inside a safe village with walls our numbers have started increasing instead of staying even through casualties. I eat a piece of each of the 6 dead¡­ Normally this fills me up but with the lack of deaths I''m still a bit peckish. One of my men come rushing over right after the ceremony. ¡°Chief! Chief! Someone was trying to steal our beer!¡± ¡°Who would be so foolish!?¡± ¡°It is an outsider!¡± ¡°Good! I was still a bit hungry. Now we''ll be able to feast on this criminal as well.¡± ¡°The thing is¡­ He is very strong. He injured 6 kobolds who tried to stop him before the blue mages master Kite had taught could subdue him with spider silk.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°...If he is so strong perhaps we wont kill him...¡± That is something I didn''t think I would ever say. I''m an elder, I never had said anything even close to that before I met master. Now anything strong could become an ally to our master. We approach him. He looks as strong as my disciple said he was. Under a mountain of spider silk is what appears to be a bugbear. I can''t speak any goblin¡­ Maybe he is smart enough to understand common? I barely know any myself. Only learning for the sake of speaking master''s language. ¡°Ca-n youuu spea-k co-mmon.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ What is up with your village? I''ve never seen kobolds with such a refined living area.¡± ¡°S-slow down. C-can''t spe-ak¡­ Good.¡± ¡°I know a little kobold. How did your village get so big?¡± ¡°That would be my masters doing. He is a very powerful dragon.¡± ¡°A dragon you say!? I haven''t heard any reports of a dragon sighting in the area. Where is your dragon right now?¡± ¡°He is busy fighting a war.¡± ¡°Are you serious? How far away is this war?¡± ¡°No more speaking. You ask too many questions. We''ll let master decide what to do with you.¡± Gobber''s point of view ¡°No honey. Don''t throw your poop at daddy.¡± My giggling child holds her dirty cloth diaper in her hands, ready to throw it at me if I attempt to move or do anything. Or just randomly at me. ¡°Please put the diaper down so I can ch-.¡± Wham!¡­ Right in the face. ¡°Hahaha! Daddy is covered in poop!¡± I pull the diaper off my face before grabbing her while she screams like I''m hurting her. I need to go check on the other 5 while Hilda takes a quick nap. We have to sleep in shifts because all the children sleep at different times. All the children look identical. So I''m not sure if it was Goblynn, Gobbly, Gobbish, Gobda, Gobit, or Hilda junior that just covered me in poop¡­ I have my work cut out corralling my children. I''m tired¡­ I''ve been tired since they''ve been born. The 1-2 hours of sleep I get every night isn''t enough¡­ I guess they''ll calm down in another year¡­ Only¡­ One more year of this¡­ YAY! Kline enters the room. THANK YOU! ¡°Hey Kline. You couldn''t have timed this better.¡± ¡°Ah I see your a busy as usual¡­ You''ve got something on your face.¡± I grab a cloth and wipe my face as my kids go crazy because uncle Kline is here. They begin chanting one of the few words they know in common. ¡°STORY! STORY! STORY! STORY!¡± Although they are only a few months old. It seems they learn far quicker than an average goblin. Which is far beyond the normal learning speed of any other creature. They''ve already mastered the goblin language and have started working towards common. Kline is well versed in many languages because of his time as a spy, thankfully goblin is one. ¡°Okay kids. I''ve got a brand new story to tell you about the hero.¡± They all start to cheer then quickly calm down, taking seats in front of him. Knowing he won''t tell the story unless they stay quite. ¡°Alright. From the story last time, the hero was on a ship. This time the hero is fighting a giant monster! The monster is so big! Bigger than anything you''ve ever seen! The monster had giant teeth!¡± As he says this, he puts both his hands in front of his face to mimic the sight of teeth. The children both laugh and scream from being slightly scared. ¡°The monster had lots of arms and legs too! The legs, so big that they could crush a person where they stand! How do you think the hero beat the monster?¡± All of the girls scream. ¡°How!?¡± ¡°He turned into a dragon! Flying through the air like whoosh! Whoosh!¡± Moving his arm like he was the dragon flying through the air. ¡°He dive bombed the monster. Crashing right into it! Wham!¡± Slamming his hand down onto his other hand as he said wham. All of the girls giggled and gasped as he continued the story. ¡°He turned back into a human. Pushing open the giant monsters mouth open with his bare hands!¡± He acts like he is forcing open the mouth with both his hands. ¡°Do you know what he did next?¡± All the girls saying. ¡°No!¡± ¡°He farted right in the monsters mouth. The fart smelled so bad the monster instinctively threw up all the heroes men it had eaten.¡± All the girls laughed loudly at the story for a few seconds before quieting down to here the rest. ¡°Now with the men a safe distance away the hero could finally fight the monster with all his might. He turned back into a dragon flying high up into the air!¡± He got up and walked to a lit torch he brought into the room. I was wondering what it was for. He also had a jug of alcohol with him. ¡°He took in a deep breath then a second later. Spit out a giant flame!¡± He took in a swig of the alcohol spitting it across the lit torch causing a big flame to shoot out of his mouth. The girls screamed in excitement by his story. It wasn''t finished yet though. ¡°What do you think the hero did after he beat the enemy?¡± All of the girls shouted. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°He cut the monster into pieces and gave it to his troops to eat.¡± He was still standing near the things he brought. Grabbing a tray with a lid over it. Pulling the lid off the reveal some of the same monster he was talking about in his story. ¡°And now we get to eat that monster.¡± All the children shout. ¡°YAY!¡± The quietly eat as Kline whispers to me. ¡°I can handle them for an hour if you want to take a break.¡± Kline is a true lifesaver. Kora''s point of view We''ve been digging around one spot recently. It is under the impression that there is a very valuable material above. I was all excited by the idea for the first few days. As it has dragged on I slowly get more and more bored with not finding anything. This dwarf boy better be right about what Kite said or he''s going to have to find a new job. He yells out. "We''re getting close! I can feel it, we''ll get at it by the end of today." I think he is just lying to cover his failure up as we break through. A huge chunk of dirt falls from the ceiling, getting in a few of the workers eyes. I wait for the dust to settle then look up. There it is! In excite I see a bright red, almost glowing chunk sticking out! I start to get so excited I''m almost shaking. "We found it! We found it! Little dwarf I can''t believe your ability! You''re my right hand man from now on! What is your name?" "Ahh it''s Obly. I don''t have a last name yet, you need to prove yourself in a certain way or be associated with an item." "Well Obly, we''ll get you a last name yet if you keep up your work as my foreman''s assistant." Chapter 108 8 months later It''s been almost 8 months of training. Working on pushing my classes towards 50 or 25 if I just recently got them. My newer classes like Dragon bloodline, Viking, Pirate, Barbarian, Ninja, Samurai and Ranger all only just recently broke level 30. Everything else made it passed 50. Skills learned are cleave, combat expertise, enraged regen, dragoon combo, indomitable might, stamina ballad, pinpoint strike, empower pets, increased gold drops, mounted mastery, persuade, ragnarok, genjutsu (snake eyes, dragons gaze, shadow punches), quick change, shock, mana shield, curse, invisibility, healing water, magic link, spell steal, steal defenses, mojo magic, frenzy, sun absorption, lay on hands, spirit guide, stamina boost four, spell reflect, neverending potion, soul strike, sense trap, sense presence, appraisal, give knowledge and word magic¡­ Next I''ll go over my new merged skills.
Mock + Persuade = Cunning words- attempt to fluster an enemy by convincing them to either join your side or anger them into making a mistake
Rognarok + Shock = Lightning rod- Channel lightning down into your weapons, allowing you to focus it towards an enemy
Invisibility + One with shadows + Sneak = True stealth- become impossible to detect
Snake eyes + Evil eye + Dragons gaze = Dragons piercing gaze- Attempt to petrify, paralyze or charm an enemy (the effect is dependent on the strength of the opponent)
Dragoon combination + Frenzied strikes = Flurry strikes- Attack with a weapon several times, each attack striking harder than the last
Absorption shield + Spell steal = Spell copy- Absorb the mana component of a spell, mimicking its production at the same mana cost to launch the spell again (same spell is reusable, only one spell can be held to use)
Rage empowered strikes + Energy empowered strikes + Burst of power + Chi strike + Mana strike + Soul strike = Perfect strike- attack with the power of all resources at once
Treasure finding+ Sense geode + Sense trap + Sense presence = Sensory map- Focus to find things close to you (more things will be added to the map as you gain more sense skills)
Aikido martial arts upgraded- (mastery level adept) Beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic aikido throws and holds
Baguazhang (Circle walking) martial arts upgraded- (mastery level adept) Beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic circle walking techniques
Karate martial arts upgraded- (mastery level adept) Beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic karate attacks
Taekwondo martial arts upgraded- (mastery level adept) Beginner level knowledge of the martial art, able to pull off basic taekwondo kicks
Unnamed style- unique style all your own, as you practice and improve your own moves will be added to this style
Master of teaching gave me give knowledge was a very odd skill. I could give away my knowledge, losing it in the process¡­ I''ll have to think of uses for that because it seems fairly useless right now. I could mix goblin combination strikes and Flurry strikes fairly well to make an amazing combination attack. With shadow punches that do no damage but look exactly like my fists (or weapon) being thrown, it makes my attacks far harder to dodge with a mixture of fake attacks scattered throughout. I also learned two time mage secret skills from the time tree.
Secret Time mage skill gained Hasten time- Able to increase the speed of time within a fifty foot area around you, drains 1% of your mana per second
Secret Time mage skill gained Slow time- Able to slow the speed of time within a fifty foot area around you, drains 1% of your mana per second
I also have a few theoretical attacks I need to practice to see if they can actually be used. I''ll need an enemy test subject though. They could have ended badly inside the tree so I didn''t use them. Many of the skills will be easily implemented into my fighting style. The ones that are passive of course. Some of the ones that are similar to moves I already have like stamina ballad, cleave and word magic. Making them easy to incorporate into my fighting style. The biggest problem with word magic is it doesn''t work with melded magic or instant incantations. Making it useful for single spell casting but weak compared to everything else. Some of my other skills were too helpful to not add into my attacks. Mana shield is yet another layer of defenses they''ll have to beat through to get into my health. The biggest problem is it depletes one of my best resources. A neverending mana potion would solve that problem. Lay on hands and curse are both very strong. But I have to be touching the person or item for it to work, making them hard too pull off. Spirit guide is another weird one¡­ A blue, see through¡­ Creature is the best word to describe it appeared but only to me. If I wanted to, I could let someone see it by allowing them to see it. The creature was a mishmash of what appeared to be 4 different animals. A living totem pole sort of. The legs of a bear, body of a goat, head of a giant mouse and fur of a fox¡­ The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Looking at the druid skill I learned for each respective skill I gain it is each of those. Each consists of increasing one of the primary stats. Dexterity, intelligence, strength and stamina. I have a feeling my spirit animal is so weird because my stats are so close together. It didn''t know which animal to be so it decided to be them all. I''ll give this to Leaf to watch over her. I don''t think it can fight but it probably does something¡­ What a hard year it has been. Non stop training is finally about to be over. ¡°Hey tree. How much longer do we have to wait?¡± ¡°Ten minutes.¡± ¡°...How have you been able to keep track of the time?¡± ¡°By keeping track¡­¡± ¡°...Good to know. Well, I still remember my promise. I''ll get you out of here¡­ Eventually...¡± ¡°I''ll hold you to that.¡± The tree has slowly started to get used to speaking to me. I let everyone else know. ¡°WE''VE GOT LESS THAN TEN MINUTES NOW!¡± Aegis crawls up my body and I grab him and slip him on my hand. He''s gotten to the point where he can now easily crawl on his fingertips. Honestly he might have been the one who improved the most while in here. It will be nice to have a backup blue mage right on my hand. If he decides he doesn''t like me, he can leave whenever he wants to now. Aegis speaks up. ¡°Yea, I don''t think I''m ready to leave your side yet. Who will be there to bail you out when you mess up?¡± ¡°Hahaha yea. Thanks again Aegis for all your help. I''ll give you a tasty sheet of metal once we''re out of here. Tree can we get a count down once it is under a minute.¡± We''re all standing close to the door. I can''t wait until we''re out of here. I''m not claustrophobic but being stuck in a windowless room for an entire year would make anyone want to head outside and taste fresh air. I hear the time tree. ¡°One minute left.¡± ¡°We''ve got one minute to go guys!¡± I count down with the tree. Getting lower and lower, I start to get excited. It is silly but I''m beyond ready to leave. We''re down to the last ten seconds. ¡°10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.¡± The doors open, all us run out of the room as fast as we can, almost racing. Until we get down to the next floor and see Leaf and Trice inside it. Both look surprised by the doors opening. Where they training on this floor? I don''t give a shit. Leaf begins to talk. ¡°Whoa?! Kite yo-.¡± I didn''t let her finish that sentence. Picking her off her feet with a hug and a kiss. I don''t give a damn about our age difference, I can''t hold myself back. Spinning her as I kiss her. Literally sweeping her off her feet. I let her down after a realize she has a confused look in her eyes. She finishes her sentence. ¡°Got bigger.¡± I hadn''t even realized it but I''m now taller than her by 6 inches. It is as if I aged 4 years instead of 1 in the time chamber. I gained at least an entire foot in that year. Was Leaf always this attractive? I look closer at her face, trying to absorb in the details¡­ I don''t remember her being this pretty before. What could hav-, THANK YOU LUST! ¡°You''re welcome for whatever you''re shouting about.¡± ¡°You''re descriptive title lets me see people with more description. Leaf is more beautiful now.¡± ¡°Heh, don''t worry about me. You have a beautiful woman in front of you, don''t hold back.¡± I look around the room. Everyone has stopped dead in their tracks and are now staring at us. I hadn''t realized it but Lance is also taller than he was, now towering over the short Trice. His brown hair grew to the point where it isn''t short like it normally is. Trice must have always cut his hair because he does look different than normal. I notice sweat stains on Trice''s clothing before I realize Leaf stinks. Training for 2 months with no showers¡­ I don''t mind but I probably stink too¡­ Leon looks far worse for ware than I remember him. Deep bags under his eyes. He''s started to grow a substantial blonde beard in our time inside. He must have really been struggling to leave. Speaking of which, I''ve started to grow red facial hair. It is just stubble right now but I plan on letting it grow out¡­ Unless Leaf doesn''t like it, then I''ll shave. ¡°Ahh¡­ Sorry everyone for slowing us down¡­ Let''s go outside for now and get some fresh air¡­ Maybe a quick bath...¡± We all proceed towards the exit. Leaf''s face looks like a tomato now. Speaking of food, I pilfered the remaining food for later use from the fridge. I guess the greater god didn''t account for bringing our own food as we have quite a bit left. I can reverse engineer them to try and figure out how to make each one. Who cares about food right now though. We break the entrance of the time tree and all start to cry out in happiness at the sight of the fake sun¡­ Before we proceed outside the castle mimic to look at the real sun. Taking in our first fresh breath of air in over a year. Before we head back to the fortress and take our first bath in over a year¡­ I ask if Leaf wants her back washed but she only freaks out. ¡°Leaf, we have to talk after this soak in the hot springs.¡± ¡°R-right!¡± As I say that, I see a kobold running up to the hot springs. He yells out. ¡°Master we''ve captured someone you might want to see.¡± Right behind him is Darkclaw in human form. ¡°Ah, good to see you back master. I found some strange crystals you should look at.¡± Trice speaks over the wall next. ¡°Hey¡­ I broke the class limit and would like to discuss which class I would like to learn.¡± As I think this yet another person approaches me. It is Kora from the mines. ¡°We''ve just struck a huge adamantine vein where you said there would be.¡± Zergnar comes into vision next with a cat on his shoulder. ¡°Master, can you teach my new pet some classes?¡± One freaking day I''m gone and I get all this built up. I talk after sitting for a few seconds trying to think who to address first. ¡°Leaf¡­ I''ll talk to you later¡­ Can I come by your room later tonight?¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± ¡°I''ll start with you Darkclaw. Let me get dressed quickly and I''ll look at these crystals¡­ Where did you get them?¡± ¡°Uhh¡­ I was flying around, searching the area¡­ And I seen a ship filled with gross stuff but this looked valuable¡­ I think I heard you say something about mana crystals being compressed mana water. Allowing you to give a boost to cannon blasts if you add in the crystals to the water before you fire them...¡± ¡°I most certainly never said that¡­ But I do think I''ve read that somewhere¡­ I think I remember Greed talking about mana crystal dust being a drug¡­ If it has an actual purpose then I''ll use it for that¡­ Hmm¡­ You''ve been acting weird lately Darkclaw¡­ You have anything to tell me?¡± ¡°¡­ Maybe later master. Deal with these other people first. I''ll tell you tomorrow.¡± Chapter 109 Meeting the bugbear ¡°We caught him attempting to steal a keg of ale from your reserves. He seems to be very complacent, almost waiting for you.¡± We approach the captive. He has his hands bound by the spider silk, on first glance I know it isn''t enough to hold his hands. ¡°I didn''t expect to see a bugbear in this part of the world. I thought you bugbears only lived in the central continent.¡± ¡°We normally do, hard times have struck my village and many of us strong fighters have left the village to look for work¡­ One less mouth to feed for them, adventures for me.¡± He was speaking in goblin. I had heard that bugbears are from the same family as goblins. Goblins can''t change into them but they sometimes lead larger groups of goblins. There are female bugbears but I look at him closer. He is covered in fur, everywhere but his face. A feral like face, similar to that of a shaved bear with its nose punched in¡­ Him and Zergnar look very similar. Even bigger than him though, he is one of my bigger generals too. I would say he is the same size as Brick if I had to compare him to anyone. I''m surprised my kobolds were able to capture him. ¡°So¡­ What should I do with you then?¡­ I could kill you if you wish¡­ You did try to steal from me. What is your name?¡± ¡°Bugger sir. No need to kill me¡­ I''ve just come to speak. I could have done much more damage then I had, the kobolds living area was so different than normal kobold villages that it piqued my curiosity.¡± This time speaking in common¡­ Under his rough, strong body is a surprisingly sharp mind. Nothing I''ve read about bugbears have said anything about higher thought processes. ¡°Do you speak any other languages? You''re brains could help more than your strength as a combatant if you can translate for me.¡± ¡°I speak common, a little kobold and I also speak goblin.¡± As he says each different language, he speaks it in that language. ¡°Is that it?¡± ¡°Heh, I guess you don''t know this but¡­ Three languages is normally beyond most people. Even the elder of this village could barely speak two.¡± ¡°I speak¡­ common, dwarven, elven, goblin, lizard men, orcish and giant. I also know parts of the fairy language and satyr language. I can also communicate with dragons and nature through magic.¡± He looks shocked by that, then a smile forms across his face, then he starts laughing. ¡°Hahahaha! If you''re going to lie, make it more believable. I don''t care who you are, to know that many languages. Especially if what they say about you is true¡­ I''ve lived almost 50 years¡­ I''ve never heard of a dragon forming an army... Especially one comprised of different races¡­ Are you tricking these kobolds into thinking your a dragon for free beer?¡± I give a little chuckle out now. He said that last line in goblin so they wouldn''t hear him. Most likely under the premise of exposing me to them if I don''t help him out. I guess I''ll have to prove myself. ¡°How can I prove I know all the languages I''ve said¡­ Well I guess I could continue to change through the languages as I speak¡­ Not stopping on a single one for too long¡­ Letting you see that I can speak these languages in the process¡­ That would be one way¡­ I could also just change into a dragon¡­ I''m starting to get bored of doing that though¡­ Maybe because I''m speaking so many languages he thinks I''m making them up on the spot¡­ I doubt that though, he knows three languages, so he can probably tell if they''re made up or not...¡± He looks shocked again. I''m starting to enjoy shocking people with my abilities. I continue to speak. ¡°So you were saying?¡± ¡°I¡­ I can''t believe it¡­ You might know that many languages but there is no way you are a dragon.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ I didn''t want to have to do this but I''ll change for you to see.¡± I change into dragon form in front of him. His expression doesn''t change. He just says. ¡°This could be an illusion, how do I know you''re real? Can you use your drag-.¡± I turn away from him. Breaking a vial in my mouth and taking out two wind scrolls to help me. Casting a flame breath attack the opposite way. I turn back towards him and he had been charging at me with a blade in his hand. His other hand up to his face. Easily breaking the grips that were holding him. I get struck with a dart, he pulls the blowgun from his lips and yells. ¡°Your corpse is worth over 100 gold!¡± That dart had an extremely strong poison on it¡­ He''s come here to kill a dragon. All I can do is smile now that I have a test subject for my skills. He''s in for a rude awakening once he realizes this poison didn''t work. I drop out of dragon form and activate all of my buffs. Even Aegis'' stat boost, this is a fight to the death, I can''t hold back or be careless. I yell in my head. ¡°Aegis! Lust! Triple trap combination attack!¡± Casting shadow wings on the shadow clone Aegis is controlling. The bugbear is beyond confused now. Confusion doesn''t show in his eyes though. Only fear at how easily I shrugged off that poison. I charge into range of him. His eyes widen in more fear as he clumsily swings his sword at me. I activate my new and improved combination combo. Consisting of goblin combination attack, flurry strikes and shadow punches with my finger tips to apply numbing poison. Almost every single attack hits¡­ He''s defeated¡­ WHAT!? I yell at him. ¡°REALLY!? THAT''S IT!? That is all you have? That was my weakest new signature move and I didn''t even get to the ending combination where my shadow clones help me¡­ I''m beyond annoyed and disappointed! You thought you could take down a fucking dragon with that measly poison!?¡± He can barely speak. Let alone move. It takes much of his effort to get the next few words out. ¡°T-that poison cost ten gold. It¡­ It could take down an elephant. I-I didn''t except it to not effect you at all.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I''m beyond frustrated now. I wanted to test out some of my new moves against this assassin but my first one worked so well I didn''t need to do anything else¡­ I guess I should look at it as a sign of my strength now. I doubt even Nami would stand a chance against me going all out. I pull out my heirloom sword, I guess I''ll chop off his head and absorb a piece of him. Maybe that will be enough to learn any secret skills or classes he has. I make it as bi-. WHAT THE FUCK!? The sword is easily the size of a great sword now¡­ I guess it has been awhile since I''ve summoned it¡­ The weight feels off on it¡­ It should be far too heavy to wield single-handedly but I can still do it with ease. Fear shoots through his eyes again, I expect him to start begging but he doesn''t. Instead his eyes change to those of resolve, he is ready to die¡­ ¡°Listen¡­ Killing someone as smart as you would be a waste... You already know how strong I am, even if you attacked me with 4 friends while I slept I could still beat you¡­ I''ll give you one chance to explain why you''re doing this before I kill you.¡± ¡°M-money of course.¡± His jaw still hard to move because of my numbing poison. ¡°No shit! I could gleam that fact when you yelled it out during the fight. I mean why do you need the money? You''re a bugbear, what would you need money for?¡± He only sits there quietly for a few moments. Wondering if he should tell me. If his life is worth revealing his secret. ¡°My village is on the outskirts of the northern west continent. We''ve lived in peace for many years now but recently. The people too the north west having been pushing into our territory trying to expand. I was told that I could buy safe passage for my people. 1 gold per person would save their lives.¡± ¡°...I''m sorry to tell you this but¡­ They will not just let you live, even if you give them the money. Your village may already be razed with some men waiting for you to return to kill you and collect the gold. They could be waiting until you get their to kill everyone though...¡± He looks far more sad¡­ I think, it''s hard to tell because he is still paralyzed by my poison. He can barely get the words out. ¡°What proof do you have? Why should I believe you?¡± ¡°That''s just what humans do¡­ They don''t care about anything but human affairs¡­ Willing to kill anything that would get in their way¡­ Most of my troops were persecuted by the humans. The demon tribe was pushed to extinction. The goblins and gnolls under my stay, both had subjugation quests against them. Even the elementalists who are human were killed after they served their purpose to the northern army.¡± He starts to get a little more control of his hands I spit some more poison onto my fingers and jam them into his neck. Barely scratching his skin but enough to keep him paralyzed. I pick him up, he weighs 500 pounds. It takes a huge majority of my strength to pick him up. Even with indomitable might he is still ridiculously heavy. He won''t be able to move for at least a few minutes because of my poison injection. ¡°I''ll take you on a tour of the fortress. You can get an idea of weather you should trust me or the people who are going to kill your entire village at the drop of the hat.¡± I take him through the portal at the village. Warping into the fortress with him first then using my teleport scroll so we arrive at around the same time. I don''t know how my numbing poison will work with the teleporters, so I don''t want to send him first then arrive with him waiting to ambush me. I''ll go through the portal later to get my scroll back. I show him around, periodically reapplying my poison to make sure he can''t move. Showing him to the demon tribe and elementalists to let them talk to him. I talk to him after that. ¡°I''m very busy today, so I can''t continue this line of talking. I''m going to lock you in my prison until I can speak with you and ask you more questions. I''ll give you a teleport scroll so you can return here once you get to your village¡­ I hope your people will still be alive but if they aren''t¡­ You''re more than welcome to avenge them¡­ If they are¡­ You''re more than welcome to join my army here.¡± My numbing poison has started to wear off. Like I had said there is too much going on right now to talk to him. I do want to question him about his classes before he leaves though. Hopefully this will end with me gaining another group of troops to help me fight. ...What else is there to do¡­ I need to teach Trice a class and Zergnar''s pet classes¡­ Check on the admantine, I''ll be able to make a full set of armor¡­ I probably will use a different method instead, maybe armor reinforced plating for my generals gear instead of a single set of equipment. That is just what my generals have tasked me with. I would also like to bring all the equipment I had stored on the top floor of the time tree and give it to everyone. I still need to check in with my sensei. Tomorrow is going to be just as busy. I plan on going over my regimen, having all my troops assemble in front of the fortress to do a head count. It will also be the day I talk with the ninja village elders and my generals about the plans for my attack against the pirates. I get up as I lock the door. I''ve stripped the bugbear down and handed him a pair of spider silk pants. I know better than to leave someone with their own equipment on them in a cell. He has two guards watching him, he is my only prisoner now. All the pirates have been assimilated into the work force of the fortress. Unexpectedly, the majority of them get along with us. The bulk have slave collars on to stop them from attacking us but they''ve grown to the same level of friendship they had with the murine folk. Sort of a situation where there is nothing for them to do but accept it. I start heading off to where the adamantine is being dug up. It is the quickest thing I''m going to do. The blacksmith in Shienta wanted to craft with this¡­ I don''t think I''m going to trust him though. It is also beneficial to have my blacksmiths work with it and learn how to craft it. They''ll also be the ones to gain levels from using it and making items with it. Chapter 110 Neko and Bugger I''ve instructed them on what to do with the adamantine for now. I also bring the weapon tips I pulled out of the weapons, which were mithril. I hope to get all of them shaped back into plates, adding gold to the recipe doesn''t increase the amount of metal covered when they are combined. If I have 200 mithril plates and 200 adamantine plates I would end up with 400 dragonslayer plates. Even if I used 1000 gold pieces in the recipe it wouldn''t increase the number of plates. Only how easy they are to enchant. While instructing what to do with the ore, I keep getting weird looks¡­ Now that I think back, I''ve been getting weird looks all day. There is still too much to do today, I''ll go find Trice next and see which class she would like to learn¡­ Maybe I should go to Zergnar first, his new pet might have a class I don''t have yet. I head to Zergnar next¡­ If that is my line of thought, maybe learning from Bugger would be smarter to do next. As he might also have a new class for me to learn. I''ll have to talk to him again, sooner rather than later. I enter Zergnar''s room. Three naked lizard women come walking out, putting some loose fitted clothing on. I get passing glances as they head to where I assume is the hot springs. I call out. ¡°Hey¡­ You decent in here?¡± ¡°Yea¡­¡± He comes walking out of his room, he looks drained of life. He continues to talk. ¡°My wives are insatiable. I missed having sex yesterday, so they wanted to double up today.¡± ¡°You might want to lose a few of them if it''s causing you that much trouble. So you have a pet you want me to teach?¡± ¡°Yea, she ran off once my wives attacked me. I told her to be back in an hour and to not cause any trouble. We can look for her if you want¡­ I doubt she''s in anyone''s room so the cafeteria or outside is most likely where she is.¡± We head towards the cafeteria and ask the cooks if a girl with cat ears had passed through. ¡°Yea. She ate 10 fish then ran outside¡­ I thought only you and the troll could pack away that much food.¡± ¡°Alright thanks.¡± We head towards the exit, which was the direction Zergnar''s wives were heading and we pass them. They must have been walking very slowly for us to catch up to them. They didn''t say anything, just letting us pass by as we head out of the cave entrance to look for the cat girl. Looking immediately to the left I see her at the stables¡­ Picking a fight with my pets. ¡°Listen here all of you. I''m the new boss around here, so I expect you to all know my name and follow orders. You can call my Neko-sama or master Neko.¡± She points at the stables, one of my pets who was visiting his friends there steps forward, it is Sock. ¡°That''s pretty cute little girl. Where is your master at?¡± ¡°L-L-Listen now! I-I-I''m n-not s-scared of you j-just b-because you''re really scary looking!¡± None of my pets live in the stables anymore. Each as a spot inside my room and we all sleep on the bed together. So Sock being here is very coincidental. ¡°I''m not trying to be scary. I just want to know who your master is.¡± Sock has his hands raised up like he is trying to defuse the situation. He slowly inches closer to her then she screams out as she turns and runs towards us with her eyes closed. ¡°HELP! Some crazy wolf man is trying to eat me!¡± She slams into me. Looking up and opening her eyes. She unintentionally blurts out. ¡°Pretty.¡± Before she looks around and notices Zergnar standing beside me. Yelling at him. ¡°Master! Help me defeat this evil beast!¡± He unintentionally laughs at her foolish response to the situation. Before answering her. ¡°That is Kite''s pet. Kite is the gentleman you just ran into and my master. So Sock technically outranks you¡­ If he wants to, he could gobble you up.¡± Claws dig into me a little as I see her tail stiffen. I go along with the joke. ¡°Sock do you want to eat this poor defenseless little girl?¡± She looks up at me, shaking her head then looking back at Sock who is still slowly approaching. ¡°Master please! Look how scared she is, please tell her you were only teasing.¡± ¡°Haha, yes umm was it Neko-sama?¡± She looks up at me slightly blushing, still against my chest. ¡°You can call me Neko¡­ My masters master.¡± We head back to my room. I''d rather teach in the comfort of my room than in Zergnar''s, where the chance of naked women walking in and distracting me is very high. Neko hasn''t gone into the castle mimic yet. Zergnar has a room in the castle as well but chooses to live at the fortress for the ease of living (it is closer to everything). ¡°Alright so, which class do you currently have, if any?¡± ¡°I have yellow mage. I also have the monster skill call undead.¡± ¡°Alright, try to teach me yellow mage.¡± ¡°It takes¡­ Longer than I would have liked to learn yellow mage. Neko is very bad at explaining things. She would make an awful teacher in that sense but I finally learn it after 2 hours of her getting frustrated by teaching.¡±
Class learned Yellow mage (bow mage) passive skill Magic shots- attacks with the bow that would normally take energy, can instead take mana
Yellow mage skill Tether arrow-->Electric arrow- Shoot an arrow that will attempt to wrap the opponent in electricity (If arrow strikes ground, electricity will attach to enemies running through it, slowing them)
¡°Alright¡­ What a weird class¡­ Why don''t you have a bow?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°¡­ The class has another name besides yellow mage, it is called bow mage. Not having a bow already removes 2 skills from your use.¡± ¡°Yea but making a bow is hard. All the ones I made weren''t any good so I just gave up on getting one.¡± ¡­ This reminds me of when I first met Gobber. Just that way of thinking makes me slightly irritated¡­ The only thing holding her back from getting stronger is herself. ¡°So, you have two options to go. You can either go with classes that will support the bow aspect of this class. Or go with mage classes that you can rely on while you fire arrows.¡± ¡°Well. I want to become strong enough to fight against Red evenly. Wouldn''t classes like warrior and berserker be better for that?¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°...Not really. If you split your focus too much then you lose strength between each class. As you don''t use a bow, you probably can''t use a good portion of the yellow mage skills. So if you choose a sword wielding class, you''re permanently sealing away those skills to never be useable. Instantly making you''re strongest class your weakest class.¡± ¡°Aww¡­ Which would you think are best for me then?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Are you comfortable with casting spells?¡± ¡°Yea. I practiced casting a few times. I probably have 2 hours of practice so you could say I''m a master at casting.¡± ¡­ I have to hold back a laugh when she says how long she''s practiced. I had more hours of practice in my first week of life. ¡°I would suggest spell classes then since you''re so adept at them.¡± A smile crosses her face as her tail wags behind her¡­ Which classes should I teach her¡­ She should learn classes that would help her. I immediately think of black mage, gaining mana arrows she might be able to use her yellow mage attacks even without a bow. I would still rather her learn how to fire a bow though. Other classes she would need for that to work are witchdoctor, finally giving her more damage over time with warlock spells. It takes an hour for her to learn black mage, which is normal learning speed, maybe even slightly faster. She easily learns warlock but witchdoctor slows her down¡­ 2 hours later still no witchdoctor. ¡°I still don''t understand how these classes work for teaching¡­ It seems almost random who can learn which classes. Blue couldn''t learn this but Red was able to.¡± ¡°Wait, Red could learn this?¡± Her frustration from sitting around shifts into a look of determination. ¡°Keep teaching me, if she could learn it I''ll learn it too.¡± It takes another 30 minutes but she does eventually learn it¡­ Perhaps learning is also linked with the person learning it. The more they want to learn it the more likely they will. Red wanted to learn it because Blue couldn''t. Neko wanted to learn it because Red could learn it. Being her rival, she wanted to learn it as well¡­ That is just a theory right now though. If I give her a false soul stone she''ll unlock another class to use¡­ I''ll have to think about that later though because I have to teach her how to fire a bow. After teaching her the classes she is about to run off before I stop her and take her to the training area. She can''t fire any of the superior compound bows when they''re set to a draw weight of 50. Lowering it to 40 lets her shoot but it takes a lot of effort for her to fire, reducing her accuracy and slowing the total arrows she can fire by too many¡­ Dropping the draw weight to 30 is what is best for her right now¡­ She practices, I hope for more than 2 hours before she thinks she masters it¡­ That ate up a bigger portion of my day then I wanted it too¡­ I head back to the jail cell. Both the guards I had watching him have been knocked out. He is trying to pick the lock with a scrap of metal from the belt of one of the gnolls he knocked out. My anger starts to build up. I yell out. ¡°They only reason you''re not dead yet is because you didn''t kill any of my men.¡± I walk in front of the jail cell and it is like I just caught him with his pants down. I had learned a few things while in the tree I haven''t gotten to use. I wanted to practice my new skills so I didn''t use a move that would have shut Bugger down instantly during our fight. I use water manipulation to lift him up through his blood. I haven''t gotten to try this out yet so this is a good test. I start forcing the blood inside him up. I could lift him with my hands but it takes a lot out of me to lift him this way¡­ It would have been a lot cooler if I could have done it without much effort. There is just too much mixed with the water for it to be easily lifted. He looks like it is causing him some pain. I move him away from the door, dropping him near the bed. I rub my face, thinking of what to do before talking to him. ¡°So¡­ I give you this leeway, you only have to wait one day before I would have let you go and you don''t respect it¡­ I can destroy you in this room with a single attack if I wished. Even if you got out, you''re far below the average of any of my generals¡­ You would have had no way to escape. So¡­ I still want your people on my side¡­ Teach me everything you know then I''ll knock you out and release you¡­ If you attempt to return here or hurt any of my men again, I''ll burn you alive then take a quick trip to your village and slaughter everyone there. Do we have an understanding?¡± He slowly begins to go over his class. After about an hour of him halfheartedly trying to teach me I learn it (Even trying to be a bad teacher, he was still better than Neko).
Class learned Saboteur passive skill Play dumb- Harder for even experienced interrogators to read you, can easily act like a fool if necessary
Saboteur skill Expose weakness- Attempt to find the weak point in a person or object
¡°Hmm. So that''s why even though I can normally tell if people are lying you were harder to read. I''ll be right back with a mind control collar, I''ll just knock you out until I''m back so you don''t get any crazy ideas.¡± I pull out another move I was holding back. Wind manipulation, I take all the oxygen out of the room. Because it is in an enclosed area it works better. I see him gasping for breath, finally going limp before falling over unconscious. I don''t know the long term effects oxygen deprivation, so I refill his room with air. Opening the cell and injecting him with numbing poison to be thorough. I head to get a slave collar and a few generals. I reopen the cell, adding the collar around his neck before slapping him away. He wakes up and realizes what is happening. He reaches up for the slave collar before I yell. ¡°Stop!¡± He completely freezes in place. I continue the demands. ¡°So, lets go over the rules. You are not allowed to lie to me. You are not allowed to injure me or any of my men. You are not allowed to try and take the slave collar off. If you do an intense pain will shoot through you. You are allowed to move again, shake your head if you understand.¡± He slowly starts to move again. Nodding his head. ¡°Okay, let''s get started then.¡± Chapter 111 A good nights rest ¡°What is your name.¡± ¡°It is Bugger. Why would I lie about my name?¡± ¡°Why were you sent here.¡± ¡°Like I said. My village is close to the north west continent. They threatened to destroy my village unless we killed the dragon here.¡± ¡°You most certainly didn''t say that. At least exactly what you just said. Next question, do you want to kill me?¡± ¡°...I don''t think I can kill you¡­ I just came here to try and kill you to save my village.¡± ¡°Even with everything I have already said. Hearing the same things happening to all the other races involved in this war besides humans.¡± ¡°I¡­ I know that even if I do kill you. They''ll just betray me, I had planned to hide your corpse a ways off so when they went to look for it, we would have time to flee.¡± ¡°That won''t work¡­ I think I know something that will though. You take a teleport scroll with you and before you get close to the village, you come back through and bring my army with you. I''ll play dead, they think you''ve killed me and my army will attack them at the same time I spring into action. You separate the village from the fighting and once we kill the troops threatening your people you join my army...¡± ¡°...Why do you care so much? I''ve tried to kill you once already and I was going to break out tonight and make another attempt at your life. Why do you want to save my people that badly?¡± ¡°¡­ I don''t want to see another race get slaughtered in this war. You care so much for your village that you would attempt to fight a dragon by yourself. I respect people like you, the ones who are willing to risk their lives for the sake of their people¡­ I also see the potential of having the bugbear race as an ally¡­ The biggest concern of mine right now is my lack of troops. Killing a few hundred troops that have invaded your village that we will eventually be fighting anyways isn''t a bad deal either.¡± He sits there waiting for a half minute. Thinking everything I just said over. He gives me an answer. ¡°¡­ You would make an awful spy. There is no way you should ever give this much information to an enemy like this¡­ I believe you though. I feel¡­ Maybe you are the only way my village has any chance at surviving.¡± ¡°I guess this is goodbye for now then. I''ll see you again once you get close to your village.¡± ¡°It will take a few months to get back to my village.¡± ¡°I can wait¡­ I''m in the middle of a war with some pirates right now and I want to have that cleaned up before the next war starts¡­ I hate this world¡­ You finish one battle then get thrust immediately into another.¡± ¡°What an easy life you have.¡± He winces in pain like a jolt of electricity goes through him. He recovers then says. ¡°Damn! Can''t these collars sense sarcasm!?¡± I guide him back through the portal, giving him a portal scroll for when he makes it to his village¡­ His receiving scroll is placed in another cage¡­ Perhaps I''ll dig holes to place the receiving portals from to make them extra secure. So the only way they can get out is with the help of a rope ladder thrown down to them from above. I don''t quite trust the vikings and the bugbears yet. It is starting to get dark. Night is setting on the first day I''ve had outside the tree¡­ I still need to teach Trice today¡­ If I don''t, tomorrow will be harder so I have to do it tonight. Tomorrow is going to be another long and drawn out day. Some of what I had planned to do today will roll into it. I go to visit Trice in her room at the castle. With a knock on the door, I''m allowed entrance. I''m barely two steps into the room before she questions me. ¡°Glad to see you today. I half expected you to forget I asked for your help.¡± ¡°I wouldn''t forget about your request, I was actually heading to you first but figured you would want me to learn every class possible before I taught you.¡± ¡°¡­ I accept that apology.¡± We go over the classes I have. Trice had only one spot to fill¡­ Once I go over my new class¡­ The yellow mage class I just gained today... I see her attitude shift. It was like the piece of a puzzle just came into play that solves it. She speaks. ¡°Can you explain the yellow mage more?¡± ¡°I just learned it today. I only have the beginning passive and the level 1 skill.¡± ¡°¡­ Who did you learn it off of?¡± ¡°Zergnar''s pet¡­ She never used a bow though, so most of her attacks would have went underutilized. She was kind of a ditz.¡± She turns away and I hear her whispering to herself. Most likely trying to plan out her class. ¡°That complicates things¡­ Hmm¡­ The magic I learn now will determine my main weapon¡­ The practice I''ve been doing with martial arts suits close range¡­ But the new class would give me a boost to long range¡­ Hmm¡­ It is between red mage and yellow mage then. Red mage is a known class, reaching 100 with it would give me a very huge boost to my fighting capabilities¡­ While yellow mage would give me boosts over time but is an undefined class...¡± I haven''t told her about the new bows either. ¡°If you''re undecided, perhaps you want to test out the new bows I''ve made while inside the time tree.¡± I pull out my bow from my void pouch and show it too her. She looks closely too it, inches away from the bow. She finally speaks. ¡°What amazing craftsmanship¡­ Are you sure you didn''t steal this from a professional?¡± ¡°You should see the bow I made for Troll.¡± ¡°...I''m guessing your the one who named the troll, Troll¡­ Heh, bad at naming like always. You couldn''t think of something more clever like Reegen or Broll so we could have called him Broll the troll. Reegen because of his regenerating properties.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Hey it was spur of the moment! I would rather keep it simple as people will call out to him. If he was called troll before changing his name to Troll will not confuse him when people call out to him.¡± ¡°...I guess that works for now. What happens when we get more trolls though? Will you also name them Troll? That will get very confusing for them.¡± ¡°I guess we''ll have to think about that when the time comes. Trolls are very uncommon, the fact that I gained one as an ally is a feat of amazement in itself.¡± ¡°I suppose you''re right¡­ From one point of view¡­ Let''s go practice this bow.¡± We head to a training room inside the fortress for practice. Trice practices with my compound bow, while I use my longbow until she feels whether or not she can use it. She can use it at full draw weight of what it should be at. A beginner using a 50 pound draw weight bow is slightly impressive. I''ve personally upgraded my bow to be able to use 70 pound draw weight. The longbow I use is now set to 140 pounds. After practicing for about 20 minutes she is already breathing hard and looking rough. Her fingers are worn down, she''s released incorrectly a few times and the arrow skimmed her fingers. It seems like she is hesitating to let go of the arrow all the way¡­ Perhaps a crossbow would be better suited for Trice. Or a lower draw weight, more practice would also correct the problem. The old giant crossbows I made were about 40 pounds of draw weight. You could pull the string back into place with both your hands if you had the butt of the bow in your stomach. If I used my new superior bow making now I could potentially get the draw weight close to 100¡­ That would make it far harder to lock the string into place. Only the strongest of my generals would be able to do that. ¡°Alright¡­ Give me one of these bows and teach me yellow mage. I''ll figure out if this was the best choice or not eventually¡­ I feel that I can support better further back, giving me a better vantage point to see everything.¡± I spend 10 minutes teaching yellow mage. She learns it that quickly. (of course she does) I feel¡­ Worn out¡­ Even though I''m glad I''m outside¡­ I''m already worn down from my duties as leader¡­ I still have to talk to Leaf today¡­ I start moving to do that, entering the castle mimic I had forgotten that it has a perpetual false sun. Entering the castle¡­ Heading towards Leaf''s room and knocking¡­ I start to get a little nervous¡­ I hope she didn''t already go to sleep. I hear her inside. ¡°Come in.¡± She must have already been in bed. She is dressed in her sleeping cloths I had made for her when I made their gear. It has started to get too small. Her petite belly shows through her small shirt¡­ I completely forget why I''m here as I look at the thin line of skin peeking through. Snapping myself out of my self made trance by mentally slapping myself. ¡°Leaf¡­ I''ve come to talk about¡­ Where we stand...¡± She just remains standing next to her bed. I hadn''t noticed but she has decorated her room with many things from her adventuring. Several different pieces of bosses she had taken as tokens of her victories. They had numbered in the dozens and were all neatly arranged on a dresser behind her bed. She has a steel sheet above the dresser polished to a mirror shine she probably uses¡­ As a mirror¡­ ¡°I want to be with you. I don''t care about our age difference now. If you don''t mind that is¡­ I realize I had kissed you without asking before and that was rude of me¡­ You''re feelings for me might have changed while training so that could have been rude.¡± ¡°I still love you too. It just feels¡­ Too early for us to be together. Like if we do become a couple. I''ll feel like if I pinned you down now you''ll regret it in 30 years when you could have any women you want.¡± ¡°Is that it? Is that the only reason you don''t want to be together? I''ve already lived three lives¡­ It feels unfair that I''m bringing all this baggage into the relationship¡­ All I know is¡­ I don''t care about anything besides you right now. You say take it slow but¡­ You take things slow when you''re not sure¡­ I''m taking this war slow, I don''t want to take it slow with you because I know it''s right. I can feel it in my heart that we are supposed to be together.¡± She drops her head slightly and looks away. I walk over to her and pull her face back to look at me. This time she doesn''t pull away. I lean in to a kiss but she leans away from me¡­ I stop trying to force her to kiss me then. Going into a hug instead. I whisper into her ear. ¡°We''ll go as slow as you want. Just know I''m all in for this. I can''t think about being with anyone else besides you. I spent an entire year with my thoughts, I know what I want to do. That is be with you. Plain and simple, I want to be with you Leaf.¡± I let her go, I start walking towards the door and she grabs my hand. Facing away from me. I can hear a quake in her voice like she''s terrified. ¡°L-listen¡­ I w-want to be with you¡­ We just have to t-take it slow. I don''t know if my heart could handle going fast.¡± I make a shadow clone of myself. Letting Aegis know to go tell my pets I won''t be returning tonight. I grab Leaf as she has a shocked look on her face and climb into the bed. She starts to struggle flustered by the situation but I start to talk before she gets the wrong idea of what I''m doing. ¡°Fine, we can take it slow then. We don''t have to do anything besides sleep in the same bed tonight. I just want to be by you tonight¡­" Maybe this was rash decision, I''m still in my gear¡­ Should I ruin this moment? "...Can you give me a moment to go change into more comfortable clothing?¡± She laughs a little by the odd situation I put us in. I had this whole cool thing planned in my head but I want to get a good nights sleep for tomorrow. I quickly rush back to my room to change and I get weird looks from my pets. I head back to Leaf''s room and she is already sleeping¡­ Or pretending to sleep most likely. I crawl in the other side of the bed and cuddle up against her¡­ Trying to keep... certain body parts from poking her awake¡­ Chapter 112 Teachers hard lesson I woke up the next morning on the floor as Leaf had edged me off the other side of the bed. I guess she tosses and turns in her sleep¡­. She was laying on one side and moved me all the way to the opposite side¡­ These beds are ludicrously big, 5 to 10 people could sleep on them. Me plus all 7 of my pets fit easily on my bed, including Darkclaw¡­ So she managed to push me all the way across this comically large bed in her sleep. Getting up, I notice that she has taken the middle position on the bed. Any hint of embarrassment is gone in her sleep. She is spread across her bed, legs and arms wide open. Her loose cloth shirt is now rolled up slightly revealing more her stomach. I''ll let her sleep in, there is still so much to do. I cover her with a blanket before leaving the room. I get up and head towards the time tree. I start carrying the gear and supplies out of the tree¡­ I didn''t tell anyone to do it yesterday and it is too early for anyone to be awake to help. Moving Troll''s bow outside is fairly difficult. It barely fits through the door. The bow weighs about 70 pounds. I doubt many people could hold it let alone fire it¡­ I''m hoping Troll is someone who can fire it. Moving everything outside takes about an hour by myself. It will still be about 1 hour before anyone starts to wake up¡­ What is there to do? I start looking at the food we''ve taken from the fridge. The rations all have meat¡­ But it isn''t normal meat. It was very thin¡­ It just looked different¡­ I look at it, comparing it to a slice of basilisk meat. My men were able to easily make there way to the raid and slay the bosses. Even normal troops can take down raid bosses now. I look at the difference¡­ I looks like the meat is just thinner¡­ Ripping each apart I can tell that the meat my men had taken is far wetter. So the thinner meat has been dried out¡­ Another thing we found out from my men killing the basilisk. It instantly filled up 2 transmutation circles for false soul stones. Four bosses and a few hundred fish later, I have another 12 false soul stones to give away¡­ I don''t want to waste these but¡­ I want to try something. I step inside the time tree. Asking him a question. ¡°Do you¡­ Have a mouth?¡± ¡°Do normal trees have mouths? I absorb light through photosynthesis.¡± ¡°Yea but¡­ The sun outside isn''t even a real sun¡­ So how do you get nourishment?¡± ¡°...I guess through my roots. It does sometimes rain inside the castle mimic¡­ Depending on where the castle mimic is located.¡± ¡°So if it is raining outside it rains inside the mimic?¡± ¡°No¡­ If the mimic is submerged underwater it rains inside.¡± ¡°Hmm. That gives me an idea¡­ But it will take far more vials of false soul stone to attempt.¡± ¡°Hey¡­ Did the greater god say anything about this food?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Goodbye then.¡± Examining the food had only taken 10 minutes¡­ I still have another 50 minutes to mess with this food before people start waking up¡­ I''ve got an idea on how to drain the water from it. I head outside the castle mimic, grabbing a hundred pound chunk of the basilisk. It is a good portion of the basilisk we have remaining (a days worth). I need this much for experimenting. I lay the slab of meat on a plate and start cutting it into small thin pieces. I expect that even with the loss of water, the meat to shrink that much. I cut the 6 inch thick slab of meat into 1 inch thick 6 inch long pieces. Laying them across a slab to heat them from the sun. I also have a light fire going underneath to keep an even higher temperature¡­ I don''t want to cook it too fast, just cook the water out of it slowly. I hope this doesn''t spoil the meat¡­ I won''t be able to check on this for a long time. So I tell one of the now awake demon tribe to watch it. I take the 50 pounds of meat back into the kitchen. Everyone should be awake now. I want to spar with both of my sensei before I ask for them if they wish to come to my war strategy meeting. Heading inside the ninja village. I start to get weird looks, like I''m someone they''ve never seen before¡­ Then I remember I look far older than I did a few days ago to most people. I ignore it for now and continue to head to the shogun''s room. Leaf rushes up behind me and punches me once she catches up. ¡°You should have woke me up!¡± ¡°Sorry you looked so cute sleeping I couldn''t bring myself to disturb you.¡± She punches me again before we proceed to the shogun''s. I try to grab her hand and she lets me... This is a good first step. I also want to see how strong Leaf had gotten. She primarily focused on the shogun as a teacher. She visited the old man with me but after he creeped her out she quickly left. He did his normal ¡°I''m a crazy person!¡± act and it was enough for her to not want to learn from him. I enter the shoguns room. He puts his book down and talks to me. ¡°Ah, I wasn''t expecting guests so early. What might you¡­ Wait¡­ What!?¡± He gets up and inspects me far closer. Looking at me he pricks me with a needle. ¡°Hmm¡­ It doesn''t seem that you are an illusionary skill¡­ So you must be the real Kite¡­ What happened to you?¡± ¡°I grew up a bit.¡± I only smile, being as vague as possible as I enjoy the sight of watching this old man be flustered¡­ He proceeds to speak. ¡°Alright¡­ I''m guessing you''re here to practice? Does that new look come with new talent?¡± ¡°It does. Please don''t hold back sensei. I need to know where I stand against a true master now.¡± ¡°Take your stance then.¡± I stand there, arms at my side. Legs slightly separated, it almost looks like I don''t have a stance. He questions me. ¡°Is that your stance¡­ I see far too many holes in your defenses¡­ Are you sure you don''t want to take a proper stance?¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Yes¡­ This is my stance.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Don''t complain if you''re throw on your ass like always then.¡± I only get a tiny laugh before he starts inching forward. I immediately focus ten fold of what I was. I start edging closer to him as well. Tiny, almost baby steps where I move my first foot a few inches. Then move my second foot to the same distance. We are nearly in range¡­ He doesn''t make another movement, he is waiting for me to attack¡­ I guess it is time to see if my new fighting style is worth anything. I put both my hands out. I''m still not in range to hit him, my hands are about 2-3 feet from him now. He normally would have attempted to grapple me, I have a feeling my new style is throwing him off. I fall forwards using my hands as a springboard I kick upwards at him with my feet. He barely dodges backwards, the attack was to push through him so my spring attack shot me above him. The forward momentum carrying me as I do a flip. I expected the backwards retreat. The momentum pushed me right above him. He definitely looked shocked. I swing a fist at him but he pushes it downwards. Yet another expected attack, I continue to swing my body to move in the forwards motion. Normally this would be where I''m at my weakest¡­ Not quite. I continue my momentum down with an ax kick. He must have guessed my next attack because he had his hands up to block instead of trying to counter. My first hit lands against both his arms as he guarded but I have two feet. I swing down another ax kick with my other leg, I break his guard. This is the first time I''ve broken the shoguns guard. I had gotten a lucky throw on him but he immediately recovered mid air. This time I''ve intentionally pushed through his defenses. If only for a second that means I''ve come further in my fighting. I''m still fighting him though. As haven''t landed on my feet yet as he pushes forwards to counter. I clap my hands right in front of his face. Stunning him for only a half second but it is enough for me to land and jump backwards. I count that as a win for me. His hands must hurt like hell. He should have noticed my new shoes. I made a special pair of shoes for using in combat, each covered in the remaining Darkclaw''s feathers. They are cushioned against piercing and blunt damage so I can use them to block as well. I retake my stance¡­ His stance changes¡­ He drops the aikido stance, dropping to a stance I''ve never seen before. I call out. ¡°Hey now¡­ If you want to teach me another style I''m game but I haven''t seen this before. Am I that much of a threat?¡± ¡°Safe to say you aren''t the same person. I barely blocked that so you get to move up to the next level of training.¡± His feet were almost touching before. Very close together, now they''re separated. His hands which were down by his sides before are now up in front of him. This stance looks far more attack based than the last. He looks like a different person now. I take my stance again, almost like a nonexistent stance. Should I remove my training weights? No this is only practice, I will only take them off if I feel my life is threatened. We both start slowly edging towards the other. The pretense that we were on the same level is gone. I know for a fact that once I get into range he is going to destroy me like always. This is all part of getting stronger though. I''m alm-. He moves lightning fast, he is already underneath me. Grabbing my pant leg he pulls my leg forwards pushing my leg up, I''m going to do a crescent kick from underneath before he tosses me with my other leg. Or so I think, he launches me backwards. I do several flips through the air before he jumps at me, slamming me in the stomach with both his feet. I immediately expel all the food in my stomach. I still have so much farther to go. I catch my breath, before finally speaking. ¡°How¡­ How much were you holding back in the beginning?¡± ¡°I was fighting at 20% of my full power. That was 100%, you were getting too arrogant so I had to knock you down a peg before you fight the transmutation master¡­ If you show up acting like that, he would most likely have killed you or done you permanent harm for being so arrogant.¡± ¡°Fuck! I thought¡­ I thought I was so much stronger than before... These old men are too strong to compare myself with still... I am still just their student.¡± ¡°You are that much stronger. That is why I decided to not hold back anymore. If I didn''t hold back before, I would have killed you.¡± ¡°Well that makes me feel a little better¡­ Compared to Nami¡­ Where do I stand?¡± He pulls on his goatee a little¡­ Most of the old murine folk have old goatees. Perhaps it is a cultural thing? He responds. ¡°Hmm¡­ If you went all out¡­ And she didn''t take you seriously¡­ You could beat her¡­ If she realized how much stronger you had gotten¡­ Maybe she could fight evenly with you¡­ If you were to fight with weapons, I doubt she would stand a chance now¡­ But fighting bare handed it would be close.¡± ¡°That''s good to know¡­ I feel bad for her then.¡± ¡°Oh? Why is that?¡± ¡°Because, two of her students are going to give her some trouble today.¡± ¡°Haha, I would like to see that. It will be a good experience for her.¡± ¡°Speaking of which¡­ Can I get like... 12 more animal contracts?¡± ¡°Hahaha, I don''t understand you. You realize how much work goes into making the scrolls? You''re asking for years of work, work you have no idea how hard they are to make.¡± ¡°Can you show me, or at least go through the methods involved in making them? I might be able to start making them myself if you teach me. I could possibly find easier and faster methods of making them as well.¡± ¡°...That isn''t a bad idea.¡± Chapter 113 Breaking through limits Leon''s point of view We''re going to fight against Nami for the first time in over a year. I doubt we still stand a chance. She''s been doing this for years already. To catch up in a single year is even foolish to think so... Maybe... We will have to see. I still want to see how much further we''ve gotten. She pairs off against the first person. It is Brick, Brick is very strong¡­ He just can''t fight against people. He was the most likely to beat her if he could get over that hurdle. She beats him¡­ It takes slightly longer, he puts up more of a fight because of the 2 weeks of training¡­ Next is Lance¡­ I start to get slightly excited by this. It is like watching two juggernauts pair off. The set-up across from each other¡­ Lance takes his new stance which Nami questions¡­ After stating he made his own style and Nami questioning it thoroughly they finally square off. Nami takes the normal karate stance. Lance takes one of his own design. Similar to Kite''s unique style, the main difference is his hands¡­ Both are clenched as tight as possible and in front of his face, eye level. He has a huge hunch in his back. Leaning heavily forwards with his legs almost bowed to a 90 degree angle. He waits for Nami to get closer¡­ She seems beyond guarded compared to normal. Where she rushes in to fight¡­ I think she knows that he is stronger than before¡­ The tension right now is crazy. She breaks the tension, rushing towards Lance¡­ Big mistake, she gets into Lances kill range¡­ This is going to be bad. Lance pushes off the ground with enough force to almost leave crack marks where his feet were. Shooting at Nami like a cannon, WHAM! Right through all her defenses¡­ Nami is knocked flat for the first time since we''ve started¡­ Unconscious¡­ Nami has been defeated! The entire room goes silent¡­ I can''t believe this myself¡­ I knew Lance was strong but¡­ To beat someone we had been struggling to beat a year ago in a single hit¡­ How fucking strong are these awakened classes!? His new style also takes advantage of his classes, heavily reliant on his dragoons jumping capacity¡­ Methodis rushes over and starts healing her. Someone runs over to a bucket of water Nami had started using to wake us up after we had been knocked out¡­ She wakes up beyond confused. This is the first time anyone has landed a solid hit, let alone a knockout punch¡­ She tries to get up but immediately falls back down on her ass from the physical trauma. Her body still shaking, trying to understand what happened to it¡­ That is the first time I had seen this attack from the outside where it wasn''t countered¡­ I can''t believe it worked¡­ If Kite could counter that punch¡­ And Nami couldn''t¡­ Doesn''t that mean? She stands up with the help of two people. She looks at Lance before saying. ¡°What the hell happened to you? You suddenly look older and you fight as if that much time has passed with you practicing¡­ You''re not even the same person are you? You''re the little kids older brother aren''t you?¡± ¡°Nope. I just trained all day two days ago.¡± I laugh a little and she looks at me. Very thoroughly¡­ She speaks¡­ ¡°You¡­ Your muscle tone is different too¡­ You''re hair is longer¡­ You are also older aren''t you? Hell, even that giant over there has gotten stronger¡­ What are you people?¡± Lance answers her. ¡°We are members of an army. An army that gets stronger by the day. We have to in order to stay alive. We have an amazing general, one that gives us all these advantages¡­ If he wasn''t around I wouldn''t be here¡­ I would most likely be dead. We all would¡­ Kite is our leader for a reason. I am proof of that by how much stronger I am.¡± I see Trice turn away. Everyone else seems to be in agreement. I know he saved a lot of people here. People who would have died. He has helped us all¡­ Including myself, I guess the speech that saved me from¡­ Myself, was originally inspired by his speech. She has recovered completely for her loss¡­ I doubt I can beat her now that she is going to focus completely¡­ I should have fought before Lance. ¡°You''re next tough guy. We''ll see how much stronger you have gotten compared to your friends.¡± I step forward. I take the normal karate stance¡­ I haven''t really made my own style yet. She smirks somewhat seeing it¡­ I guess she expected¡­ More¡­ I start to feel defeated already. We start edging towards each other. She''s never been this guarded before. Lance must have flustered her completely. We get closer and closer, our hands are almost touching. She grabs my hand and pulls me closer, slamming her foot into my side. Damn it! Spinning my arm forcing me down¡­ I''m defeated, she looks almost disappointed. She begins to speak. ¡°I guess I was worried for nothing¡­ Next!¡± She calls for the next one¡­ I''m not happy with the outcome, I ask her. ¡°Can we fight again?¡± ¡°Well¡­ More people want to fight but if you want thrown down again I''m fine with that.¡± It is the same thing again. I ask for another attempt¡­ Then another¡­ Then another¡­ Then another. She starts to get mad. ¡°THIS IS THE LAST CHANCE! Nothing has been different since the first attempt. I get it, you''re stronger than you were but you can''t expect to be better than me by just going through the motions of training. I train everyday too, you can''t just beat me with practice! You need something more, something all your own, you can''t beat me with a style I''ve practiced for years.¡± She''s right... I¡­ I can''t be beaten again. An entire year wasted! I''ll throw everything into this next attack. I''ll sacrifice my body if I have to. We square off again, I can''t¡­ I WON''T BE BEATEN AGAIN! EVERYTHING! I''LL GIVE EVERYTHING TO BEAT HER! All of my power. I use everything! I have to push my body faster. I continue to move but¡­ She is still looking at where I was¡­ I move to the side of her, crouching down as low as I can. Mimicking Lance''s punch except close range. I''m going to throw spring loaded punch at her. She still hasn''t even flinched yet from me moving¡­ What is wrong here? Is she waiting for me to attack? I don''t care anymore! I need this attack to land or I''ll go back into the fucking tree for another year to beat her! WHAM! The attack connects! What!? Why didn''t she dodge it? She doesn''t even react to it¡­ Only a moment later¡­ She finally reacts to the strike. I beat her! She falls down, I instinctively go to jump but my body crumples into a mass of pain. It feels like my arms and legs are broken. I start to feel blood come out of my eyes, mouth, nose and ears. What did I just do to myself¡­ Lance yells out. ¡°Quickly heal them both! What just happened?¡± I barely hear him, the blood coming out of my ears had dampened my hearing. He shouted, it sounded like I was underwater. We both get healed¡­ I''m still in bad shape and she is unconscious¡­ How hard did I just hit her? Lance looks at me then says. ¡°What did you just do?! You were there one second than by her side with her flying into the air the next¡­ You moved so fast you left an after image of yourself where you were¡­ Why are you so hurt from your own attack?¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ I think that is what I did¡­ I just couldn''t lose to her again. I need to keep getting stronger.¡±
Title acquired At any cost- willing to sacrifice yourself to win a fight that you would have been impossible to win
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Secret skill gained Sacrifice attack- Sacrifice your body to gain temporary powers
Would you like to learn Champion?
Warning! You will lose several classes by doing so
Kite''s point of view ¡°The paper is a specially made paper that only a transmutation master can make. Which we only have one of right now, the apprentices learning it were killed in the pirate attack. It takes weeks of work to enchant a single sheet of paper with the beginning level of the contract. The ink is also very expensive and hard to get, coming from squids caught off the shores. Farming them and making them produce it, then we have to cook it in a pot to boil the water out. We used to use charcoal and still do when we run out of ink¡­ Ink just works better for making contracts. There is less chance of ruining the contract with ink over charcoal. The process for getting it is just long and tedious.¡± ¡°That doesn''t seem so bad¡­ You said it takes a year though. What other steps does it take?¡± ¡°Follow me.¡± He leads me outside¡­ To the middle area of the castle, the area is a garden like area. I see holes dug¡­ What is this about? The shogun speaks. ¡°This next process requires them to be buried for an entire year for them to be infused with the mana of nature. Each animal is part of nature so the nature mana. Any other mana doesn''t work for the contract. It is essentially like growing a plant. This process takes an entire year and there is no method to speed it up. This is the reason why we can''t just give away all the contracts you need.¡± ¡°...Can I try something?¡± ¡°I suppose¡­ Just keep it to a single contract for now. This batch is already 6 months through completion.¡± I move up to one of them¡­ I have this skill from nature mage that makes crops grow faster¡­ Perhaps it could speed up the process. I cast regrowth on the first one. It starts to grow, the top of the scroll is still visible. I look over at the shogun and he is visibly shaking. He yells out. ¡°WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?¡± ¡°I cast the nature mage skill that helps plants grow faster. Why?¡± ¡°That glow is the signal that the scroll is close to being done for the next step.¡± ¡°Well what is the next step then?¡± ¡°F-Follow me... I can''t believe you... Something so simple would work... If only we had nature mages to help...¡± He leads me inside again. Heading underneath the castle. We head to the basement where some of the scrolls are at the last stage of creation. The dirt is being brushed off them, they are doing some last minute touch ups to them. Finally applying the contract letters. This is another long process, one misspelled word can ruin the contract at this point. That is still a very strange way to make them. I look at the contract closer¡­ 100% chance to learn enchant when deconstructed¡­ I ask. ¡°Can I have just one more scroll?¡± ¡°Fine may I ask for what reason?¡± ¡°I''ll show you.¡± I pick up one of the scrolls and deconstruct it. Taking it apart in front of him, he yells out. ¡°What are you doing!?¡±
Spirit tree learned Enchant paper spirit contract learned Enchant paper spirit seal learned Extinct Enchant weapon ghostly spirit learned
¡°I just learned how to craft those spirit contracts¡­ Also spirit seals, I also learned how to enchant weapons with ghostly spirits¡­ Have you ever heard of that?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I have heard of some emperors in the past having floating weapons to protect them from danger¡­ The swords¡­ Aren''t very smart though, often fighting anything that tries to pass an area. Besides the owner of the swords¡­ They are also fairly easy to take out, a strong enough attack would down them for a few minutes. They tend to be quantity defenses over quality.¡± ¡°I wonder if I could give them commands¡­ Like return, so if they are thrown¡­ They''ll eventually return back to me.¡± ¡°¡­ I''m not sure. It sounds plausible. The only way to know for sure is to try.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I''ll get to work on making my own scrolls, thank you for your scroll. What would you like for payment?¡± ¡°Can you teach my students each one more class¡­ I''ll get on my hands and knees and beg if I have to. I am their ruler but also their mentor¡­ If that is what it takes I''m willing to grovel... I''ll do anything to give my people another chance at greatness.¡± ¡°Sensei¡­ Please don''t demean yourself. I would never ask you to beg. Just give me the chance to become allies with you. Also¡­ I think I can help with the production of these contracts if you wish.¡± ¡°Well. Besides teaching us the nature mage class, what else can you do?¡± I pull a bucket out of my void bag. Filling it up with my ink spray blue mage skill. As I do he looks on in amazement. I can easily fill this bucket to the brim. The amount that I noticed was barely a single vial per person. This will give each of them enough to finish a few more contracts. I''ll have to teach a few of the murine folk the blue mage so they can learn how to make this ink. Teaching a few the nature mage class to help ¡°grow¡± the scrolls faster¡­ I''m still not sure how that works completely... Maybe while I make my own scrolls, I''ll experiment. I''ll teach the bulk of the ninjas the monk class¡­ Maybe¡­ I''m not sure¡­ Perhaps teaching them classes they want would be better. I''ll decide when I go to teach them. Today I''m just too busy. I go to visit the old man next. Chapter 114 War meeting ¡°Hello sensei. I''ve come for my morning training, also to ask if you would like to sit in on a war meeting for the upcoming war.¡± ¡°Sure I''ll come to your meeting¡­ You look different¡­ Did you get a hair cut?¡± ¡°Hah¡­ Y-you could say that¡­ You didn''t notice I''m a lot taller now?¡± ¡°Are you? No you''re definitely the same person. You''re hair just looks different, so you must have changed it.¡± ¡°...Moving on, do you want to spar against me? I have to let you know that I''m slightly better than I was last time.¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll spar with you¡­ Let me stir this pot of alchemical ingredients. Very dangerous to eat or touch, stay back.¡± ...It is the same pot that he has used for everything else¡­ Maybe he is so crazy before he eats out of the same¡­ That isn''t what he says it is, I can smell it. It smells like a pot of food. He begins to pull out herbs and spices, adding them into the soup as if to prove my point. ¡°Alright, I''m done for now. Shall we begin?¡± We pair off like normal. Taking our stances¡­ He notices my new stance and comments on it. ¡°Oh, it looks like you''ve made your own style, I''ll use my own creation then too.¡± He takes an odd stance¡­ It is like he is dancing¡­ I can''t get a read on h-. WHACK! I get kicked in the head. FUCK! Knocked down immediately. I call out. ¡°Please just use your regular stance today. I need to test how much stronger I''ve gotten, if you want to use that style please go easy on me sensei.¡± ¡°Fine, I''ll slow down my movements by half.¡± Half of lightning fast is still really fast. He proceeds to destroy me with this odd style several times. I can''t get a read on his style. Every time I think I do, he switches his dancing style again. About an hour of this and I have given up on landing attacks and focused on defense. Trying to watch his style to learn it.
Dance fighting martial arts learned- (mastery level novice) Very little knowledge of the martial art itself, through luck you might be able to pull off a move
That is a very unique fighting style. He continues to dance as he mixes in attacks almost unnoticeable. While I think it isn''t a very strong style right now. It might mesh later once I acquire other skills/classes/jobs and other styles. He breaks both my arms and legs as a final ritual, saying. ¡°Wow. You''re bones are far thicker than they were before¡­ So you got a haircut and new bones then. That is what is different about you.¡± ¡°Sorry I''m leaving so early. I just have so many things to do, so I need ever second of the day to do everything.¡± ¡°Sure go, go. I''ll be fine¡­ WAIT!¡­ Will there be food at this meeting? I haven''t eaten in days!¡± ¡°Why don''t you eat that soup there?¡± ¡°Are you crazy!? That is almost poison. It would be very harmful to eat!¡± I move closer taking in another smell¡­ There is no way this is anything besides soup. I grab a ladle take a sip¡­ Yea, this is definitely soup. He yells out. ¡°AHHH! Are you a demon!? How can you eat that poisonous concoction!?¡± ¡°...Please just try a spoon full master.¡± He warily tries a sip. Then eats a mouthful of it. Then starts filling a bowl. ¡°Fool! Why did you tell me this was poisonous? This is clearly soup!¡± ¡°¡­ Please come to the meeting later sensei.¡± I head back to my base, getting around 20 people to help me. We move everything in front of the time tree I had pulled out to the barracks at the fortress. I tell them to go get every single person to get their new/repaired equipment. This way I can see the numbers of our army. I also need to see how many sets of gear need made before we go into battle. I tell them to get prepared then head outside and form up with their squad¡­ It takes 2 hours to do this¡­ If we were under attack, this amount of time could be the death of us. ¡°Alright, from now on keep the gear within range of you. Work on getting ready faster. It shouldn''t take 2 hours to get ready to fight. That is 2 hours the enemy could be killing your comrades, get it down to 30 minutes.¡± Someone from the crowd shouts. ¡°W-who are you exactly?¡± ¡°What? I''m Kite the leader of the army. Can''t you tell¡­ I aged myself forwards to be a better age to lead the army. This is what your leader looks like now, sorry for the confusion.¡± I start the head count¡­ The numbers are far more than I excepted. We haven''t been fighting, only continuously gaining more members through children being born. Some of the gnolls who were born after they had become part of my army are finally old enough to fight¡­ At least slightly enough, they''ll be prime age in another year or 2 so they are fledgling fighters right now. I count out each group.
6 pets (discluding Darkclaw as a raid boss) 20 generals 100 gnoll beast riders (80 wolves 60 griffins 60 porcupines 20 bats 20 spiders) 130 demon tribe spellthieves 50 mixed race tank/healers 400 automatons (150 archers 150 tanks 100 mages) 120 kobold mages 10 elementalists 200 lizard men barbarians 3 raid boss equivalent troops (Rock, Troll, Darkclaw) Potential allies (ninjas, vikings, bugbears)
¡­ I didn''t expect to get this close to 1000 troops. If you include the beast rider pets, we''re over 1250 troops. We have about 500-600 non combatants on our side as well. I was giving myself an edge in numbers by rounding to 1000 for my averages¡­ To make the 5000 pirates numbers seem smaller¡­ To think that we have over 1000 troops¡­ That is without the help of any other army, if we can gain the murine folk that is another 60-80 very strong troops to the army¡­ We''re still heavily outnumbered, my troops have every advantage I could have given them though. I give a speech since I''ve brought them all together, might as well. ¡°My men! I have brought you all together for one purpose. To fight against the pirates¡­ I know we''re outnumbered, I know some of us will die. Our deaths will not be in vain, we will free the ocean by doing this. Freeing all the islands they''ve had a grasp on for almost 100 years now. By doing this, we also have guaranteed safety of the ocean from then on. We save the city of Shienta and block off the chances of being attacked from our backs once the war with the north starts. This battle will be crucial. So we have to win¡­ WE MUST WIN! AT ALL COSTS WE MUST DEFEAT THEM!¡± A roar bursts over the troops. Screaming and cheering¡­ That wasn''t too bad for my first speech¡­ Perhaps I should practice them in the future and pre-write them instead of doing it impromptu. I yell out. ¡°Everyone pair off, this will be a day where you practice your heart out. Train until you fall over from fatigue then get your fill of food. This is the last peaceful day we will have. Tomorrow we are entering enemy territory!¡± Another, much shorter cheer proceeds. As the giant army looking towards me has started pairing off to practice. We''ve never done a large scale training exercise like this before. If I had more time, I would have liked to have a mock battle so they could get used to fighting together. Well¡­ I just made the chefs job much harder¡­ Speaking of food. I head to check on the meat I had been¡­ Where is it!? It should be right here cooking. I yell out. ¡°Does anyone know where the meat I was cooking here went!?¡± A small boy from the demon tribe approaches me. ¡°Y-yea, some man told my papa to watch the food. But he said the speed at which it was cooking was too low and took it to the cafeteria to serve for breakfast.¡± ...Damn it¡­ Why didn''t he listen to me?¡­ He probably didn''t realize I was the leader of the army. I grab another 50 pound chunk of basilisk meat and yell. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.¡°If anyone messes with this meat they will be punished.¡± I restart cooking this meat¡­ I really wish he hadn''t have wasted it, this would have made the perfect meal for a war meeting¡­ I guess I''ll just grab a few meals of rations for everyone. I''m gathering up the materials when Leon approaches me. What the hell happened to him. His body looks¡­ Paler, as if he lost a good portion of blood¡­ Did Nami do this!? ¡°Hey that was a good speech¡­ I learn a new awakened class, can you teach me more classes now?¡± ¡°We''re having a war meeting right now, as soon as it''s over I''ll have you teach me then teach you one of the components of the class.¡± ¡°No, teach me everything involved in the class or I wont teach you it.¡± ¡°That¡­ I will eventually but teaching a single part of the last awakened class to Lance almost knocked me unconscious with how much fatigue points it cost. To teach you all the classes attached to it will take a few days.¡± ¡°...All right. Let''s get this meeting over with then... I didn''t mean I wouldn''t teach you... It just sounded like you were trying to cheat me out of classes... Since you''re not, I have no problem teaching you.¡± I''ve already eaten but these rations are just going to be there in case someone is hungry. Everyone is already waiting. The shogun had been shown through, probably taking a tour of our fortress before heading here. He might have heard my speech to my men. I see the other expected guest, the old man is chewing on a piece of cloth... I have no idea where he got it from¡­ If I asked him about it, he would probably say. "This bread tastes funny" Nami is with them as well. I call out. ¡°Hey why was Leon so beat up? You didn''t take advantage of him because he had gotten stronger did you?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Why are you acting so familiar with m-. KITE!? WHAT THE DEATH GOD HAPPENED TO YOU!?¡± ¡°¡­ I got older. But seriously, what happened with Leon?¡± ¡°Why don''t you ask one of your generals¡­ I¡­ I don''t know what happened.¡± Lance steps forward. ¡°It¡­ It was like he teleported. He was standing there one moment, the next Nami was sent flying through the air. Leon had injured himself by using some type of¡­ The crazy attack almost killed the both of them.¡± ¡­ Was it related to his new awakened class?¡­ That attack sounds far to dangerous for me to want¡­ Perhaps even if I did learn it. It would never be used¡­ I still want to learn it if I can¡­ Just in case¡­ What am I thinking about right now, we have a meeting to discuss. ¡°Alright, I''ve brought you all here to talk about the first assault against the pirates. We''re going to attempt to do several things all at the same time, so I''ll split you into separate teams for the mission. The first team will be a stealth team involving everyone attempting to free the murine folk. We''ll use most of the heavy dexterity class generals to do this.¡± Nami interrupts. ¡°I would like to help with this mission. You can count on myself and 6 of my shinobi to help you with this.¡± ¡°Alright, You can take Leon, Nargzar and Fast with you. Each is a highly trained combatant, I vouch for their stealth capabilities¡­ I hate to do this but Nami will be the lead on this mission. Leon might be stronger if he sacrifices himself but you have experience leading your team of ninjas. Are you okay with this Leon?¡± ¡°Yea I''m totally fine, it is as you said she would be a better leader than me. I don''t like leading anyways.¡± ¡°Alright, the next group will be another stealth one involving everyone who can turn themselves into a smaller creature. We''re going to try and bypass several of their defenses and strike at the head of the pirates. This group will consist of the bulk of my pets and the only general with the druid class. Sock, Pokodo, Morpheus, Red and Swift. I would like to bring more but then we risk being caught up in fights and give our position away before we make it to the leader.¡± I look around the room. Everyone is focused intently on me now. Not a single ounce of fear shows in their eyes¡­ I hope they won''t notice the fear I have over this mission¡­ So many things can go wrong. I proceed to the next group. ¡°Lance, you and some of the more experienced ship controlling generals will start a hit and run attack against the pirates to draw out some of their ships. We''ll only send in 1-2 small ships so they wont attack with there full force. Even if they do, our ships can outpace them now. If you feel you are getting overwhelmed, just flee during that point. You won''t have the help of the black turtles or one of the black swords during this fight, so fight cautiously.¡± No one dares talk now. Leon had only talked because I asked him a question directly¡­ This calm expression with the undertones of determination is¡­ Strangely terrifying. Every one of these people are ready to die for this cause¡­ That is the terrifying part. I start to talk about the next group. ¡°Once the portion of ships leave that are going to attack. It will mean the majority of the pirates on stand bye have left the docks. At this point, we''ll start our sneak attack against the bulk of their ships with our black turtles who have remained hidden underwater this entire time. Shikki and Trice, this is on you. Try to destroy the bulk of their ships then retreat before your black turtles get sunk. This might be the most important mission, if we can''t sink enough ships we''ll be chased down and destroyed. They''ll be able to bring the bulk of their army to the ninja island and force a fight. If this happens we''ll surely lose the war defending them.¡± I look at them both, Shikki and Trice have the same look on their faces. One of having a mission they must succeed on accomplishing. I go to the next group. ¡°With the numbers split this would be the best time to assault a side of the cluster of islands with the bulk of our army. Overwhelming them on one of their shores as more of their men continuously rush in to try and stop you as this group mows them down¡­ This mission will be the bloodiest¡­ I don''t know which generals have the stomach for this, you''re the ones who are going to kill the largest number of people this day¡­ I would like a larger number of generals with this group so when things get too risky you can call for retreat faster.¡± We only have one more group to discuss. I need to tell my other men what to do who have their own missions as well after that. ¡°The last troop. This will be the air force. I''ll do some scouting beforehand and give you a target to attack Zergnar. We need to destroy their food supply. If we can starve them out of the will to fight we might be able to win this war in a single night. Zergnar¡­ This is another important mission, you must succeed at all costs. Each troop will be given a basket of corrosive poison to eat away the building and another basket of a liquid that catches fire easily or a torch. Use the corrosive poison to eat through the building then the liquid and torches to start a fire.¡± Zergnar tenses up. He has the most important mission to take, any misstep can end in a much longer, more drawn out war. I go over the two remaining members of this plan that are absolutely necessary for the plan to succeed. ¡°So, I left two of you out. Darkclaw and Purple¡­ Purple, you are to try and remain in flying distance of the biggest portion of generals. Everyone on the islands will be in your range to connect to. You can keep all my other generals besides Lance who is luring away the ships. You will keep me in contact with Shikki, Gargarz, Trice, Nami, Zergnar and Leaf. We should see if you can link us all together right now.¡± I feel us connect¡­ That is good, I was hoping Zergnar wouldn''t ruin our ability to be linked. Being linked with 6 people is hard for Purple to do, it also goes off the intelligence of the person I think. I say mentally. ¡°You can unlink us now Purple.¡± The final person needs to be given a command. ¡°Darkclaw¡­ You mission is to fly around and cause panic. Just the sight of a dragon would be enough to scare some men into panicking. Try to burn as many buildings as you can with your breath but don''t be too reckless. If they start attacking you, retreat back to the ships to help with them if they need it¡­ Now¡­ Does anyone have any questions?¡± ¡­ They don''t respond. I''ll work on the details of the plan next. Other than that, I consider this to be a successful war meeting. Chapter 115 Elemental battle It had taken another few hours to explain everything. All the remaining details. When the start each attack, when to retreat, which person is going where, which person is leading which troops. The process takes a while¡­ Not many people had met the old man yet so some of them had questions to ask. Some questions got normal responses¡­ Some didn''t¡­ Perhaps bringing a crazy person to the meeting was a bad idea. I finish that¡­ I have more time then. I thought I would but with Leon here, things are still going to be hard to finish everything I had planned for today. Leon races me to his room in the castle. All of my generals have two rooms. One in the mimic castle one at the fortress. If I gain more bases, they''ll get another room/house at the new location as well¡­ Like if we take over the pirate base. Leon is fast but I pride myself on being faster, plus he doesn''t have scout, the movement speed class. I beat him back to his room and wait at his door. We go inside and he teaches me champion over the next few hours.
Would you like to learn Champion?
Warning! you will lose other classes by doing so
I accept of course.
Awakened class Champion passive skill gained Champions talent- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them
Classes removed Fighter, Thief, Scout, Berserker, Bard
Class experience added to Champion
Champion level 1 to 75
Level 1 Champion passive skill Champions aura- Increases the dexterity of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with dexterity ballad)
Level 10 Champion passive skill Champions strike- Depending on the situation, will automatically use the best move for each situation (opportune strike, assassinate or flurry strikes)
Level 25 Champion passive skill Champions momentum- Increase your damage by your movement speed you are going when you attack
Level 50 Champion passive skill Calm during battle- Block out all unnecessary noises while fighting (helps keep focused and make important noises easier to hear)
...So Leon was able to learn this awakened class with only 2 classes involved¡­ Meaning it will take him three days to teach him the remaining classes involved¡­ What a weird array of classes mixed together. If I would have grouped them together, I would have thought all dexterity based classes. He''s gaining far more strength then he had before¡­ It seems the class suits his fighting style though. He already fought as if he was a berserker¡­ Perhaps the person determines the awakened class?¡­ I''m not sure¡­ More testing needs to be done to be sure. I teach him berserker¡­ I don''t understand why bard was added though¡­ It is nothing like the other classes. Perhaps it was added because of the champions aura. Once again it is a confusing choice. Bard doesn''t fit with any of the other classes... What purpose would bard being included be? The majority of my day is eaten up already¡­ I wanted to be further along in the process of being ready by today¡­ I guess this is just necessary in order to be ready. The ships will be setting out tomorrow. In that time, I''ll finish what needs to be done on the island. I would like to finish teaching Leon and the ninjas before we reach the enemies base. I still need to make more contract scrolls. I''ll start them tonight, with my enchanting station, I should be able to start 8 contract scrolls at once. Speeding up the process with regrowth and then using ink I produced to finish them. Still, I need to completely explore the island, some very strong pets could be found on it. Perhaps I will send Gobber in my stead to find them as I give him a break by watching his children. I want to experiment with the mana crystals Darkclaw found. Speaking of which. I still need to talk to him about the fact that Greed is inside him. It''s very clear that is what he is going to tell me. He knew exactly where a ship is with mana crystals and quotes Greed while saying that¡­ I''m actually happy to know Greed is still alive. I go talk to Darkclaw¡­ He''s¡­ Hard to find to say the least. Constantly in different locations keeping himself busy. Even more so now that he has Greed giving him directions. I want to find him today but if he is running around it will be far more difficult¡­ Perhaps, it would be best to come see him during nighttime, when I know he will be in my room. It is night time already. It will be another hour or two before it is time to sleep¡­ I could go check on my food. That is what I do. Heading to the outside area, I notice a fight has broken out near the exit of the fortress cave. It is between 1 elementalist against 8 of the demon tribe. Being outnumbered I jump between the group. I face the demon tribe who have clearl-. I get punched in the back of the head. Turning around I see Green¡­ I should have checked first, she is probably the one who started this fight. I start asking questions. ¡°What happened here? Why were you fighting?¡± ¡°We were talking about your speech and this chick just started throwing punches at us.¡± ¡°That isn''t what I heard. You were talking about the elementalists, how we''re the weakest group.¡± ¡°I-I didn''t say that. I said it was the smallest group. You only number a few, you wont be very useful on the battlefield.¡± I have to restrain Green. She is ready to kill this idiot. I have to stop it. ¡°Are you crazy? These elementalists are the crux of my plan. If things go badly during our first raid. We will have to rely on the elementalists the make fortified walls for protection. I''m not sure if you know this but the enemy is most likely going to have mana cannons. The ten elementalists are going to save hundreds of lives and might be the reason we win the war.¡± I can feel Green behind me. Almost fuming but what I''ve said has calmed her down¡­ Enough to not try and kill these few demon tribe member. I have to nip this in the bud now. ¡°Listen, I get it, you''re tribes fought against each other. Settle this now, because your lives will be in each others hands once the battle starts. If you can''t trust the elementalist to make a wall to hide behind. Or you can''t trust the demon tribe to keep you from being overwhelmed by the enemy numbers, you might as well not even fight.¡± Green understands the situation. She begins to speak. ¡°Fine¡­ I get it¡­ I still want these idiots to see how strong we elementalists are. I challenge all of you to a duel. Kite can watch it, I challenge all of you so it is fair.¡± The leader of the group speaks next. ¡°How is 8 against 1 fair? Pick 1 of us, we''ll more than happily fight against you.¡± I have to bud in¡­ ¡°If it was Epieoth, he could fight evenly with her¡­ You will need at least 5 to fight against her and stand a chance. If you want to win, I would take her up on her offer at 8 against 1.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ It doesn''t feel right teaming up against a girl though.¡± Green only smiles. A smile that has blood lust in it. I have to warn her again. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Green¡­ Don''t kill anyone please.¡± ¡°Hehehehe¡­ I wont. They''ll wish I did though.¡± We head outside, after Green suggesting they form a circle around her. They agreed to have the 8 facing her from the same direction¡­ This is going to get messy, no weapons but Green doesn''t need weapons to be deadly. It begins, each rushing forwards, towards her. None of that, 1 at a time bullshit. She picks up a rock from the ground and smacks one in the gut. Knocking him down with a single hit. The rock hit him so hard it broke on impact, thankfully she didn''t aim for his head or she could have killed him. After they pass, I run over to him and cast a quick heal on him. Just in case he had any internal injuries, I cast renew on him as well. Already down to 5 against 1. In the process of healing this person she had already knocked two more out¡­ It is an awful sight to see. One of their bones pokes through his arm, the other had been knocked unconscious as well. They finally backed off and started to circle around her. If they had done that from the start they could have won¡­ Each rush her when they think she wont be able to attack them. Each is proven wrong by a swift punch or kick. Some barely touching, other attacks sending them flying¡­ Green is a very aggressive fighter¡­ I decide then to try to teach her true elementalist. The fight ended with Green standing over the bruised beaten demon tribe. I hope that calmed Green down some. I have to ask her while I''m healing the injured. ¡°Green¡­ I unlocked the true elementalist class recently¡­ Do you want to try and learn it¡­ I''m not sure if you will be able to though. So don''t get upset.¡± She is breathing heavily, I am still making sure each person is okay. Throwing them a heal and renew to make sure they don''t die. One of their arms was broken badly in the attack. I hope he passed out before the pain had gotten to be too great¡­ She answers me. ¡°Isn''t that an oxymoron. Wouldn''t that make every other elementalist a false elementalist then?¡± ¡°I guess¡­ This class is the awakened version giving you a far bigger range of spells.¡± ¡°...I guess I can try to learn¡­ Why did you come to me instead of Brick?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I have a theory that learning is also determined by motivation. Brick''s motivation isn''t to get stronger, it is to honor his ancestors¡­ I have a feeling that someone who is trying to avenge their people would have a better chance at learning than him.¡± ¡°Sure¡­ Can you teach me after fighting¡­ I''ve actually never seen you fight before and want to see if you are even worth following...¡± ¡°Sure. Do you want to have an elemental battle instead? To see how much stronger you could be if you were a true elementalist?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ That doesn''t sound so bad. If I know what the class looks like, I might be able to learn it easier.¡± We move the unconscious bodies out of the training circle¡­ This battlefield is about to become a scarred mess by elemental attacks¡­ Green''s main focus was water¡­ So I should try to avoid using that as she could turn it against me. I start the fight by conjuring a tornado. It takes a few minutes to be big enough to be a threat to a single person though. Even longer against a group of opponents. Green is already rushing towards me. Closing the distance to attack with a jet stream most likely. She slows down¡­ Almost coming to a stop once she sees my tornado. Almost looking at it as if it was a work of art. A few seconds pass before she remembers we''re in the middle of a fight. Launching a water attack. I levitate myself. Floating above the water she just attacked me with, kicking off of the water is enough to keep me in the air. Staying focused on the tornado. It is now about the size of a person, not big enough to do anything still. She moves her attack over and destroys the tornado¡­ This attack is almost useless unless I have time and help to prepare it. I begin to make the ground far less safe to walk on Covering it with quagmires and spike traps. I would have liked to use an ice slick instead of a quagmire, but that would involve an ice breath attack. I almost float over the traps, kicking off the mud is enough to keep me floating for a few feet as we meet in the middle of a quagmire. Her legs are sunk down in the mud up to her knees. I prepare my leg and fling an air blade towards her. She blocks but it was still very shocking for her. It came out too quick for most people to block. She isn''t most people. I''ve picked my generals for a reason. Picking her because of her keen instincts for fighting. She yells out. "You''re going to fucking pay for that. I''m going to bury you up to your head in this mud pit for getting my fucking pants dirty." She uses elementalist to make a rock push her out of the quagmire. Making more foot holds to use as stepping stones to make it to me. We start to engage in a melee fight. She takes a very loose karate stance before coming into range. Against the 8 demon tribe, she didn''t even bother. I guess she views me as more of a threat then them. I still have the advantage of terrain, almost floating over the quagmire. It takes a lot of focus to keep myself up with control blood and levitate. I should have taken my weights off before starting this fight. She makes a wild kick at me. What an obv- kicking mud into my face. SHIT! I jump up into the air but she catches my foot. I quagmired the entire area. She slams me down, but the blow is cushioned by the mud. She jumps into the air. Even being weighted down with mud. With no real foot hold to kick off, she jumped 3 feet above me. I wind wall right above me. Pushing her and myself up, I punch her in her back 10 times before grabbing her and hardening the ground. I deactivate my levitate and wind wall. If I was going for a kill I would have turned the ground into a spike trap. I give myself a downwards direction wind. Pulling my body down with control blood I slam her into the ground. The impact is so heavy that even with the ground solid again she is sunk 2 inches inside the ground. 10% health left¡­ Will she su-. ¡°I surrender¡­ You''re just too strong to fight against. You also fight like no one I''ve ever seen before¡­ I doubt I can beat you¡­ Even so¡­ EVEN SO, I''M PISSED THAT I LOST!¡± She had barely landed an attack against me. Even with the surprise attack against me, I barely had any difficulty beating her¡­ These awakened classes are beyond strong. I hope she can learn it¡­ It might not be the best idea to if she can''t control her anger against allies¡­ I''ll take that risk, she will save more lives than she will take, even if she kills a few of our own men. ¡°Alright, so I''m going to try and teach you now. Remember to try and learn it, think of something to motivate yourself¡­ Like fighting against the north¡­ The men who had taken advantage of your tribe. Think of revenge against them.¡± She has both her fists clenched. She is visibly shaking with her thoughts¡­ She still only has 2 of the 5 component classes¡­ Even with all this preparation she might not be able to learn this class¡­ I start teaching her. 2 hours pass with nothing¡­ I''m going to teach another hour then give up¡­ ¡°Alright, so I''m going to go over each component class for you to learn it more. Perhaps if you understand the basics of each one it will help you learn the true elementalist easier. True elementalist is the combination of 5 classes. Elementalist, nature mage, aqua mage, fire mage and wind mage. You have elementalist and aqua mage so those two don''t need explained¡­ Brick has nature mage, you''ve fought him enough to understand that class. Fire mage would be next.¡± I go over fire mage. It takes around 30 minutes before she says. ¡°I learned fire mage. Now what?¡± ¡°Wait¡­ Did you break through to your 4th class?¡± ¡°Yea. A bunch of us did when we were inside the tree. I thought you knew that and were trying to teach me a rare class instead of this basic one.¡± ¡°¡­ SHIT! Well¡­ Now that you have fire mage, it might be easier to learn true elementalist.¡± I go over wind mage next. Then try explaining true elementalist again¡­ It is now late to the point where everyone else is most likely sleeping. It is getting late¡­ I''m about to give up when she finally learns it¡­ I think she learned it at least. I pass out from teaching her. Chapter 116 More preparation I wake up in my room¡­ I had slept for 12 hours¡­ Shit, so if I pass out from exhaustion, I have to sleep for far longer than I normally do. I only need 4 hours of sleep every night¡­ Losing 8 hours on such an important day is going to be bad. Green must have brought me to my room¡­ Or left me outside and someone else brought me here¡­ With her, it is hard to tell. Alright, I have to make sure everything is ready for our launch towards the pirate fortress. I head through my portal scroll and onto the ships¡­ Someone had set sail already¡­ It must have been Lance taking leadership because I had been knocked unconscious¡­ Thankfully, I have so many good generals who can replace if the worst happens¡­ I don''t want to think about that but if it does happen. These troops have good leaders besides me. With everything running smoothly¡­ Shit! Did they remember to leave a portal there? That would be a problem if they didn''t. I fly to Lance and ask him. He did¡­ Alright, so that is good¡­ I¡­ I still need to teach Leon today. Perhaps it would be better to teach all the ninjas¡­ I''ll wait, they wont be going into this first battle. If I teach both Green and Leon, I might pass out again¡­ It is worth the risk though, the time it will take to get to the pirate base is around a week. I teach Leon scout¡­ I still don''t understand the reason bard was added¡­ Perhaps I will find out why eventually. I check my fatigue points, I''m at about 55%¡­ Hopefully I''ll have 10% left after teaching Green¡­ I doubt it though. I head to find Green. Teaching her nature mage¡­ I check my fatigue points again and I''m at 12%¡­ That''s good, I still have things to do today. I head to find Darkclaw. He has flown away, searching for gold/sunken ships elsewhere. That seems very dangerous. Even with Greed''s help, he could lose track of us and drown trying to find us¡­ I''ll try to warn him to not fly too far away once he returns. There isn''t much I can do without a high amount of fatigue points. I head back to the fortress and start making the contract scrolls more. I still need to talk with Darkclaw but it can wait. I already know what he is going to say. I taught my team of enchanters the ability to make the contract scrolls. I have many questions about these scrolls. The murine folk were only using them one way. I wonder if someone without the ninja class can make a contract¡­ What would the benefits be at that point? It might be a good idea to have some of my generals try it out. Even a single skill would be helpful, at the cost of the contract though, it might not be worth it. Altogether about 50 scrolls are being made right now. I had made more enchanting stations, each allows for 8 scrolls to be made by each person. It will still take 2 weeks of enchanting to make them. Equivalent to the work of making 8 rares, these will be the only scrolls I''ll have made until I can do more experimenting. Speaking of experimenting. I had planned to make another longer/stronger knife cannon for me to use. Something like the launcher except with a smaller projectile, making it easier to carry. This will be the prototype for the creation of many similar versions. Each of my generals will end up with a different variant of this creation depending on their preferences. But having a base model to mass produce for my army is a good idea. I start working on that in my down time. I get a few sheets of steel. All the other guns I''ve used have been either iron sheeting or an iron tube that has been hollowed out. This will let me work with a bigger length barrel. Sort of the same depth as Epieoths scytherifle but all the way through hollowed. Not stopping near the half way point of the stock. I fold metal into a tube and measure it against my knives cannon¡­ To compare it, the length is about three times as long. The sheet averages out to almost 5 feet. I''ll have to get the metal cut, then pounded into shape from the blacksmith, I doubt it will take more than a few hours. Oh shit! Since I''ve passed out, I was unable to check on my food that I put on the drying rack. If it has spoiled the meat, the entire area around it would stink from the process¡­ That was a huge amount of meat too. I head to the drying rack, some of the meat is still on the drying rack, a bigger portion is missing though. I call out. ¡°Hey what''s with this meat here?¡± An elderly male demon tribe steps forward. I didn''t even know demon tribe could grow beards but this old man has a very thick, white beard. Since Ashley has moved out, we''ve been looking for a new head chef, this is the person who has taken over that role since then. He steps forwards. ¡°Hey! That meat is off limits until Kite comes an¡­ WHAT!? KITE! What the death god happened to you!?¡± ¡°Heh, I got older. Sorry about scaring you old man.¡± ¡°The name is Gramps to you. Say, do you know who started cooking this meat here? It is a hit for most of the carnivorous troops.¡± ¡°Yea that was me. I was testing something.¡± ¡°Look, this meat is amazing. But if you''re going to take a 100 pound slab of meat, please ask okay. You screwed up the food plans for this week. We''ll have to have a vegetables only day now because of that. Do you know have many exclusively meat eaters you have in your army? A lot! But other than that¡­ What kind of cooking method are you using, I''ve never seen this slow cooking method used before.¡± ¡°I had thought of it because of one of the items the greater god had given me.¡± I pull out a ration and have him try it. He got the pork and gravy one instead but I wanted him to try the other things besides the meat. Once he tries the chocolate he devours it in a few bites. Then looks at me and says. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Hey this isn''t like super special right? I just ate this without thinking it might be the last one in existence.¡± ¡°No, I gave it to you to eat. I want your opinion on it. I''m going to try and recreate these meals in the future with food that can last a long time without being eaten. That meat I had made could last a year without spoiling.¡± ¡°A YEAR! WHAT!? I''ve never heard of food that lasted that long¡­ Well, that didn''t taste like ass anyways. So that cha-ko-late bar had an expiry date of over a year?¡± ¡°Yea, I don''t have the things it grows from though, so I''ll have to get creative in my methods of recreating it.¡± I pull out another few meals, each containing a different variety of food. Handing them to Gramps I tell him that, after eating them to write down ingredients that might mix to combine into that taste. Maybe this food will give him inspiration. I pull a chunk of the jerky off of the drying rack. Ripping it apart, it is as dry as the ones I had gotten from the greater god¡­ So it appears that this is how it is made, I wonder how long it takes to cook it like this though. I had left it going overnight, so it could be done in between 2 hours or almost an entire day. Would drying it longer make it more flavorful and expire later¡­ All of this is just things I need to test more. I head back to the boats¡­ If Darkclaw hasn''t returned yet, I will go looking for him. He has returned though. The only way possible is if he had someone who would know how to keep track of where the boats were going. Following the speed at which they were traveling. I don''t think Darkclaw could do that even after years of practice. I call out to him. ¡°Hey Darkclaw. I wanted to talk to you but I keep missing you.¡± He has a void satchel around his neck. He requested one to be made after he had returned from his last trip. Carrying the crate of mana crystals back almost 20 miles of flying was very difficult for him. His claws aren''t made for carrying things, their made for cutting into things. ¡°Y-yea master. Would you like to go somewhere to talk in private?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± We head into the captains cabin of this ship. It isn''t very good compared to my room at the fortress or castle mimic. The general of this boat has made it his home for now. Judging by the items inside it looks very tribal, some books lay on the floor¡­ I would guess Swift has taken up residence here. Darkclaw had to change into human form in order to fit into the room. He sits in silence for a minute¡­ Trying to think of what to say. I speak first because he is taking so long. ¡°Darkclaw¡­ Is Greed inside you?¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ How did yo-.¡± I cut him off with a hug¡­ I continue talking. ¡°I''m sorry Greed. I almost got you killed, I''m glad you are still alive. Still able to help me when I need it. To help Darkclaw when he needs it.¡± Darkclaw is flustered now. This might be the first time I''ve ever hugged Darkclaw in his human form. Back when he was a cute little hatchling, I would constantly play with him. With him getting bigger it keeps getting harder to keep track of him¡­ To keep track of all my pets. They all do their own thing now¡­ Perhaps it would be better to try and make time for them¡­ We all might not be here after this war. I let go of him and back up. Darkclaw looks embarrassed because of the hug. It makes me a little happy to see one of the strongest creatures in my army still be flustered so easily. ¡°Can you let Greed speak through you? Or is he like my Greed, the only possible way is if you give him access to it.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ It''s me Kite¡­ It''s Greed¡­ Long time no speak.¡± ¡°I hate to interrupt this moment but¡­ Can you tell me how to use these mana crystals? If I add them to the mana canisters, how long do they increase the power?¡± ¡°Not permanently. I would say about an hour. Just be careful when you mix them. If you add more than a single crystal to a mana canister, it will cause an explosion¡­ Chances are you would have more canisters close to you and¡­ Well you know where I''m going¡­ Lost a ship to that level of carelessness so be careful...¡± ¡°Understood¡­ Thankyou¡­ Have you been¡­ Back to her grave...¡± ¡°No¡­ I couldn''t look at it¡­ It still hurts to think about it. All these years, even going through 2 bodies and it still hurts me.¡± Greeds voice changes and he looks the other way. Darkclaw must have taken back his body. ¡°What are you talking about? I only thought you cared to make me stronger.¡± Silence fills the room. Greed is probably speaking internally to Darkclaw. Well¡­ I''ll just leave then. The speech was just a formality. Hopefully Greed wont lead Darkclaw down the wrong path. I still have an hour or two before my metal tube is ready to shape into a new weapon. I begin to talk Darkclaw who is now over his speech with Greed. He must have put it off until he is alone. I had wanted to give him this just in case. ¡°Here Darkclaw, this is a teleport scroll. There are only a few made so far. But with your adventurous attitude, you should take one just in case. I''d rather lose a portal scroll over you, this is to be used as a last option if you get lost.¡± ¡°Thank you master¡­ About Greed¡­ I''m sorry I didn''t tell you earlier but he said not to.¡± ¡°It''s fine Darkclaw¡­ I trust both of you. He must have wanted to keep himself hidden for some reason¡­ Most likely to see how far I''ve improved since we were combined.¡± It has been long enough for me to go check on how my pipes the blacksmith is working on are coming along. Chapter 117 The kidnapped ¡°Are the tubes ready?¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ We had some complications with the creation. A few of the tubes bent out of shape, making them useless¡­ We started being more careful after that.¡± The dwarf mother looked at me, one of her daughter was acting all fidgety behind her¡­ I''m going to make the guess it was her fault. I can only smile and say. ¡°It''s fine, I only need one for testing purposes. If you don''t mind, keep working on making a few more though. Especially you over there. You need to keep getting better so you can help your mom work.¡± The girl dwarf only nods¡­ As I walk passed her I give a little pat on her head. She gets all fidgety and runs away. I don''t think she likes me¡­ Maybe it is the opposite? Maybe she has a crush on me¡­ Each tube is a different size. I want to test if the size of the barrel effects the distance and power of the shot. If my last barrels were 1.5 foot long, the longest barrel is my 5 foot one. Around the same thickness, slightly bigger barrel diameter, triple the weight, more resilient to not exploding. Using steel over iron was a good idea, I don''t want more scars on my face. I''m going to try and make the usage system take both mana canisters and wind wall scrolls. Perhaps I''ll make a bigger, thicker version to use both at once. But using either ammunition instead of relying on one will help me not run out of ammo¡­ I would like to look into using a mana crystal as ammunition¡­ I''ll have to think about it more¡­ Perhaps if I ground it down into a powder, then mix it with charcoal powder and applied flare scroll wick to active¡­ More testing will need to be done so I don''t blow shrapnel into my face again. For now, I work on a single ammunition usage with interchangeable ammunition. I also want to add a removable butt so I can more accurately fire it. I add sights to it, making it more accurate. This item isn''t meant for multiple usages. If I design it good enough, It can replace the cross-bo-staffs the mages use. After working on it, I decided to put the removable butt on a hinge. This allowed me to easily remove the spent ammo, while adding in more than snapping the butt back into place. With this more effective reloading system then the one I had previously. I could increase my fire rate to around 10 shots per minute. If I tried really hard and aimed less I could get it to maybe 20 shots per minute, 10 shots per minute is a good average for people to hit though. The accuracy of this gun would transfer even to an inexperienced fighter. Allowing them to fire accurately after test firing a few times. 10 shots might not seem like much¡­ This weapon can be used by anyone, that is what makes it such a good weapon. Even children might be able to use smaller version of this weapon¡­ That is frightening to me. Besides my generals, it would be too time consuming to make ammunition for all my troops. Perhaps if I find a cheaper ammunition, they''ll all get one made eventually. I create the remaining guns for my generals. I still have to try the few ideas I thought up¡­ I would like a thicker barrel before I attempt mana crystal ammunition. I need to test the explosive properties of it compared to a mana canister. I grab one out and set a flare scroll trap on the ground next to it. Using control wind, I pick up the crystal and drop it on the trap. Setting it off, in comparison to a mana canister¡­ The explosion is about 5 times the size¡­ That is far too dangerous to use in the gun I had been using¡­ Very likely the tube could explode. So if I chop up a mana crystal, break it down into powder, mix it with charcoal and separate it into six like size piles. Then put it in a container¡­ It should theoretically work at around the same capacity as a mana canister¡­ Only at around 1/5 the size¡­ Perhaps I can make a smaller version of my weapon later after more testing. Satisfied with my results, I decide to name my new weapon. It is long¡­ Long like Epieoth''s weapon, perhaps a similar name would be good¡­ Kniferifle sounds good to me¡­ I can almost feel Trice laughing at my naming sense... Perhaps I''ll change the ammunition once I shrink the overall design. I''m done with my experimenting¡­ I still need to talk to Greed about how to make mana crystals. The sun had just started to set. Tomorrow is going to be yet another busy day. Green and Leon will learn the last classes they need¡­ I knock on Leaf''s door, heading in I don''t even talk to her. I just walk passed her, falling on the bed to sleep. Dead tired from teaching my generals and experimenting. I wake up the next morning¡­ On the floor again¡­ If me and Leaf do decide to become a couple. I might have to sleep in a different bed¡­ Or pad the floor around the bed. Leaf is sleeping at the edge of the bed now. On her side, one more roll and she would fall right off onto me. I head to Leon, he might be the only person up right now¡­ Leon¡­ Doesn''t get much sleep. Even inside the time tree, he would never be able to get a full nights rest¡­ I wish I could teach him the insomniac or early bird skills¡­ I''ve tried and it seems those are the very few ones that I can''t teach. He is outside training¡­ I teach Leon the bard class¡­ I still don''t understand why bard was taken. Maybe Leon would know. ¡°Hey¡­ Do you know why bard is included in this awakened class?¡± He continues to punch the dummy, giant dents and gashes are missing from it already. This dummy is made of hardened wood¡­ It is almost a tough as iron, to damage it that much¡­ He speaks after a few more punches. ¡°It¡­ That is one of Kattie''s classes¡­¡± I hadn''t even thought of that¡­ Just like Leaf. He must have secretly wanted this class to carry on her legacy¡­ I can''t believe¡­ All this analyzes and I haven''t thought of something so obvious. I feel like a fool for not realizing it. So the classes must be influenced, at least partially. I start working on some more theories¡­ I feel the amount of things I don''t understand is only going up and never going down. I head to Green''s room. Knocking on the door and heading inside, I teach her as quickly as possible. She is done with the awakened class. Now she only needs 2 classes to fill her open slots now. I can''t do that today. Today is going to be focused on maintaining the ships, making sure they are ready for the upcoming fight. That is all I do for the remainder of the day. The next day I go to talk with Leon and teach him the remaining class he needs. Awakened classes seem unfairly strong. Unlike normal classes, the awakened class normally gains six times the amount of skills as a normal class. For people who can only have 1-4 classes. That is a tremendous boost to abilities. Even though it has only been days of him learning it. I can already see improvements to Leon''s musculature. He decided to learn saboteur, a fairly good fit for him¡­ I wish I could have told him more about the skills after level 1¡­ He took the risk, very Leon like. I teach Green the berserker and barbarian¡­ By her choice¡­ I guess both of the generals learning from me right now are my 2 craziest generals. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Tomorrow I will teach the ninjas. The next day I plan to baby set of Gobber and let him explore the murines island for pets. Then 2 days of break, last minute preparation for the upcoming fight. I''ll fly away from the ships once we start to get closer to the fort. I still need to do some precursory scouting before the fight. I give myself a day of just that. Then the first large scale battle will start that night. Multiple things can go wrong with this plan¡­ I hope nothing goes wrong¡­ The next day I wake up. Heading through the portal I prepare to teach all the ninjas in the village. Nami gets them all prepared. The ages are far different then I thought they would be. Expecting them to all be of age¡­ Because murines age slower, there are far more children size murine folk mixed into the group¡­ What looks like a child anyways, if they look like they are only 7 they''re actually 35... Taking that into account. Chances are there are only 30-40 ready for battle ninjas. The rest will take years upon years to finally be ready¡­ Damn those pirates¡­ They killed off all the good older fighters when they attacked. I let them decide. Of course a few ask for things they would like to do. Nature mage to help with the production of the scrolls, monk because Nami had learned it and they are following in her footsteps. They pick far more varied classes then I thought they would. Everyone choosing the class that would best suit them ends with at least 1-3 people learning each class I can teach. I''m tired but¡­ Surprisingly not that tired. Teaching awakened classes is similar to teaching 50 students. So teaching 2 awakened classes had taken more out of me. I teach a few of the non combatant murine folk the transmutation, enchanting, alchemy and synthesis jobs. All in future hopes that this will make my troops stronger¡­ Speaking of which, I start to get a few questions as to why there aren''t more murine folk. Seeking Nami out as she left after getting me started. She is training as per usual¡­ It is already getting to be dusk, the entire day was spent teaching. As young as she is¡­ She might be one of the oldest ninja alive right now. She seems more¡­ Frustrated then normal. Her swings with the wooden training sword more violent, less precise. More sweat covers her, soaking through her fur. I didn''t make any attempt to hide myself but she hasn''t noticed me. Before, even approaching her from behind, she would still show signs that she knew I was there. Her ears would perk up and her stance would change slightly. I speak loudly far enough away to not scare her. ¡°Hey Nami. I have a question to ask you.¡± She stops swinging, putting her sword down and focuses on me more intently than normal. Most of our talks are with her continuing to train. With her stopping, it almost feels awkward. She grabs a piece of cloth and starts wiping sweat off herself. With how intently she is looking, I can tell she has something heavy on her mind. She speaks to me... ¡°What can I help you with?¡± ¡°I was just wondering. Why aren''t there more murine folk? If you live for so long, you would think that is a higher chance of having children. You would eventually have so many on the island you would need to move to a bigger one.¡± ¡°While we murine folk do give birth to multiple children at once. Think of how the birthing process would work for creatures that live 5 times longer than humans. The chances of getting pregnant are pushed to once every 5 months. The time it takes to carry children goes up as well. With the time increasing. The chances of miscarrying also increases¡­ If it happens to a human 1 out of 5 times¡­ It happens almost half of the time for us¡­ She starts to look far sadder. I can almost see tears in her eyes as her solemn face winces into a frown. Her bottom lip starts to quiver as she opens her mouth but doesn''t speak. She slams her hand off the sand covered ground, forcing herself to continue. "Then the children are babies for 5 times as long. Weak¡­ Defenseless babies¡­ That can be kidnapped and taken easily away from their homes. Some of the babies, mentally older than you but still completely defenseless...¡± Fear shoots through me¡­ I just realized something I didn''t see in this village. Children! The handful of children I saw were most likely born after the pirate attack¡­ That is who the hostages are¡­ SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! ¡°...Wow¡­ I''m sorry I asked¡­ I guess I''ll go and¡­ Leave you to your training...¡± I start to feel sick to my stomach at the thoughts going through my head. This complicates things beyond anything I had thought of. Not only did they steal children away. At that age, they would be far more likely to turn into future pirates¡­ I start to feel sick at the thought of them killing children if we miss calculate the plan even a little. We could also run into another Beatrice situation, where the children don''t want to be saved. It also sounded like maybe Nami had lost a child to the attack, or several children¡­ OH MY GOD OF LIFE! Before I can walk away she stops me. ¡°Kite¡­ Stop¡­ Can you help me¡­" She is now visibly shaking. Tears well in her eyes as she continues to speak. "Can you help me get stronger... I put in so much work to get stronger, no one could rival me on this island besides the old men. Then you come along and get so much stronger... It is as if you aren''t even the same person. Leon was so weak, he didn''t stand a chance against me. Then a week later he is strong enough to beat me with a single attack¡­ Please help me¡­¡± Tears pour down her sweat soaked face. She is someone I doubt has ever begged for anything. She has been pushed to the limits of what she can take. A scared mother trying to save her children and the future of her village. Forced into the role of the lead ninja because of the eradication of the ninjas who could fight back or make an attempt at rescuing the children 10 years ago. ¡°I-I''ll¡­ I''ll see what I can do.¡± I start to shake now¡­ This is getting too personal for me. The stakes have risen passed getting the ninjas as allies. I feel invested, the thing that happened to Greed could happen to someone else. And with me not being able to do anything to help¡­ I''ll make her stronger, so strong she is a monster before then. It seems Gobber is going to have to wait for his day off¡­ I just wish he could help me in this fight. I''ll have to convince Hilda to let him fight somehow... Chapter 118 Convincing Hilda ¡°Follow me.¡± Nami trails behind me. I think for a second¡­ Perhaps I should also get Gobber for this¡­ If he can miss a single day away from his children¡­ Today should be that day. Heading inside to get Gobber, I notice his children are far bigger than I remember them. Then I realize it has been a few weeks since I had last seen them. Compared to humans, they age incredibly fast. They look over a year older¡­ I laugh internally at the fact that everyone in this army keeps changing so fast. ¡°Morning Gobber¡­ Can I speak with you for a few moments?¡± ¡°Sure master¡­ What is this about?¡± ¡°Ah, you know how the war is coming up soon? Well, I would like for you to get some practice in before it starts... If you''re allowed to¡­ A single day is all you need.¡± ¡°I''ll have to-. Let me go speak with Hilda.¡± He heads over to Hilda, who was sitting in the corner of the room playing with a few of her children¡­ While he leaves I''m approached by 2 of his children¡­ I remember him saying something about one punching him in the face when he dropped his guard¡­ So I lower myself down to their level but am prepared to block any attacks thrown at me. I begin to speak in goblin to them. ¡°Hey. How''s it going you two. Having fun playing with your papa?¡± One hiding behind the other. The one out in front (the brave one) begins to speak. ¡°Are you¡­ Are you the hero from the stories uncle Kline tells us?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I''m not sure, can you tell me one of the stories.¡± ¡°Did you fart in a monsters face?¡± I let out a little laugh. What is Kline telling these children. ¡°I don''t remember perhaps there was something else about the story you could tell me?¡± ¡°Y-you turned into a dragon and breathed fire on it. Cooking it so you could serve it to us.¡± ¡°Ah, yea that sounds like me. Do you want to see me turn into a dragon?¡± Both of their eyes shoot wide open. They definitely wanted to see me turn, I call the other children over and tell them to back up a little. I could change into a dragon in here¡­ It would just be a little more cramped then places I normally change into. I change into my dragon form. The sight of me changing, most of them looked excited. Screaming as they had just seen something from one of their stories. One looked scared though. I immediately changed back into my human form. ¡°What''s the matter? Are you okay?¡± The little goblin was almost on the verge of tears from the sight of me¡­ Was she scared of me being a dragon. Crap. ¡°Little girl. You don''t have to worry about me when I''m a dragon, I only eat bad things like monsters. I would never eat a little girl like you.¡± That seems to calm her down a little bit. I have to ask before I leave¡­ If it would be okay to bring my pets here a few times a week to distract them. Gobber comes walking over. ¡°I¡­ I''m sorry master¡­ Hilda said she needs all the help she can get taking care of the kids¡­ She might fall over from exhaustion if I leave for an entire day...¡± ¡°...What if I brought my pets over to distract them while we trained? After the training I''ll even watch them for a day if you two want a break.¡± He goes back over and talks to her some more¡­ I''m going to get the kids on my side for this fight¡­ What an awful idea but I need Gobber for this fight¡­ Even with this long hiatus as my general, he is still very strong. One of my stronger generals still¡­ I need his help for this fight, he is strong enough that he might be able to shift the tides of battle¡­ Especially if I make him stronger. I talk very quietly to the children. ¡°Hey¡­ If I can borrow your father for a little while. I''ll let you play with my pets if you want. I have enough for one to each of you¡­¡± Wait¡­ With Morpheus gone, Darkclaw wouldn''t be able to fit in the door¡­ I would be short one¡­ DAMN! Who can I get to help¡­ I''m going to have to ask Neko for a favor. The children are all more than happy about the deal. Rushing over to their two parents to talk¡­ Hilda looks over at me with a look of. ¡°I hope you don''t think you''re getting away with this.¡± Yea I already know this is going to most likely backfire. Gobber comes walking over with a defeated look on his face. It seems my actions have gotten him in trouble. I feel bad but I do need him. Nami has been standing their quietly this entire time. Gobber speaks. ¡°Well¡­ I''m allowed to go with you¡­¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll go get my pets to help baby sit while we''re gone.¡± I send my five available pets. Darkclaw is probably out exploring, Purple was hard to find until I used the phrase booby trap to get him to show up. I had to track Neko down as well. Asking Purple where her thought patterns are. He sends me to my own room. She is sleeping on my bed, wearing someone elses loosely made clothing... Still in human form, I bonk her on the head to wake her up. ¡°What are you doing in my room?¡± ¡°I thought you could use some company tonight but got tired of waiting and fell asleep.¡± ¡°I''m good on company when I sleep in here. My pets all sleep in that bed... The pillow you are using is Sock''s. He''ll be able to track your scent now any time he wants to eat you.¡± Her tail frizzles up behind her. ¡°NO! Don''t let him eat me!¡± ¡°Alright but you have to do me a favor. Can you help baby sit my friends children?¡± ¡°I don''t really like kids¡­ If it is for you¡­ I''ll think about it.¡± ¡°I''ll give you something that will make you stronger if you do.¡± Her tail starts to wag back and forth. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°What is that!?¡± I pull out one of the vials of false soul stone¡­ I really want to test something once I get more but one vial wouldn''t hurt. ¡°Go ahead and drink this, I''ll be able to teach you another class once you do. Plus you''ll get a few other things with it.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± She starts to drink it then spits it out all over the bed¡­ Those are expensive! She puts her tongue out then says. ¡°Bitter.¡± At this very moment Nami and Gobber come walking into the room¡­ On my bed is a barely dressed female... Now sitting closely to a giant red mystery stain¡­ I speak to avoid any confusion. ¡°I know it''s bitter but the only way to get stronger is to drink it. Here, don''t spit this one out¡­ Actually, I can probably flavor it sweeter for you.¡± I pull out another vial of false soul stone. I pull out one of my meals and grab the chocolate bar. Crushing it up and mixing it into the vial. I breath a little fire to liquefy the chocolate before giving it a quick stir. Handing it to her she takes a sip at first. Realizing it is much tastier than before, she drinks the remaining false soul stone with no hesitation. I have to take care of this before the stain sets¡­ ¡°Gobber, can you take her to your room with the other pets while I clean up this mess¡­ Also Neko, please don''t wander into my room or Sock might eat you. I told him not too today but tomorrow¡­ Just be careful.¡± She shakes a little out of fear. I don''t dislike her but these misunderstandings could end badly if word gets back to Leaf. I wash the stain out with water from a flower pot in my room¡­ What a waste I think to myself as I take the blanket outside to dry. Nami following behind, she asks the obvious question. ¡°You didn''t¡­ Did you?¡± ¡°No. I tried to give her a false soul stone but she didn''t drink it because it was too bitter¡­ I wouldn''t either¡­¡± ¡°I''m not judging you if you did¡­ You can tell me the truth.¡± ¡°NO I DIDN''T!¡± I yell, flustered for the first in a long time that I''ve been embarrassed. Nami laughs jokingly at me, she was only teasing me¡­ I''ll get back at her for that. Hanging the blanket out to dry, we head back to Gobbers room¡­ I keep needing to do little things when I should be training. I need to get yellow mage and saboteur up to level 10. I need to try and help Gobber and Nami get stronger. Because of this, we''re going to use the time tree again¡­ I open the door and¡­ Each child has taken a liking to a different pet. All of them have paired off, even Neko who said she hates kids is getting along with hers. Smiling and drawing with a piece of charcoal¡­ I should really make them a painting set to practice with. Even a few basic colors would help them express themselves more¡­ Hilda is sulking in the corner. Obviously displeased I''m taking Gobber¡­ Honestly, the pets make much better baby setters than a single Gobber. The numbers match up so it is easier for each kid to get the attention they need. I get the attention of a gnoll and send them into Shienta to buy a gold worth of paint¡­ Thinking about the price¡­ It would be too much for him to carry, so I have him buy the amount he can carry worth of paint. We head inside the castle mimic¡­ I don''t think either of them has been inside here¡­ Gobber looks slightly impressed while Nami looks on in amazement¡­ Gobber has come to expect these fantastical things by this point. I would be surprised if he was surprised. We head over to the tree. Heading inside I explain the situation. I still have a few months worth of meals in my void bag being carried around¡­ I should have really reduced the weight of my equipment at some point. Flying with weights is an intense hassle. I explain the rules. 1 day inside is equivalent to 2 weeks in this room we''re going to be staying in. I explain the top floor is an entire year to one day and that is how Leon, Lance and I got so much stronger. Nami understands then says. ¡°What good would training 2 weeks in here do compared to training 2 weeks outside?¡± ¡°Good question. There is nothing to do in the tree so we''ll be forced to train no matter what. It gives me time to try and get you both stronger. We don''t have 2 weeks before the fight against the pirates¡­ I''ve put it off for too long, if I don''t do it soon... I feel I never will attack them.¡± Gobber looks a little scared by what I just said. I wonder if he is claustrophobic. ¡°I don''t know if I could be separated from my kids for that long. What if they get hurt?¡± ¡°Gobber¡­ We need to win this war at all costs¡­ Do you know what will happen if we don''t?¡± ¡°I¡­ Haven''t really thought about it.¡± ¡°On top of the heavy casualties we would have¡­ The first thing that happens is the pirates come to attack Shienta. Forcing us to leave the fortress. If we''re forced to move anywhere, some of us will die in the process of moving¡­ Everyone we know at Shienta will be dead. Humans have been kind to all the non-humans because we''ve been useful up until now. If we lose that right gets taken away. We might be attacked, separated, subjugated or straight up killed because of this...¡± We continue walking in silence¡­ There is more I could discuss but it becomes too graphic at that point. If we do lose¡­ Most of us will end up dead¡­ The pirates would most likely destroy the murine folk and lizard men villages while heading to Shienta and then burn the city to the ground as well. We would definitely lose the war against the north at that point. Fighting against the pirates... I highly doubt my group will go unpunished¡­ The lucky few that aren''t killed outright, would most likely be made into slaves. Without another word, with renewed focus on getting stronger. We all know we must get stronger. Chapter 119 Back into the tree ¡°Alright pair off you two¡­ I need to see how strong you are against each other¡­ Where you both stand in fighting capacity.¡± Gobber and Nami are ready to fight¡­ This fight is going to be interesting. Gobber''s strange equipment, Nami''s strange way of fighting. I watch intently, neither making any sudden movements. Both staring each other down. Nami has been made very clear of her inadequacies lately, Gobber out of practice¡­ This match is intense even without anything happening. Gobber slowly inches closer, Nami pulls out her belt of shurikens. Gobber doesn''t even budge, moving slowly closer inch by inch¡­ It is the same stance Sock had taken against me. Gobber doesn''t need any fancy tricks to be threatening, even though he has them. Nami throws a set of throwing stars. Gobber barely flinches, his basilisk plated gear reflecting most, his head poking out over his giant shield. Nami realizes this wont work against him. She begins to switch up her tactics. The same method she used against me. Going for sneak attacks, she throws a smoke bomb at Gobber, blocking his sight. Gobber once again doesn''t panic or rush, slowly moving himself out of the smoke. Nami makes a surprise attack against Gobber but once again he doesn''t flinch. Almost sensing it he pivots his body and blocks with his indestructible gauntlet. Her wooden sword breaks from the impact against it. She goes to jump backwards but Gobber doesn''t let her go without getting a swing in. She instinctively parries it, Gobber is still a predictable fighter. Even with that predictability, she might not be able to overwhelm him. They are within a very close range of each other. Nami pulls out her two handed training sword while dodging another attack by Gobber. Blocking, dodging, parrying each others attacks. They are both fighting somewhat evenly, Gobber may be predictable but he has an innate sense of tanking. He is getting pushed back slightly though, a few sword swings have nicked him. Not a single one of her attacks make it through his defenses completely¡­ Even so, Gobber is outmatched for this fight. Getting pushed back even though he is a tank. That is when something amazing happens. While Gobber had kept his attacks fairly standard, as the fight had gone on, he slowly kept adapting his style. Adding in new attacks, mimicking Nami''s style and even improving on it. The fight had started in Nami''s favor, then turned into a stalemate, it slowly edged towards one person. It is truly and amazing sight. Gobber is improving before my eyes. Nami knows this. ¡°What the fuck are you!?¡± ¡°I''ve missed this so much¡­ It feels like a drug¡­ The thrill of fighting¡­ Kite has brought me an amazing opponent to learn from.¡± ¡°How is that possible you learn this fast!?¡± ¡°I still don''t know myself. I''m just¡­ Better when I''m around him. But why are we talking, we''re in the middle of a fight!¡± Nami is being pushed back now. The fight was barely 20 minutes but Gobber has already improved past Nami. Every single move that had caught me off-guard, Gobber is shrugging off as if it doesn''t matter. A pepper bomb was thrown at him and he shattered it as she was throwing it. Knocking the pepper into her own eyes. Within the span of 21 minutes, Gobber had improved the amount it had taken me weeks of training to do. I don''t know if I could beat him... If he kept getting stronger like he did against Nami, he could very well beat me. Gobber had pinned Nami while her eyes were still teary from her own pepper bomb. What an amazing fight¡­ I''m blown away by how fast Gobber had learned. So was Nami, his improvement was so fast it was amazing to watch. I get goosebumps from watching the fight. What needed to be explained to me was learned through fighting by Gobber. Nami¡­ Actually looks happy to lose¡­ Or just happy that Gobber is on top of her¡­ Wait a second¡­ Now that I think about it. ¡°Nami¡­ Did you hold back?¡± ¡°N-no!¡± ¡°You held back because you like Gobber didn''t you!?¡± ¡°W-w-what are you saying!? Why would I do that!?¡± The white fur on her face slowly starts to almost glow pink from her blushing. It is really impressive for her to blush through her fur. I could totally get back at her for what she said about Neko¡­ But that is enough for now. ¡°Alright, I''ll give you a chance to prove how strong you are Nami. We both know you''ll go all out against me. I want to see how much stronger I''ve gotten but the few people I''ve fought against weren''t up to standard. You and Gobber can both fight against me.¡± ¡°Even if you''ve gotten so much stronger¡­ Even if you''re twice as strong as you were. I can tell that Gobber is stronger than me. I don''t think that you can fight against both of us.¡± ¡°I wont be alone¡­¡± I pull out Gear and start filling him with mana. The new improved Gear also needs to be tested. Gobber has already fought against him¡­ If I didn''t have him during our first fight, I doubt I would have lasted that long. I start taking the bracers off my arms. Placing them on the ground carefully as to not break them. Nami understood the new enemy but didn''t understand why I was taking off clothing. ¡°Go ahead and pick it up.¡± Nami moves over to the bracers I had just taken off. Attempting to pick it up then realizing something was different about it. Forcing her to try much harder to pick it up. ¡°Each weights 50 pounds.¡± I pull off 2 more from my legs. Finally removing the chest piece and back pack, each weighing another 50 pounds. Totaling 300, my body feels beyond light. I had weighed around 500 pounds with all that gear on. I go over the ground rules. ¡°Alright, so I''ll give you two an advantage. I won''t go dragon form during this fight. It would be too unfair to fly to the ceiling and breath fire down upon you. I also wouldn''t know how to hold back and this is only training. No reason to get burn scars from practice¡­ Besides that, everything goes. If you get knocked below 20% or rendered immobile you''re out of the fight. Are we clear? So don''t knock me out if you beat me. I''ll try to not knock either of you out.¡± Both nod, taking up a fighting position. Unlike normally, Nami is hiding behind Gobber at the start of the fight. She isn''t a fool to think she would be equals in defensive power as him. It makes far more sense to supplement his attacks with her own ranged attacks. Gear activates, I only added 10% of my mana to him. Enough to maybe last 1 hour, that is far more than I''ll need him for. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. He places the shields in front of me. I throw a gold coin up into the air. The second it hits is the signal for the fight to start. It lands, Gobber''s slow approach to Nami is not the same against me. Rushing in with his drill rapier. He activates it, rushing in with his stance changing like it had before. He''s trying to end this fight immediately. I yell out. ¡°Gear! Drill defense formation!¡± Gear''s shields start spinning like normal. All six catching Gobber''s rapier and slowing it down, then stopping it. I pull out my heirloom sword, making it as big as possible. Swinging at Gobber with one hand as Nami approaches my side. Throwing kunai knives at me from her other belt. Eight at a time, very quickly. I cast a wind wall between us blocking them but the distraction is enough for Gobber to jump backwards. Nami is now positioned behind me. This is normally when I would start panicking. I only smirk this time. Gobber must have noticed because he raised his guard. I''m not going to attack him. I yell out. ¡°Gear! Boost and detach formation!¡± The moment I said that his bottom two shields became his feet as I took off the straps attaching me to him. One of his hands reaches into the void satchel in his chest and grabs out a mana canister. He slams it into himself, the wood drinking it in, his eyes change from pure black holes to glowing blue. I''ve tested this method and it increases his stats by 50%. He is still facing Nami, I summon my 2 shadow clones and take off Aegis from my hand. Throwing him backwards at one of the shadow clones to catch, I turn back and charge towards Gobber. Everything else is charging towards Nami, she must think that because they aren''t me she''ll be able to skillfully fight against them¡­ She''s going to regret coming to that decision. I slow down my pace as I focus on my sensory map, it is more of a feeling than anything else. Once Gear is within 10 feet of Nami, I switch places with him using substitution. Nami lets out an audible ¡°Oh fu-.¡± Before she is attacked by all three of us. Aegis'' shadow clone is wearing the gauntlet version of himself. While he can lift himself with telekinesis, he cant really hurt anyone with himself yet. And if he was on my hand he would lose a lot of the visual aspects of attaching himself to his own shadow clone. It also lets him strike with the sword he is holding and the gauntlet now. Lust now has the shadow wings. The new perfect combination attack is going to be tested here. I charge at her and drop my sword. I throw as many claw attacks with numbing poison on the edges of them as I can. It isn''t enough she, blocks most of them or just backs up to avoid them, even blocking some of the shadow punches she wouldn''t need to. She didn''t know that though. Finally my two shadow clones catch up, Aegis sliding across the ground underneath Nami while Lust strikes from above. It is too much for Nami she is WHAM! I get hit in the back. I had numbed Nami enough to take her out but Gobber had picked up Gear and thrown him at me. One of Gear''s arms was broken, another was completely missing¡­ In the same time it had taken me to finish off Nami, Gobber had finished off the empowered Gear. He bought me enough time though. Now it is 3 against 1 for another 30 seconds. I need to take advantage of this time. I go to use another one of my new signature attacks I haven''t gotten to practice yet. Casting levitate and using blood control on myself as I pick up my heirloom sword again, running towards the closest wall. I kick off the wall, I had stolen this move from Lance. The main difference is mine is slightly weaker, needing several skills in combination while he only relies on his jumping ability. I can add a twist to this move though, literally. I start to build up spinning speed as I turn my own body around in circles. Soon going so fast everything turns into a blur. I slam into Gobber with my outstretched sword. Hitting his shield directly¡­ Cutting through it completely. It takes a moment to rebalance myself, this attack is both dangerous to the enemy and myself as it leaves me open to attacks. Gobber''s shield falls off his arm as I look down, my head still spinning. I had cut into his arm an inch with my sword. I go to call the match but Gobber takes a defensive position, switching the sword to his other hand and using the indestructible gauntlet as a shield now. Gobber has the biggest smile across his face even though he is bleeding from my attack. I call out. ¡°I¡­ surrender this match...¡± Gobber¡­ Almost looks disappointed by my decision. I go over and heal his arm¡­ I know that he was willing to keep fighting but I didn''t want anything bad to happen. That attack was so powerful it had broken through his giant shield. A shield that hadn''t even been scratched by other attacks yet. It was in its small form as well. So I cut through two layers of his shield¡­ That attack is too powerful to use against my friends¡­ If he had a weaker shield he would have lost his arm¡­ Maybe even worse... I can''t test any of my other attacks against him for fear that they might do more than just hurt him. That was my second weakest attack¡­ My spinning ax kick would end with an explosion, I doubt that shield could stand against it. I doubt that Gobber could take my next attack and still be standing¡­ That is why I called the match. After healing him I head over to Nami. Healing her as well, she wasn''t that injured but healing still helps with the numbing effect from my claws. The shadow clone that had been holding Aegis up had disappeared, he flew in front of me. I grabbed him and slid him back on my hand. It feels weird wearing a comrade¡­ Nami and Gobber were technically fighting against 4 people. Myself, Aegis, Lust and Gear¡­ Now I''ll have to make another shield for Gobber, repair Gear and make Nami some new equipment. I want to try teaching them both awakened classes I know. Perhaps if it is based on determination or a goal you''ve set, Nami and Gobber might unlock an awakened class themselves¡­ We''ll see how it turns out by the end of this 2 weeks. Chapter 120 Imprinting Hilda''s point of view As Kite has grown... I''ve started to dislike him more and more. The young child who would save a girl from a pack of goblins is now far more cold towards everything. I first started noticing this when he started using slave collars. It started with one person, then grew too having slave collars on all the pirates he''s captured. There could have been a different method to fight against them. He could have just.... I don''t know, destroyed there ship and stranded them on an island. Because I no longer believe in the leader, I have started thinking of leaving here... Gobber was taken away by Kite to do who knows what. Leaving his pets here for me to watch on top of watching the children. They are doing an okay job of distracting each other though¡­ So that is good. All of them have paired off, each child being watched and playing with a pet. I feel slightly uneasy by having animals around my children but¡­ What can I do. They are the leader of the armies pets¡­ Not much I can say about it¡­ Even if I don''t like it. It is calm enough, nothing bad has happened yet¡­ Maybe I''ve just been working myself up. I want my children to live normal lives. Because of this, once they are old enough to travel. Gobber and I have decided to leave the army. Heading somewhere that they can grow up and live normal lives. Because of this reason, I have tried to let them not get to attached to anyone outside our family. Kline is the sole person to be against this rule. It would be far easier to just pawn my children off onto the daycare. I have refused their service for this reason. Everything needs to be taken very carefully, if they grow attached to too many people, they will not want to leave. I''m doing this because, just being around Kite is dangerous. Even though we''re at peace right now. He pushes unnecessary war on us. We don''t have to fight the pirates. We can just wait and see if they show up. They might not even come if we leave them alone. I do understand that it will be difficult for my children. Being as they are goblins, I doubt many cities or towns would ever take us in. I still think it would be better than risking my children''s lives. One bad time we''ll have finding a new home is nothing compared to the constant danger they''ll be put in around here. As soon as they are of age, some might want to join his cause¡­ I can''t¡­ I won''t allow that to happen. It might be time to leave soon. With this huge battle coming up, he won''t mind losing Gobber. Kite will be too busy with the war for a few people leaving to matter. His other friends will be their to fill Gobber''s place. I know how close Kite and my husband are but¡­ I don''t think their relationship is good. Gobber is constantly put in danger from being around him. I don''t want that to happen with my children. I haven''t gotten along with many people since I''ve been here. Two in particular I had gotten along with were Kattie and Ashley. I liked both of them and over time¡­ They both left this place. Slowly my only two friends here had disappeared. One dying to Kite''s cause, the other leaving to live with her family in Shienta. Most likely because she couldn''t be around all of this¡­ The location that had put her sister in danger. Kline has also came to visit. He is my only friend now. I like him because he and Gobber get along. The way he acts also reminds me of what humanity is like. With him here, I feel a little safer. He normally brings food for the children but didn''t this time. While he tells them a story I''ll go and get them food. Another reason I dislike living here. All different influences my children could get from. The half if not completely naked lizard women walking around. The gnolls eating as much meat as their faces can fit. Even the demon tribe have many bad habits. A few people stop and talk with me. Several of the females have started to talk to me more and more because of my children. If I wasn''t so set on leaving, perhaps we could have been friends. I grab a tray of food. The food here might be the best part of living in the fortress. Expert chefs prepare every meal, even vegetarian meals that I like. I might miss that the most¡­ That or the pipelines Kite had ran in his downtime. Toilets had started as a weird idea to me until I tried it. The convenience of toilets is something I''m going to miss¡­ I also like the hot springs¡­ Thinking about it more. This place is far more advanced compared to other towns and villages around the area. The luxury we have here would be very hard to find elsewhere. Money can buy many things but people need to know how to make those things in order to pay them. What do you pay someone who doesn''t know how to run pipelines so you can have a working toilet? I have no idea. The luxury is going to be one thing I miss about living here. The safety of my children comes first. As nice as living here is. It will eventually lead into my daughters going to war. Increasing the chances they die. I can give up everything if it is for the protection of my family. The same goes for Gobber. While it was hard to get him to agree. He finally did, so once he returns. Before Kite can drag him off to war, we''ll leave. As I''m walking back with the plate of food, Kline comes rushing up to m-. WHY IS KLINE NOT WITH THE CHILDREN!? He looks very panicked. Did one of Kite''s pets attack my children!? I KILL THEM! Kline yell''s towards me. ¡°You''re kids! Something is wrong with them! They''re all using superpowers!¡± I''m too worried to question what he just said. I need to see for myself. I run passed him and he follows behind me. The entire time I rush back I''m worried about what he meant. Food flies off the plate most likely hitting Kline or landing in front of him. A few steps later I hear him fall behind me as I get close to the door. Opening it I''m both shocked in scared at the sight I''m seeing. Every child is still with their pet. Each pet had taken a liking to a different girl. This is where it had gotten weird. None of the children had any classes yet. Some of the time, 1-2 classes roll over from the parents. That is how humans work. Goblins are different. None of them had any classes. How is each using what appears to be magic then? The child with the ferret was using what looked like healing magic. It swirled around her, it was unlike any healing magic I have ever seen before. It had almost a brown look to it. All my daughters look very similar, very cute little girl versions of their father. Two have strands of golden blonde hair but mostly green. The one with the most blonde hair was Hilda junior¡­ She was the one who was casting healing magic. The child near the giant wolf had started transforming, only slightly though. Taking the appearance of a half wolf/goblin. She scratched herself with her leg and let out a little howl. I can''t tell which one this was, 4 of them just look too similar to tell apart¡­ Even as their mother, I struggle to. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The next child standing near the little cat girl had resurrected the corpse of a dead mouse Gobber had crushed in the corner and didn''t have the time to dispose of. I could also see lightning running through her hair periodically. As if by touch I would be hurt by a static shock. The mouse corpse was rolling around and doing tricks while the cat and child both laughed at the tricks. Looking closer to her¡­ I noticed two cat ears poking out of her head where regular ears should be. The one being watched by the little blue boy almost emanated cuteness. I now noticed the pitcher of water I had in the room had been tipped over and shattered on the ground. Between her hands was a ball of water she was keeping mid air without touching it. She was the only one with enough strands of blonde in her hair to differentiate. This one was Goblynn. The one standing closest to the fox had blue fire in her hands. She attempted to juggled three fireballs mid air before one crashed down onto the ground. While I expected it to blow up or at the minimum leave a scorch mark on the ground. When it struck, it did nothing. It was as if the fire was a mere illusion. Looking closer I noticed her ears were different. Like she had taken a pair of fake fox ears and put them over her head. But they weren''t fake. The final child, the one with the bat on her shoulder looked at me. She was the only one without something weird happening to her at first glance. Then I noticed a faint wind coming from her. As I thought that, I heard her say. ¡°Why is all the food falling off the tray mommy? You should try to be less clumsy. *giggle*¡± When she had spoken to me. Her mouth didn''t open. When she giggled, she did have a smile on her face. I think she just talked to me telepathically¡­ What the hell is happening? I call out loudly now. ¡°What did you animals do to my daughters!?¡± The wolf man looks around seeing if anyone else is going to respond and then answers. ¡°I''m not 100% sure but¡­ I think we all imprinted onto the children¡­ I''m not sure though.¡± ¡°What does that even mean?¡± The little cat girl steps forwards next. ¡°It means we gave them a portion of our powers stupid! How do you not know that by looking at all the cool things they''re doing right now.¡± The closest daughter to her. One I now recognized as Gobit. My shyest daughter now yells at me. ¡°Ya stupid!¡± Taking the same pose the cat girl had taken. The wolf man only breaths a sigh before continuing to speak. ¡°They also take after our personalities somewhat and will want to copy some of the things we do. Your daughters might develop some animal tendencies¡­ The only reason I know this was because my last pack leader was able to imprint on his child to pass on their legacy¡­ I think because of the age of the children¡­ The same thing might have happened with all of us.¡± I fall to the ground and start sobbing uncontrollably. Hilda Jr. approaches me and casts a heal on me. Then says. ¡°Why is momma crying?¡± ¡°Because¡­ I waited too long to leave here. You all had a chance at a normal life and now you''ve all been changed by just living around here.¡± Morpheus'' point of view I finally made it back to my village. From the time it had taken the beast riders to take me from here to the fortress. I had expected it to be far longer. The rations Kite had left me were all long gone. The food I had to forage for did slow my trip down some but I was still surprised by how fast I made it here. I had transformed into a version of Darkclaw to fly, his body just feels more natural to fly in then anything else. A heavy animal like that would normally take more out of me but when flying¡­ I barely have to move in his body. It is more aerodynamic than any other creature I''ve tried. I approach the rock out cove where my family should be. Once I get close I see my family. My wife hisses at me before I realize I''m still in Darkclaw form. Switching back into my natural transformling body¡­ She still doesn''t recognize me but does know that I am one of her kind and settles down somewhat. It takes me a few seconds to remember how to speak with her. ¡°Hey¡­ I''m back.¡± I almost don''t recognize my own voice. It has been that long since I''ve said it and with my new form it is different then what it was. She looks at me confused, then realizes who I am. ¡°What!? What happened to you?¡± I see three little changlings poke their heads out from underneath their mother. I instinctively let a smile cross my face. Tears start to well in my eyes at the sight of my children. I barely get out any words. ¡°Your dad is home kids.¡± They all approach me. The warm reception I was expecting where they would jump on me shouting. "Daddy... But that didn''t happen... It is like they don''t even recognize me. When they approach me that cautiously, I start to feel brokenhearted. One finally recognizes me and tries to jump onto my back but can''t because I''ve gotten so much bigger. My wife continues her line of questioning. ¡°Where have you been for all these months? We thought you left and got killed¡­ Do you know how hard it is to get food by myself?¡± ¡°I know¡­ I''m back¡­ I''ve come to talk about maybe moving somewhere safer. My master will let us all live with him.¡± ¡°Master? What are you talking about Morpheus. We''re monsters, our only master is the god of death.¡± Fear shoots through me¡­ I had forgotten what it was like to be without a master. I remember something that master¡­ That Kite had said¡­ It was okay to live with my family if they didn''t want to return¡­ What kind of father would I be then? This world is far to unsafe to have children hiding in a cave while you know a place they can live safely at¡­ I decide to tell a lie. ¡°Y-ya, that is who I meant. The demigod of death is my master. He said he''ll take care of us if we can make it back to him.¡± ¡°¡­Fine. Go catch us a big meal and after we eat, we''ll head there with you.¡± I instinctively go to change into my human form but realize¡­ That might scare them¡­ I had already killed a deer and had it in my void satchel¡­ I''ll hold off on telling them some secrets for now. Chapter 121 Little runaways The two weeks have passed that we were in for. I repaired and improved Gear once again. Sharpening the shield tips, reconnecting and fixing his broken arms. Finally strengthening the joints of the shields, so they don''t break as easily. Gear can now walk¡­ I haven''t quite figured out if he could drink a false soul stone¡­ Perhaps making the automatons out of tree''s that have had their roots drenched would be the only way to ever have them turn into a monster. Nami didn''t have any special gear on her. Only dark colored clothing to help with her remain hidden in the dark. I layered the inside with spider silk for comfort and enchanted all the pieces to increase her dexterity. Giving the set bonus of greater dexterity. I took the set off her doll she uses for substitute. I had beaten her fast enough to stop her from substituting in our last fight. While not nearly as nice as her other set of gear. This set is fine for what I''m going to use it for. I start enchanting each piece with a different enchant. I enchant this set with helm of distortion, chest of self repair, boots of energy on movement, gloves of void storage. I combine these sets of gear into a set¡­ Then combine the two sets with synthesis¡­ This incurs a month long cool down before I can use synthesis again. I had done the same thing with my gear. I had enchanted my gear with similar enchants as I had done to hers. The main difference is I combined four sets of gear, strength, dexterity, intellect then the rare enchants for my set of gear. This incurred a 6 month penalty towards my transmutation abilities. I had done it 4 months into the year long period. I could have done if for another few sets but decided to wait. Having an extra stat on a piece of gear won''t be that much of an increase. I have been thinking of ways to get around myself incurring the penalty to my transmutation but haven''t thought of one yet. Nami''s weapons were¡­ Very well forged¡­ If they had a stronger metal, they would be beyond anything I could make. Unfortunately, they were made from some type of strengthened iron. I had taken 2 of the cold steel swords still remaining and let her replace the 2 short swords she had. After I get out of here, I''ll make her a better katana she uses with both her hands. I warn her about how brittle and rare the swords are. It goes without saying¡­ I could have given this boosted gear to any of my generals¡­ Nami isn''t even in my army¡­ Why would I give it to her? She has the most important mission now. She has to save children from captivity¡­ Everyone else can fall back if they are overwhelmed¡­ She cannot¡­ That is why she gets the strengthened gear. During the training, I attempted to teach Nami the true elementalist class¡­ With no luck, I told her how to unlock awakened classes¡­ What they were about but no matter how hard I tried I couldn''t teach her. Gobber was different though. Gobber managed to learn the hero class with no problems. This dropped his classes from 8 to 6. I taught him the remaining classes he needed for champion to him. With 3 of the 5 he managed to learn champion¡­ Each class involved with the awakened class I had taught him had taken less than teaching Leon or Green. He learned them faster as well¡­ Gobber is just different somehow¡­ Even with 2 awakened classes¡­ He still have 2 more class slots available¡­ I am going to hold back on teaching him more classes until I unlock more awakened classes. I had already tried to teach Gobber spell based classes. I doubt that he would be able to learn them. I spent most of my time trying to teach Nami¡­ Anything that could help her get stronger¡­ Nothing¡­ She couldn''t learn anything I tried¡­ Her classes were far to high level for me to teach her anything. I feel like I failed her in that respect. The main difference is her training with Gobber and me. We trained the majority of the time spend inside. I had learned my level 10 skills exploit weakness and tracker arrow. Yellow mage is different than most classes. I think because I have an archer class and a mage class. My skills are strengthened. Without tether arrow or tracker arrow merging with any other skills. They were still upgraded to electric arrow and tracker mark. I''m not sure why they were upgraded¡­ But that makes the most sense to me. Nami is happy with our training¡­ I am not¡­ There has to be something I can do¡­ Something to make her stronger¡­ I''ve got a few ideas to increase her fighting capabilities. First, shuriken launchers. While she can throw them out quickly, throwing out 10 shurikens at once is still faster. If I remember correctly, she had 2 belts of shurikens and kunai. Each having 20 on each belt, and a third belt with 40 throwing spikes. So I''ll make 5 shuriken launchers¡­ And start to redesign one of the knife cannons. Re-purposing the cannon to fire spikes instead, the accuracy is awful. Dropping the effective range down to 10-20 feet. The biggest difference is that the damage is far more spread out. Each fires 10 spikes at once. This new weapon for her is called a spike cannon and I make 3 for her. This improves her long range capabilities tremendously. The spike cannon is too noisy to use in most situations and she''ll have to avoid using it until her cover is blown. Being quiet normally suits ninjas better. I also started working on a new automaton¡­ One for her to use. Copying her appearance as I make it. The resemblance is very close, except made of wood. I teach it a few commands such as throw, shoot, fight and hide for it to follow. Nami will be able to use this automaton as a substitute. If the automaton is clothed, it would be very difficult to tell them apart, especially if their faces were hidden. With the substitute being able to move, it can easily increase her fighting and escape capabilities. I teach it ninja and black mage to allow slightly different attacks to be done by this automaton. It will also never need to be charged. Seeing as Nami doesn''t have a very big mana pool. She''ll need all of it for her skills, so it being constantly active is a good thing. Normally, automatons make various noises. Whirling and clinking noises of the gears inside rubbing and grinding against each other. I made the gears out of wood so they are far less noisy. It still makes some sound, but far less than normal automatons. I made her a void satchel. Because the automaton was made of pure wood. It is less heavy than a normal automaton. I doubt I''d be able to make these unique automatons without engineering and tinkerer. It weighs enough for her to store the automaton in a void satchel. She can keep all the shuriken launchers in the void satchel gloves she has equipped. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Because Nami will be storing her automaton in a void satchel. It can''t have a void satchel inside it because it would explode. So it needs a different method to fire the attacks. On each arm, it has five shuriken launchers attached. Making it possible to throw 100 shurikens over a short period of time. Similar to Gear who could throw 60 at once with one in each of his hands. Finally finishing her new equipment with a cloak. Nothing special about the cloak except it is pure black. I also make around 20 more cloaks for everyone else going on these stealth missions. They are made from spider silk and dyed with my ink. The ones my pets will get are going to be able to change size. Mine goes inside my druid badge with the rest of my gear so I don''t need to enchant it. That is all I can do for preparation. The door opens and we exit. Slowly¡­ No one is here to greet us¡­ I''m a bit sad no one has come to greet us. We start heading back towards Gobber''s room. Nami breaks off to go back her village. As we head back¡­ I notice some odd things happening. Several of the gnoll and pirate guards are rushing around with a slight panic. We make it back to Gobber''s room¡­ The door is missing¡­ It was blown off by some type of attack. I start to feel more panicked myself, me and Gobber run inside¡­ No one is inside¡­ WHAT HAPPENED!? I run back and catch one of the panicked pirates and ask him what is going on. ¡°Hilda''s children went crazy and broke off into different directions. I have no idea why. We''ve formed search parties to look for them.¡± What!? We need to find them before they get hurt. The only reason I can think of them separating is because of my pets¡­ What happened¡­ We need more information¡­ I use detective and track to look at the ground for any indication on which way they might have went. Tiny foot prints are heading both ways. Gobber had noticed what I''m doing and also did the same. I yell out to him. ¡°I''ll go outside, you head towards the cafeteria.¡± We split up. There is only one clear path to outside¡­ Except for my room, which one of the tiny footprints heads¡­ Looking closer, I do notice another pair of paw prints heading that direction. I head towards my old room first. It still has my old bed¡­ I haven''t been in here for far too long, especially since my treasure room is to the side. Heading inside I see a familiar pet hiding poorly under a blanket on my old bed. She is talking loudly to one of the little goblins. I yell out. ¡°Neko! What are you doing in my old room?¡± Her tail shoots out from her behind that is sticking out of the covers. She is scared by my voice and let out a little scream. The little goblin also let out a startled yelp. Her butt goes under the blanket and where it was, her head pokes out. ¡°Ah¡­ We''re just hiding from Hilda so she doesn''t take her away¡­ She likes it here and Hilda is a bad mom for trying to take her away!¡± ¡°Come on out. We''ll find her sisters and have to talk with Hilda. No one is getting taken away¡­ Why does that little goblin have cat ears?¡± Ah, I imprinted on her so she gained a part of my powers.¡± ¡­ WHAT!? That is probably why Hilda was freaking out. What the hell did Neko do? She probably started making a big scene and then all the other children got on her side because she acts like a child still¡­ Even though Neko is an adult, her lack of interactions with people have made her act like that. She gets off my bed but covers the little goblin in the blanket trying to hide her, just in case we run into Hilda¡­ I think that is what she is trying to do¡­ It is hard to tell what Neko is thinking. We all start to walk outside¡­ I follow the 2 remaining child tracks outside where they lead. Heading outside I see Hilda looking around¡­ She is also a detective so she must have also followed their footprints. She is scouting with her hand blocking the sun from her eyes before she turns around and sees me. As soon as she does, she charges at me. Throwing a wild punch at my face. I dodge but I feel I should have let her hit me, that might have helped her calm down. ¡°YOU FUCKING IDIOT!¡± ¡°W-what happened!? Me and Gobber just got b-.¡± She takes another wild swing at me. This time I instinctively push her down once she misses. All this training makes it hard to not automatically counter. This only makes her more furious. I hear her anger under her breath as she gets up. I need to stop myself, if she attacks me again I''ll let her hit me. Even with her unwieldy, clumbsy attacks. ¡°What happened? I just got back and still don''t understand what is going on.¡± She looks over at the cat girl and little child with a blanket on her head. She points and says. ¡°That is going on! You''re pets bonded or something with my children and they all started acting different. Your pets turned all my children into freaks.¡± The blanket slowly comes off of the small child. Hilda must have not realized that the obvious young child covered in a blanket was one of her daughters. A tear forms in the corner of her eyes as she says. ¡°Y-you¡­ You think we''re freaks mamma?¡± Hilda''s eyes widen. She was so agitated by me she didn''t realize something so obvious. Tears start to pour down her daughters face¡­ I start to get angry. She tries to think of something to say. Her mouth opens but nothing comes out. I start following another set of foot prints, ignoring her, I say. ¡°I don''t care how difficult your day has been, we need to find your other children¡­ You watch her until I get back...¡± My frustration with her is starting to build. Her actions start to bring back memories of my parents¡­ The feeling of anger boiling in me¡­ In frustration I yell back at her in common so her child wouldn''t understand me. ¡°Be a better mother you stupid fucking idiot!¡± She falls down onto her knees with a defeated look in her face¡­ Tears roll down her face as she tries to hug her child. The young goblin repulses back from her... I feel ashamed to have someone like her in my army. A child is something you need to handle delicately and Hilda! She just insulted her own fucking daughter! I have to hold back the feeling to punch her in the face, if I hadn''t insulted her I doubt I could hold back¡­ I take a deep breath and get back to my quest. Following one of the footprints to the stables. The head outside the stables exit into the woods. Following the path¡­ Starts to get a little hard to do. It is like the tiny goblin has changed her foot prints¡­ Into paw prints¡­ I don''t understand what happened but I continue following the trail. I start to hear talking. Children shouldn''t be wondering around in the forest anyways. While our presence has reduced the amount, there are still a few monsters that show up periodically. I hear 2 voices from a distance. Chapter 122 Meeting with Hilda I walk towards the voices and I see Sock standing next to¡­ What seems like a weregoblin. She is crying intensely. Crawled up into a little ball laying on her side. I hear what she is saying. ¡°We just started making friends with everyone. And then mom says we have to leave¡­ It just feels unfair.¡± I walk up. Kneeling down to get closer to her eye level¡­ I don''t even think Sock can understand her because she is speaking in goblin. I speak. ¡°Don''t worry about that right now. Even if you are sad, you can''t go running into the woods. It is dangerous out here. If you get hurt your mom will feel so bad about it.¡± She unfurls out of her position. Holding her hand out for Sock to grab. He has to almost crouch down to be able to hold her hand. Looking at Sock¡­ He is a very good caregiver if I think about it. Constantly worrying about the safety of everyone, especially the children. Even to the point where he was trying to calm Neko down when we joke with her. She wipes the tears from her eyes before finally saying. ¡°Okay...¡± We take a few steps back towards the base before I hear a scream! It sounds too far away to be get to quickly by foot. I turn into dragon form and fly into the air. The person screaming is a little goblin girl standing in front of 3 spiders. In between them and the little girl is a white streak from what I can see up here. I fly down, just as I can tell the white streak is Pokodo, the spider bites her. She isn''t very strong when it comes to fighting¡­ The little girl screams again and rocks start flying in front of her, pelting the other spiders that aren''t attacking Pokodo. I change back into human form and free fall. Pulling my bow out of my void satchel, I fire and arrow down at the one that had just bitten Pokodo. The arrow pierces it with so much force it nails it into the ground. I cast levitate on myself just before I hit the ground to slow my fall. Wham! Landing directly on the spider I had already killed. Splattering the remains all over myself. Summoning two shadow clones to fight the remaining spiders, I turn to face Pokodo. She is in bad shape. The poison is only a numbing poison but with Pokodo''s small size¡­ Her heart might have stopped beating. Her breathing is very erratic and shallow¡­ Fuck! In all the skills I''ve gained I haven''t learned anything about curing poison! How is that even possible!? I cast heal on her which helps slightly but it isn''t enough. I cast dispel and regenerate on her. Both only help slightly as well¡­ Her breathing is still shallow but at least it had started to get more consistent. I go to pick her up and take her to the medical room when the little goblin steps forward. A brown colored aura circles around her. Pokodo starts to almost glow the same brown color then a few seconds later she coughs up a green liquid¡­ The poison has just been ejected from her body¡­ WHAT!? This little girl just made a miracle happen. I look over at her and give her a big hug. Pokodo has started moving around again and I look at the spiders¡­ Both were easily defeated by the shadow clones¡­ Even after so long... This forest is still dangerous to be in¡­ I pick the little girl up¡­ I think this is the one that was shy and hid behind the braver one. I grab her and put her on my shoulders while Sock and the other half wolf goblin come running through the forest. The only thing they see is the aftermath of the fight against the spiders. Pokodo almost died again¡­ I''m angry at myself for letting this happen¡­ The anger starts to shift towards the person who made this mess in the first place... I bite my own lip until it bleeds to calm myself. Taking in another deep breath I cast a quick heal so my mouth doesn''t fill with blood. We break through to the road leading the Shienta and start walking back towards the fortress¡­ Hilda, her child and Neko are no where to be seen. We head back inside, heading towards Gobber''s room. Standing outside her room is Gobber¡­ He has a serious look on his face¡­ We head inside¡­ Most of my pets, 4 goblin children and Hilda are in the room. Hilda is sitting down on her bed. The daughter she yelled at, now asleep with her head down on Hilda''s lap. It seems even the children understand the situation¡­ No one has talked, even Neko¡­ I let the 2 other goblins inside. Calling for my pets with a hand motion, we all leave¡­ I whisper to Gobber. ¡°Can you and Hilda come see me after everything has calmed down?¡± Their door is still missing¡­ We''ll worry about that after everything calms down¡­ A few hours pass. After speaking with my pets, I realize that each of Gobber''s children are now imprinted by each of my pets¡­ And Neko as well¡­ People were still looking for the children, so we had to tell everyone they have been found. A few hours after that, Gobber and Hilda knock on my door. Hilda looks down, with a slightly defeated look on her face already. I remember what I yelled at her and the meeting between us is awkward. I guess I''ll have to start this. ¡°Hilda¡­ I can understand wanting to leave the fortress. My only question is why?¡± ¡°Because... An army isn''t a good place to have children grow up.¡± ¡°You know what else isn''t good for a child¡­ Having their mother call them a freak.¡± Her eyes shoot open in anger. I expected her to take another swing at me like she had done earlier that day. I expected something more to happen. I continue to speak when nothing does. ¡°Do you think my pets imprint on just anyone? I''ve never even heard that happen before. Your children are far from freaks¡­ They are special. I don''t care if you leave, I will miss Gobber but I had already expected this to happen for a long time now¡­ Just realize¡­ Your children aren''t going to be happy anywhere else in this world¡­ I''ll give you a few reasons right now that this is a mistake.¡± I turn around with my finger raised for this list. ¡°One! They are goblins. Even though they are attractive as their father, they are going to be racially discriminated because of this." Raising another finger I say. "Two! They are attractive¡­ Do you remember what almost happened to Gobber? Your children are going to be constantly harassed because of their looks." I raise the final finger. "Three! They are special, even if you don''t see them as such. Goblin females are beyond rare, then on top of that they all have a special thing they can do¡­ I haven''t gotten around to checking the exact details but¡­ If you move anywhere besides here¡­ Your children will be under constant threat of abduction.¡± Hilda''s eyes shoot wide again at my list. She hadn''t thought of any of this¡­ I know exactly why¡­ She is too nice... She most likely has the kindness trait¡­ The biggest problem with that trait is you don''t see the ugliness of other people¡­ You just assume they''ll act civil¡­ That is almost never the case¡­ The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I wish¡­ I wish I would have known that earlier¡­ I could have saved Kattie if I was just more aware of how dark people actually are. Some people will kill with a shitty reason¡­ Some people don''t need a reason to kill¡­ I had noticed her kindness when she questioned my methods of using the slave collars. If you aren''t willing to get at least a little dirty to stop a problem. That problem is going to sneak up on you and wipe out your village¡­ So to speak. ¡°If you still decide to leave. Please take a portal scroll with you. If anything happens with your children, you can count on me to bring an army as backup to save them.¡± Gobber looks beyond sad. Perhaps they were continuing to talk about leaving after I had left and he hoped I would convince her to stay. She responded now. ¡°I¡­ Guess I didn''t really think of those things when I was so set on leaving¡­ We can stay but there will be rules." She raises a finger now. "One! Don''t you ever insult me again." Raising another finger. "Two! None of my children are allowed on any battlefield¡­" Raising the last finger. "Three! If you need Gobber, you don''t turn my kids against me if I say no. You break any of these rules and we move to Shienta until we find somewhere else to live.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ I have one rule then. If you insult your children like that again¡­" I step closer to her. Almost face to face with me looking down at her. "I don''t care if it is spur of the moment... I''ll fucking kill you.¡± Gobber moves in front of her to be defensive but she pushes him to the side. He looks back confused at her as she speaks now. A single tear has formed in the corner of her left eye. ¡°If I do that again, I''ll kill myself before you get the chance¡­ I realize what I did was wrong¡­ I should have never said that in front of my children¡­ I love them so much, it was the sight of you that put me over. Trying to keep my children from being influenced and the first time I drop my guard they change on me¡­ I wont apologize to you for anything but I''ll be apologizing to my children for the rest of my life for that mistake.¡± Hilda gives me a look of recognition... Like she had only seen me as a tyrant until I stuck up for her kids. Now she sees me as a protector. I start to walk back to my bed¡­ I turn around remembering a few more things. ¡°Oh, please let your kids run around outside your room. Perhaps take a vacation and let someone else watch your kids. You''re so tightly wound, I have a feeling that might have also influenced your actions. You aren''t in this by yourself Hilda. Gobber is right beside you... Maybe ask his opinion some time instead of just assuming he''ll agree with you...¡± I have to pause to continue here as I''m not sure Gobber wants me to tell her this. "The thing with Gobber is... He loves fighting... The only time I see him happy is in the middle of a fight... It is fine to want your kids to not fight but it is physically hurting Gobber." She looks like she is thinking about it¡­ I think of one more thing. "It is fine you don''t want your children to be in war but... You should get them started on training as soon as you can... If the pirates do invade here... They wont just let your children off the hook because they are children... I learned the hard way that... They aren''t afraid to take hostages at that age..." Hilda looks surprised again... She didn''t know the entire story about this fight... She didn''t know anything except what she wanted to know... They walk out of the room before I breath a sigh of relief¡­ I don''t dislike Hilda¡­ It is honestly good to have different viewpoints on a situation but if she had taken Gobber away from me¡­ It would feel like a piece of myself was being taken away from the fortress¡­ I hope she retracts her standpoint on her children fighting in the army¡­ They would make amazing allies in the future¡­ If it will cause them to leave, I wont push the subject though. It is still the middle of the day¡­ I had only come back to my room to talk with my pets and then stay here to wait for them to come speak with me¡­ I am honestly too busy for this meeting but it needed to be done. I already feel tired even though we just got out of the time tree. Defusing that situation put even more stress on me. I wonder who they had got to watch their children while they came to speak with me... Kline''s point of view Gobber had approached me to watch his kids while him and Hilda went to speak with Kite¡­ Which was the first time I had ever watched them alone¡­ Since they''ve been born, I had only been here to make them happy with a story¡­ Watching them by myself seems dangerous¡­. I don''t know the first thing about taking care of a baby... It seems like each is different¡­ Nothing stands out about the children like earlier today¡­ They just seem easier to tell apart now¡­ I look closer at each one¡­ Nothing sticks out from them like ears or anything¡­ But I can tell this one is Gobbish. The one beside her is Gobda¡­ How can I tell them apart so easily? Yesterday, if you put the two side by side, I would have never been able to tell them apart but I can somehow¡­ It is almost like each is giving off a distinct aura... Thankfully they are all sleeping. It is a weird sight to see them all sleeping together. Normally it is 1-2 sleeping while the others played and carried on. Never giving their parents a break. All of them are asleep right now though¡­That makes watching them far easier to watch. I grab the book I had brought and started reading. The second I do, I can feel something... Almost like someone looking over my shoulder¡­ I turn around but no one is there¡­ I put my back to the corner of the room and continue reading¡­ The presence I felt is gone now. I''m not sure what that was. I look up at the kids and they are all fine. I feel the presence again a few more times until their parents get back. They weren''t gone for more then 20 minutes¡­ I leave and let them watch the kids¡­ Hilda seems off but after seeing her kids change like that, I would be surprised if she wasn''t rattled a little bit. I leave and head to the daycare to read another story to the children their. After that I''ll go grab some food before heading outside to talk to the animals and give them all some treats. I yawn lazily and feel as if someone is behind me. I turn around but nothing is there¡­ Am I just paranoid? Chapter 123 Another pact I''ve been trying to think of other ways to prepare for the war¡­ I can''t really think of any other ways to prepare¡­ I still feel there are more things I could do before the fight. Any last minute thing I could do to increase the chances of success¡­ Aegis speaks up. ¡°I''ve been thinking of an idea for a few months now¡­ About doing more soul pacts.¡± ¡°The last time I tried to for a soul pact, both me and Darkclaw almost died.¡± ¡°Yes, because you''re stats were so different¡­ What if I absorbed your stats so they were identical to the pet you were going to form a soul pact with.¡± ¡°¡­ That might work.¡± Lust speaks up now. ¡°Are you trying to get rid of me?¡± ¡°N-no¡­ But if you had to choose. Which pet would you like to be in?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ The fox girl is pretty cute. She has already went through my memories as well so we should get along okay.¡± I guess there isn''t anything else to it besides testing it¡­ Maybe I should hold back on forming too many soul pacts though¡­ One for now is fine. I head to find Red¡­ She normally lounges around the hot springs in her downtime. I head there and I call out for her. She comes across the fence completely naked to answer me¡­ Yea, she matches Lust fairly well¡­ ¡°Okay so first¡­. PUT SOME CLOTHS ON!¡± She gets dressed and comes out. ¡°What do you need master?¡± ¡°How would you feel about forming a pact with me?¡± With a smile across her face, we separate and go to make the pact. I''ll form more pacts once I get more traits to pass along. With how much help Greed is to Darkclaw¡­ This seems like a good idea. I don''t think I would be able to do anything if I continued to hold onto my past life voices. Having 1 extra voice in my head at a time is already distracting enough. I''ll also be able to ask for their help from the people who they are put into. Before I start I have to ask first. ¡°Are you okay with this? You''ll get another voice in your head¡± ¡°If it is for you master. I''ll take ten voices in my head.¡± We start the soul pact. Cutting both our hands to let some blood come out. Before I use the skill I ask for her stats. She didn''t want to reveal them but after telling her it would help with the success she begrudgingly told me.
(Red''s stats) (strength- 450) (dexterity- 650) (intelligence- 2500) (stamina- 1250) (total= 4850)
Her stats were around what I thought they would be. I expected her intelligence to be slightly higher. I''m going to have to increase my own intelligence to equal ours out. I''ll probably get 100-200 intelligence from forming a pact with her. As well as 20-100 in the other stats. She''ll get a far bigger boost to her stats then I will from the pact. My dexterity is as high as it is because of my pact with Darkclaw¡­ The next time he evolves, I''m expecting another huge boost to that particular stat. Aegis adjusts my stats to match. I start the pact. This time when our souls come out. Lust intentionally jumps to Red''s soul. The pain is far less intense then when I formed it with Darkclaw. It feels uncomfortable still but I don''t think I''m going to die from this. Red looks a little queasy but doesn''t look much in pain. We finish the pact.
Pact formed with Red
Blue mage skill learned Spirit fire- Control your flame to burn only what you want them too, usable even in water
Druid skill magic Fox form- Shape shift form to that of a nine tailed fox (increase to all fire and illusion based magic)
Title gained Pact maker- Form at least 2 pact in your lifetime, decrease the discomfort of the pact monster while forming the pact
True elementalist 55 to 59
Illusionist 51 to 60
Black mage 55 to 63
Witch doctor 50 to 56
Warlock 52 to 58
¡­ I didn''t expect to gain levels in classes from forming a soul pact. I''m a bit sad I didn''t get another extinct class but understand that Darkclaw is a very special pet. That title I received as well¡­ That seems very convenient for my pets. I get the feeling I was in more pain then Red was during that pact¡­ I think it might be¡­ The more pacts I form¡­ The more difficult it will be to form more. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Speaking of which¡­ Red could also form pacts¡­ Perhaps we''ll discuss this more in the future¡­ The biggest threat for forming pacts is¡­ If anything I have formed a soul pact with dies¡­ I will feel the pain as well. Feel the full pain of something dying... I can become very sick or even die from a pact breaking. So forming pacts with every single monster I come across would be impossible. I feel¡­ A little more prepared for this war¡­ Still 2 days until the first attack¡­ It is now night time. This is still the same day as when we had gotten out of the time tree¡­ Perhaps I''ll go inside for another 2 months¡­ No, I can''t keep relying on that tree. If I spend all my time in the tree I will grow old as the world stays the same. I need to push forwards. I need to continue living and stop being so afraid of what might happen¡­ I need to go talk with Leaf. I get dressed for bed. I haven''t really done anything today¡­ I knock on Leaf''s door and don''t get a response¡­ Is she out? I don''t think she would mind me waiting in her room for her. I enter the room and she is hurriedly putting on her sleeping cloths. I see just enough¡­ I call out. ¡°Why didn''t you tell me to wait a few seconds?¡± ¡°I-I didn''t expect you to come in if I didn''t call out to you.¡± ¡°So¡­ Were you trying to avoid me then?¡± ¡°NO! I was in the middle of changing!¡± I''ll drop it for now¡­ I need to move on to the next step with Leaf. We could both die in this war against the pirates. I don''t want to wait for this relationship continue at a snails pace. I need to keep it moving forwards with me. ¡°Leaf. Is it all right if I kiss you?¡± She looks down at her feet and then to her side before answering. ¡°I guess it would be okay¡­ I mean we did kiss already.¡± I walk close to her. She is still looking to the side¡­ I grab her chin with my hand and kiss her. It isn''t anything special for a kiss¡­ Honestly, our first one was far better. So I try to copy it and hug her to spin her around. I start to spin her but her foot clips the corner of the bed and she bites down on my lip reflexively from the pain. I accidentally let go of her and throw her across the room. Wham! She slams her head off of her dresser. I rush over to her and go to help her up. The sheet of steel she uses as a mirror falls off onto my head when I get over to her. It hurts but I don''t flinch, I ran over to her to make sure she was okay. I look down at her and she is rubbing the back of her head where she hit it on the dresser. She looks up at me and just starts to laugh. I can only laugh with her. What a mess we are. I lean down to kiss her again. It is just another kiss but at least she isn''t afraid of moving forwards anymore. While I would have liked more to happen that is all I''ll attempt today. I pull out some pillows I had made for myself and start placing them on the floor before Leaf stops to ask what I''m doing. ¡°You''ve kicked me off the bed both times we''ve slept together. I always wake up sore when I sleep with you¡­¡± She blushes and probably hasn''t even realized she was kicking me off. I laugh again and kiss her on the forehead. ¡°Don''t worry about it. We can go to sleep now if you would like.¡± Once again¡­ Going to be difficult to sleep tonight because I''m so excited. Neko''s point of view I open Kite''s door as silently as I can. Sneaking in it is pitch dark, if I was in my cat form I could see perfectly though. I stay human form so I can cuddle with Kite though. I let out a few giggles as I sneak on to his bed. Then I feel a weird pillow. It is a very soft pillow, I go to climb over it and it is gigantic. Then I remember Kite saying something about Sock sleeping in the same room and almost let out a yelp. But it is too big to be him¡­ Doesn''t kite have some big lizard thing as a pet too? That is probably what it is. I climb over it, it must be a heavy sleeper because I''m pretty sure I stepped on it''s face. Tripping I land on something really soft. This pillow is really giggly. Like a pillow of jelly, I hear a female moan as I play with the pillow¡­ This is Red''s boob! Why would she sleep in her human form over her fox form? Is she trying to seduce Kite too!? I twist her boobs but that only makes her moan again¡­ She''s a weirdo. I have to find Kite. I continue to move around the bed. Where is Kite? I get to the only humanoid on the bed¡­ This has to be him. I feel his face¡­ It is very furry, furrier than I thought it would be. I did see he had hair on his face. I didn''t think it would feel this way though. I snuggle up as close to him as I can. I''m really excited and a little over a minute of laying there he puts his arms around me pulling me in close. His embrace is very warm. I feel safe here. I fall asleep after that. I wake up the next morning and sun comes through the window. The entire room is lit up now. When the giant lizard thing woke up and got off the bed is shook the entire bed enough to wake up almost everyone. I wonder how Kite is going to act seeing me in his arms. I hear a voice call out from behind me¡­ It isn''t Kite''s. ¡°Neko¡­ What are you doing here? Why are my arms wrapped around you?¡± ¡°I k-know that voice! You''re the dog! How did you change places with Kite!?¡± ¡°Kite didn''t sleep here last night. He slept in Leaf''s room.¡± I should be afraid that the dog man is holding me¡­ I''m not¡­ My heart sinks when I hear Kite is sleeping with someone else¡­ I guess¡­ He is already taken¡­ I should have know that¡­ He seems like an amazing person¡­ Of course he would be in a relationship¡­ I begin to cry hard enough to start to get the dog''s arm wet. ¡°Hey¡­ Why are you crying?¡± ¡°Kite is with someone else.¡± Instead of letting go the arms only hug me closer, trying to comfort me. This guy who I was afraid of eating me. Is comforting me because I''m sad¡­ It doesn''t feel too bad either. He whispers in my ear. ¡°I can let you go if you want.¡± ¡°No¡­ Can we just stay like this for awhile¡­¡± This dog man is so warm¡­ I almost fall asleep again. I don''t even know his name, I only call him dog man, not knowing his name. ¡°Hey¡­ What is your name?¡± ¡°It''s Sock.¡± Chapter 124 Scouting the pirate base I wake up in the morning, surprisingly still on the bed¡­ I look over at Leaf. She tied her hand to the railing of the bed so she couldn''t force me all the way off. Even though she still came close. Her body was turned towards me and had kicked me to the very edge of the bed. If the cloth she used to tied her hand was a little longer, I still would have ended up on the floor. I don''t expect her to care so I crawl over her and kiss her forehead to try and wake her up. ¡°What the hell are you doing!?¡± ...She looks at me with a look of anger¡­ What did I do? She continues talking. ¡°Ah¡­ I''m sorry Kite I''m just¡­ Not a morning person. Can you not wake me up unless it is necessary?¡± ¡°S-sure...¡± Leaf is scary when she is angry¡­ I definitely have to remember that. If it was anyone else waking her up¡­ I''m fairly certain she would have been throwing punches¡­ Especially if they kissed her awake. I let her sleep in¡­ I really needed to talk with her more but it will have to wait¡­ Again¡­ Today is an important day though¡­ We will be coming into range of the pirate island today. I head to the ships. Darkclaw is on the ship giving commands¡­ I should say Greed has taken over, we''re closer than I thought. ¡°Slow it to a snails pace crew! We''re less than a league away from the base, if we continue forwards now we''ll be spotted!¡± Most of the crew is confused by the dragon who is now speaking in nautical terms. I call out now. ¡°Listen to the dragon, if he says we''re getting close that means we are. Slow the pace and tie the ships together, when I come back I''ll give the commands for the mission. Someone, start gathering the forces to split them for this mission.¡± I hear Lance yell from his ship. ¡°I''m on it!¡± With that I call for Purple. Me and him head for the islands for reconnaissance. Flying a few miles is still a bit rough but easy enough, I wish I had a different flying variant than dragon. Perhaps I''ll form a pact with Purple next just for the more convenient flying form. Then I remember I have griffin form¡­ I hadn''t used it in so long I had forgotten about it. I switch and the difficulty of flying is vastly lowered. We come into view of the island. Me and Purple park ourselves on a nearby cluster of rocks. Looking over into the island¡­ I''ve got an idea on how to scout the entire island with the help of the pirates. ¡°Purple¡­ Can you do a flyby of the island and connect me with one of the dumber pirates?¡± ¡°...It will be difficult but if it is only one person I should be able to connect you.¡± I doubt anyone would make to much of a deal if they spotted a bat flying. Even so, Purple is under the rule to try to remain hidden. It takes a few moments but I''m finally connected to someone. ¡°Hello there.¡± ¡°Huh!? Who is speaking to me¡­ I don''t see anyone around me¡­¡± ¡°I''m the god of balance¡­ I''m speaking to you telepathically.¡± ¡°Tele-what now?¡± ¡°I''m speaking to just you through your brain¡­ I need your help with something that only you can do.¡± ¡°I can''t leave my post. I''m watching the equipment.¡± ¡°When do you get off your post?¡± ¡°The new watchers should come in 1 hour¡­ This job is really boring but it is safer than most. So they said I should do it since no one would ever attack us.¡± ¡°That is right. And if no one would ever attack you pirates, why do you have to watch the door?¡± ¡°Yea... That is a good idea. When they come to take my spot I''ll ask that.¡± ¡°You should just leave your post and come and pick me up and put me in your pocket. I''ll keep giving you good ideas.¡± ¡°...What do you look like?¡± ¡°I''m in the form of a little mouse right now. But I''m not a little mouse.¡± ¡°How can I tell you apart from other mice then?¡± ¡°Well¡­ I''ll guide you to me. Then I can keep giving you good ideas and be close to you.¡± I guide the pirate to myself. He notices me and moves to crush me but I tell him that I am that mouse. He is a taller and bigger than the average person. I can''t see his hair color as he is wearing a blue bandana. He stoops and puts me into his pocket¡­ It absolutely stinks in here. From here I can have him show me around the island and point out the more important objectives¡­ The island is gigantic, it is a cluster of islands with planks placed between them to make it a giant base. Only two paths lead into the center of the base where the pirate ships are docked. There are several buildings, all almost identical. With no way to differentiate between the barracks or the food storage building. It would be very difficult to pinpoint which buildings would be more valuable to destroy. Near the center of the base, overlooking the ships is the biggest building. Easily big enough to hold all of the pirates if needed. It looks far more heavily fortified then the other buildings. Made out of thick stone instead of thin wood. Even though it is so close to the ships, I see portholes for mana cannons. The pirate takes me back to his post. I continue my line of questioning. ¡°If I were hungry, where would I go to get food here?¡± ¡°Yea... That would be the mess hall. It is the closest building to the main one right there.¡± He points at the building I was suspecting¡­ I don''t think that building matters though. I should have asked where the food is stored at instead. ¡°Where does the food come from though? You can''t have all the food in the mess hall. If I wanted like a big amount of food where would I look.¡± He racks his brain by my question¡­ Maybe he doesn''t know where the food is¡­ Maybe this is a waste of-. ¡°That would be the 2 storage buildings. They are right beside the equipment building but are more guarded¡­ I don''t know why¡­¡± It show''s of how smart Gold is. She knows that an army lives off its stomach. You can take away armor but people will fight naked if they have to. If you''re starving, you won''t have the energy to even wear heavy armor. Her own men would also want to steal food over stealing equipment. If everyone already has their own set of gear. A different set of gear is less appealing than extra meals everyday. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Wow that is a lot of information you just gave me¡­ I guess that all makes sense though¡­ Who is Gold though? If you meant where the gold is¡­ I don''t know. Our boss keeps it all secret. We only get our pay when we get shore leave every few years.¡± ¡°Wait¡­ You can hear me even if I don''t want you too...¡± ¡°Huh?¡± So I can''t think of¡­ Anything bad now right now¡­ Like about my arm- NO! Don''t think about anything! Stay zen. Don''t think of anything. ¡°Well¡­ Instead of just repeating don''t think of anything¡­ Why don''t you just not think of anything? Yelling don''t think of anything in my head is kind of annoying.¡± ¡°Sorry¡­ I''ll try¡­ I just¡­ Think a lot more than most because I am a god.¡± ¡°Yea... That makes sense...¡± We head towards his post still¡­ I have to wait an entire hour of not speaking¡­ I start to meditate until I feel him moving again. Has it been an hour? ¡°Yea¡­ It''s been an hour.¡± ¡°Well, can you show me around the island?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ That thing you said about not guarding though¡­ They yelled at me for asking.¡± ¡°Sorry, some people are just idiots.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I thought your question was good.¡± ¡°Can you show me around now?¡± ¡°Yea... You said you were hungry right? Let''s head to the mess hall first cuz I''m hungry too.¡± He takes me into the mess hall¡­ I hear what sounds like bowls clicking together. I wonder what they-. I get a hot liquid poured on me. Son of a bitch that''s hot! ¡°Yea... It stings a little against my skin too. How else was I going to feed you?¡± I taste the liquid¡­ It takes like some type of stew¡­ It isn''t bad but now I''m covered in hot stew. I hear another pirate yell out. ¡°Hey doofus! You eat with your mouth not your shirt pocket!¡± At the same time I hear the pirate yell out in my head as well as out loud. ¡°My name is Defus, not doofus you idiot!¡± He screams loud enough to startle me. The other person must have also been scared because he didn''t make any other replies¡­ I try my hardest to not think of anything in this time. After about 10 minutes of staying still Defus gets up and we leave. ¡°Can you finally show me around?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ Which building do you want to know more about?¡± ¡°Can you go over each one?¡± He leads me around the base. My little head pokes out of his shirt pocket. It takes about 2 hours for him to show me the buildings. Altogether there are about 8 barracks, 2 equipment, 2 food storage, 2 supplies, the mess hall, the main building and a ship docking building for storing items for later storage near the ship docks¡­ I subtlety ask about the prisoners location¡­ He said they are somewhere in the main building. If I had to guess, I would say walking from one end of the cluster of islands to the other would take around an hour¡­ It is an extremely huge base¡­ I call out in my head. ¡°Thanks for the help Defus. I''ll make sure to consider you for my next demigod. Also, you probably shouldn''t tell anyone about me or they''ll think you are crazy.¡± ¡°Yea... Alright...¡± I use the code word to break out telepathic bond. I can hear Purple wheezing heavily now¡­ Is it really that difficult to hold the link for a few hours¡­ Shit! We''re going to have to put off the invasion if Purple is too worn out to link us together¡­ Unless he can get some sleep before then. I jump into the water to clean myself off before transforming into a human and swimming to the cluster of rocks I am supposed to meet Purple at¡­ He looks in bad shape¡­ That did take a lot of of him. We head back to the ships¡­ If Purple isn''t ready we can''t do it. He is too important to the mission. Being the only communication between the different troops. He needs to be ready. Flying back to the ships, Purple starts to fall, unable to even fly with how worn down he is. I catch him before he hits the water but if he is in such a bad shape¡­ I don''t think he''ll be able to hold a link up for very long between 6 people¡­ I might have to rethink my communication strategy¡­ We make it back to the ships and I tell everyone we might not attack tonight. We still need to go over the plans more. I have to find a better way to keep in contact with all my generals¡­ Coming up with an idea like this on the spot might be impossible though. I wish I would have known beforehand that Purple could only hold links for so long¡­ Think¡­ THINK DAMN IT! This is too important to not have for this fight! I bash myself in the head trying and force some ideas out¡­ I got an idea but¡­ It might not work¡­ It would only be a connection between me and my generals. They wouldn''t be able to hear each other¡­ I have to think of something better than that¡­ That method also takes a huge portion of my mana for each person I''m linked with¡­ FUCK! THINK DAMN IT! EVERYONE IS COUNTING ON YOU! Before my next step¡­ I have to make sure my backup method even works. I form a little slime familiar. This familiar is also an illusionist. It will mimic the idea of Gyzmo''s. Where they will replicate the words I say, since I''m mentally linked with my familiars, the act should be instantaneous. If I didn''t have the level 50 champion skill calm during battle... I doubt I would be able to use this method because the feedback from fighting would mask everything. The ability to block out all unnecessary noises is extremely helpful for communication purposes¡­ I rethink which familiar I use¡­ One that could go into their ears would work better but I don''t know any creature like that. The slime will have to remain in position between the persons head and helmet but sticking to it. Perhaps I could rig up a spider silk ear holder for them so they don''t fall off¡­ This idea is ridiculous¡­ I still don''t even know if it works. So I hand the slime over to Lance to test. I fly far enough away for him to not be able to hear and start to talk. When I hear Lance confirm he can hear me the test is a success¡­ Sort of. It will still take 10% of my mana per person¡­ Unless I split the single slime up and see if it still works. I break the slime into three parts and give one to each general. Asking again if they can hear me with all three confirming¡­ I now have to attempt it with more people I need to stay in contact with¡­ It seems that we are still on for attacking tonight even if Purple isn''t ready. Chapter 125 Gobbers day off Gobber''s point of view Hilda gave me the day off¡­ And herself the day off. She took Kite''s advice to heart¡­ The two of us should be asking for help, so we left our children at the daycare to make friends with the other children. Hilda shouldn''t have been shielding herself from making friends so it would be easier to leave. She is soaking in the hot springs the entire day¡­ While she is doing that¡­ I''m going to explore the places we have portals too. I head to the lizard man island first but after rushing around and seeing nothing, I head to the mouse people''s village. It is very calm and peaceful, I decide to buy a few things for the kids and Hilda. Necklace''s for my girls and a ring I''ll have a gem added to for my wife. Back to the bigger matter¡­ Exploring, I head outside the village almost at a full sprint. I want to see this entire island by today. A few hours of exploring the woods and shores of the village with not much to see. Some monsters that ran away immediately, too small to worry about. The only place I have left to check is mountains to the south of the village. I start an arduous climb. The mountain is almost a sheer cliff face, making it far more difficult to climb. I''m so pumped to have a break I don''t care, I''m going to run myself ragged today. Climbing it alone is dangerous but even if I fall, I still don''t think it would kill me. After climbing for about 50 feet I reach the first ledge. I look around¡­ I see a man up here¡­ As I get closer, I start to notice more things about this man. He has a mask on his face with a rather large nose. Two wings poke out of his back¡­ Everything else is covered in a robe but those two things make him very distinguished. The closer I get¡­ The more I think that isn''t a mask at all but his actual face. He speaks and the thought that it was a mask is shattered. ¡°You there! What are you doing on my mountain?¡± ¡°Just exploring. I''ll be on my way to the top if you don''t mind.¡± ¡°I do mind. It is surprising you haven''t heard of me. The villagers should have told you to avoid this mountain as a very strong demon lives here.¡± ¡°Ah, is the strong demon at the top? I''m very excited.¡± I let a grin slip onto my face as I get excited before he answers. ¡°NO! I am the strong demon you fool! If you don''t leave this mountain, I''ll curse you so lumps will appear all over your body!¡± ¡°That doesn''t sound too bad¡­ I bet I could kill you before you could curse me though.¡± The man starts to look more flustered. He pulls out a gourd and continues to speak. ¡°If you step any closer, I''ll open this gourd and flood the entire island with sake.¡± ¡°That doesn''t even sound like a threat to me.¡± I take a few steps closer to him he panics and drops the gourd he had. Pulling out what looks to be a fan of some kind. Yelling now as I am getting close to him. ¡°If I wave this fan at you, you''ll lose your soul!¡± ¡°...The main question I''m asking is¡­ Why didn''t you start with the fan. You kept getting worse and worse as I got closer¡­ I''m beginning to doubt you have any real power and you were just trying to keep me from climbing to the top.¡± ¡°Don''t be foolish and throw your life away. If you climb to the top thunder will strike you where you stand and you''ll be killed on the spot!¡± ¡°ENOUGH OF THIS!¡± I start to run at him but he only shrieks in fear as I get close. He continues to speak. ¡°Stop, stop! I''ll serve you if you don''t kill me. You must be a splendid man to be able to see through my tricks.¡±
Pet tamed Tengu
¡°So what is your name tengu?¡± ¡°It¡­ It is Waashaakikaashaa.¡± ¡°¡­ My children wont be able to say that name¡­ Can I call you Kikaa instead?¡± ¡°I guess¡­ I''m still surprised you were a beast tamer¡­ I had assumed you were a warrior of some sort and when you went to sleep I could flee from you¡­ I guess since you''ve tamed me I should urge you not to continue further.¡± ¡°Why shouldn''t I go further?¡± ¡°The real reason I sit here and attempt to get people to leave this mountain is there is a dangerous oni at the top of this mountain. He is an ogre variant¡­ A humanoid you wouldn''t be able to tame so there is no reason to continue further¡­ A single person like you would never hope to beat a giant like him.¡± He must have realized what he had said only made me more excited. YES! Someone to test my new classes against. Two weeks in that tree was more than enough for me to outpace the other two. With the new shield Kite had made me, I need to practice against something very strong. I talk to Kikaa. ¡°Listen¡­ I''ll only go up there and talk to him¡­ If we fight and I don''t think I can beat him¡­ We''ll just run.¡± ¡°Master¡­ You can''t seriously think you are as strong as an oni. Their defenses are known to be almost impenetrable. Their skin is a thick as iron, you stand no chance against him. Even if you can harm him they do not feel pain.¡± I start to climb the mountain at the protest of my new pet. It is about twice as high up as the other climb, if I fall from this height, I would be in trouble¡­ I have to make sure to not get thrown from this mountain or I could actually die. I get to the top¡­ It is smaller than I thought it would be. At the peak is barely enough room to breath let alone live. The only thing here is a tiny cave with a giant red bear taking up the majority of it. On a second glance, I realize that isn''t fur but rippling blood colored muscles¡­ That must be the oni. He moves his feet to the exit of the cave and stands up¡­ A massive monster easily twice my height. He turns around and pulls something out of the cave. I hear Kikaa whisper. ¡°You just missed your only chance at survival when you didn''t attack him without his weapon. Once he gets his club he will be unbeatable.¡± I wait until he manages to get his club out. It takes him 30 seconds to finally manage it¡­ It is as if he was waiting for me to attack him before he was prepared. His club is larger than myself. Even with all my tank classes¡­ I can''t get struck by that or it will be the end. The oni speaks but I can''t understand it. Kikaa has to translate and he only speaks giant slightly. ¡°He roughly said¡­ You are an honorable opponent for waiting until he was ready. He''ll make your death as quick and painless as possible because of this.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I let out an excited laugh before speaking to Kikaa. ¡°Tell him in giant I will also make his death as painless as possible because he is honoring me.¡± I hear Kikaa speak some words with a quiver in his voice before he backs away. The oni roars almost loud enough to pop my ear drums. I take it that is the start of the fight. He rushes forwards at me but I don''t back down. Slamming into each other, my rapier pierces directly through his club, catching one of his 7 fingers holding the club. The oni doesn''t even wince from the pain. Only smiles at the sight of his blood. He drags his club across the ground trying to throw me off the mountain. I jump over it throwing three more thrusts into his hand before landing on the other side of the club. I run under his legs, sliding to fit as I stab upwards several times. This adamantine tip Kite put on my drill rapier is beyond strong. It is piercing a hide as tough as iron as if it was wood. The spinning action digging in and ripping parts of flesh out as well. The oni has made no indication of being hurt yet. He swings his club around still sliding it across the ground. I''m ready to jump before I realize that is where he is aiming for. I duck under this club swing. Falling completely prone on the ground to avoid being struck. If he had swung lighter, he could have shifted his aim but he swung so hard the wind from the swing was more intense then any storm I''ve been in. I kick up off the ground and climb his exposed leg to get a better vantage point for my attacks. Thrusting the rapier into his face several times, even catching one of his eyes¡­ He still makes no sign he is in pain¡­ What is wrong with h-. The club comes at me again. Shit! This time an overhead swing. If I hadn''t gotten used to avoiding deadly attacks Kite would throw at me, I would have been made into paste right then. Barely rolling out of the way. I pierce his exposed hand that is holding the club. If I can get enough blood to flow the club might slip from his hands. He drags the club towards me again. This time slow enough for me to jump off it and land a few more attacks against him. Vaulting over him, I even land a few thrusts into his unguarded back. With still no sigh of pain yet. Are oni''s just immune to pain? Do they fight with no fear of pain or death? He swings his club as hard as he can again. I don''t think I can dodge it this time. I move to parry him but decide that wont be enough. He''ll easily overpower me so I strike at his hand in a last attempt to dislodge the club. With the blood already on the club combined with my strike, the club flies loose just before it connects with me. Still enough impact from the swing to force me ten feet back. The club goes flying off the cliff while I almost slide off. Barely catching myself by digging my feet into the ground near the edge. I hear Kikaa yell from the sidelines now. ¡°Watch out for his horns now! He''ll try to impale you on them but they are his weakness! If you can hold onto his horns for long enough his power will falter.¡± That is all I needed to hear. The oni begins to speak again. In giant and Kikaa has to translate. ¡°He said he wants to make it a test of strength against you¡­ He''ll let you get to where you were when the fight started and then he''ll charge you with his horns. Don''t do it master, you have him beat now that he doesn''t have his club. Just keep whittling him down.¡± I calmly put my weapon away. I managed to hold onto it somehow even when almost thrown to my death. I pull out my shield now¡­ The new shield Kite had given me. To anyone else who would see the shield they would not assume it was a shield¡­ Several tubes exit out towards myself. The shield is almost unwieldy in size, a giant shield that would be very heavy to hold by anyone who wasn''t extremely strong. I prep for the final confrontation. The oni takes his place across from me. I pull my shield in front of me as he lowers his head to charge at me like a bull. He starts to charge. I have to wait until he is in range to active the shields new ability. He is almost in range, head lowered to goring level. I''m not going to let him ruin my new shield. His head finally reaches close enough for me to hit it. I active the shield and active all ten wind scrolls at once. Spinning me so fast that when I slam the shield into the oni''s head it spins his body around completely. I also spin several times from the sheer wind pressure. If the oni''s strike was the strongest wind I had ever felt before. This wind was easily 10 times as strong. Almost forming a mini hurricane of force from the blow. The oni is down. I jump onto his back¡­ Checking his pulse I see that he was only knocked unconscious. I call out to Kikaa. ¡°Hey¡­ Do you got some water to wake this oni up?¡± ¡°You just defeated an oni¡­ And you want to wake it up right afterwords? Speaking of which¡­ WHAT THE DEATH GOD WAS THAT ATTACK!? You made the wind pressure change enough for me to have to dig into the ground 30 feet away from you so I wouldn''t be blown away.¡± ¡°Ahh¡­ This shield is a gift from my master.¡± ¡°¡­A monster like you has a master¡­ Is it a demigod?¡± ¡°Nope. Just a normal human¡­ I guess I wouldn''t say normal. Here, wake him up while I grab a hold of his horns so he doesn''t try anything.¡± I''m now sitting on this oni''s back while holding his horns, waiting for Kikaa to splash water in his face. He pulls out the same gourd he said was special and could flood the entire island. I ask him about it. ¡°Ah, it is indeed a special gourd, it has the tweeked version of the endless water supply enchant to make endless sake¡­ It''s okay to splash this on his face right?¡± ¡°Sure¡­ You''re going to have to explain all these weird magic items to my master later.¡± He splashes the sake on the oni''s face. He goes to stand up but doesn''t have the power to since I am holding his horns. The giant has become so weak he can''t even lift me now. He struggles for a few seconds then he starts to cry. This oni who had shown no emotions before is now crying like a giant baby. I ask Kikaa. ¡°How do I tame this oni?¡± ¡°You can''t, he is a variant of an ogre. He isn''t a monster.¡± ¡°¡­ Is there a way to make him serve me?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I''m not sure, they are said to be honorable and cowardly at the same time¡­ It all comes down to their horns. I think I''ve heard that if you cut a horn off he''ll be weak forever. If you tie a string around a horn. He''ll only be strong when you deem him to be strong though.¡± ¡°Do you got a piece of string I can borrow then?¡± Chapter 126 Calm before the storm With the new information that I can communicate to everyone with my familiar. The mana reserved isn''t that bad. Only taking 10% with the ability to split itself into smaller versions. I could split it into 16 smaller slimes before I lose the ability to communicate with them. 16 is my limit¡­ And having that many makes the communication one way. So I can do 8 with the communication being able to go both ways¡­ That isn''t that bad¡­ I can work with this but it still isn''t perfect. Having a way to communicate that doesn''t take 10% of my mana would be better. I''ll have to put more effort into figuring something out. I make another message in the cafeteria of the fortress. ¡°Everyone¡­ You have 1 day of peace left¡­ Tonight will be the attack¡­ Tomorrow we will be at war. Use this day to spend with your families¡­ This might be the last time you get your chance¡­ Spend your day wisely.¡± I head to the fortress planning room. Calling for all my generals to come with me. With the new idea of which buildings are important¡­ I need to make sure everyone understands the mission for tonight. The generals show up¡­ We have to wait for Zergnar but he plays one of the biggest parts in this attack so he needs to be here. He finally shows up and I begin the meeting. ¡°Here is a crudely drawn map of the enemy base. From the middle, the position of the mess hall to the side of the building is the only thing you can use as a focal point for the map. Each seperate building surrounding the main one is exactly the same proportions. Perhaps to make it a harder target to assault as you wouldn''t know what was inside each building. Zergnar each of the buildings that are circled are the ones you need to attack. If we can starve the pirates, we might be able to win this war tonight.¡± Each building is shown on the map, the mess hall and is the only building that doesn''t have a mirror version. Even the dock storage is on both sides, the water path leading in and out set beside through the very middle. It would be very difficult to assault this island because of the way the defenses are set up. Anything besides a sneak attack would get gunned down by cannon fire before it got close to the main building. Every other building is sacrificial because of this. Even the buildings with food, if you only destroyed one¡­ They would still have another building full of food after they had gotten rid of the threat. ¡°Everyone has their mission¡­ We will start in a matter of hours¡­ Under the cover of dark our stealth forces will go in and attempt to rescue the children and kill the leader. 30 minutes after we start, Lance will lure out some ships to a trap, in that time I hope for our stealth teams to escape or at the very least be set-up for an attack once the commotion starts. If we have to wait for a chance to escape, we will. After the ships prepared to fight leave the dock, that is when we''ll start the attack on the opposite side with the main force. This time will also be when the black turtles will ambush the remaining unprepared ships. This is the last chance to say anything before we head to war¡­¡± I look through the group this time Hilda has also shown up. She is still a general to me, no Gobber though¡­ Which is weird¡­ He must be busy. As I think that, a giant creature enters the room. We all go to grab for our weapons until we see what it is. Gobber riding on his shoulders. ¡°Sorry I''m late master. I got sidetracked with exploring and got in a fight with this big guy. I''m going to need more wind scrolls but the shield test was a huge success.¡± This red ogre is surprisingly big. Even bigger than Troll. Behind him is a¡­ Red faced creature with a giant nose¡­ What has Gobber been up to? He remembers something and speaks again. ¡°Oh yea, master. Kikaa has a gourd that is a supply of never ending sake. You should look at it.¡± Wait, what!? How is that possible. I know that you can make a never ending water source¡­ How would making a never ending sake source be possible¡­ I start thinking¡­ I don''t understand it but I have too look at the tengu and question him. ¡°Can I see the gourd?¡± Kikaa pulls it out from his side pouch. It looks just like a regular gourd. I check it with detect¡­ It is just a never ending water source¡­ How does that make sense¡­ I don''t have any chance of learning it if disassembled¡­ Does that mean if I enchanted a cup with never ending water when it is filled with a different type of liquid it would constantly make it? I''ll have to experiment more when I''m not so busy. Everyone is now looking at me as I examined every little thing about the gourd for a few minutes¡­ ¡°Sorry about that everyone¡­ My brain starts working overtime when it comes to something I don''t understand.¡± As if they had all practiced saying it. All of them say. ¡°We know.¡± The group breaks apart. I hold back Trice, Leaf, Shikki, Swift, Gargarz, Blue, Pokodo, Methodis, Kline, Fayeth, and Hilda to stay behind¡­ I''ve kept these people behind to discuss the plans in further detail. The big picture stuff is fine for the bulk of my generals but the more nuanced discussion should be left to the thinkers of the army. The room is full of my smartest generals now, it is time to speak. ¡°So, I''ve kept you all here to discuss the plan in further detail. Perhaps even try to shoot holes into the plan.¡± Trice is the first to speak. ¡°Yes¡­ The idea is fine, there are just some things we can do to improve the success chance and future crippling effects on the army. Instead of assaulting this side, we should launch another stealth team to steal the food, equipment and supplies from these buildings while the main force distracts everyone else. This will give us food, equipment and supplies to barter with if they decide to surrender.¡± ¡°Point taken, who would be the best to lead this attack?¡± ¡°I would suggest a team of ninjas but since we don''t have their support yet. I would say give Nargzar some men to handle it.¡± ¡°That would take emphasis off of the rescue of the kidnapped children though... Nargzar is too valuable to put anywhere else besides that mission.¡± Trice grabs her chin with one of her hands. Then looks over at Fayeth, in which case Fayeth speaks up. ¡°I''ll handle the sabotage mission.¡± Trice continues speaking after her. ¡°...Hmm¡­ Well I guess anyone would do as long as the main force is distracting enough. The biggest problem is hauling all the supplies and food away. The equipment, supplies and food for an army isn''t going to be light¡­ Perhaps targeting each building to burn to the group would make more sense then attempting to steal everything.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°No, you are definitely on the right track. If that group uses the castle mimic, they should be able to store everything without much effort. From moving the mimic before, they just have to be careful with it. Everything inside will most likely fall and break if it isn''t properly held in place while moving. I''ll have some men make sure everything is held down and you will have to be careful while moving the mimic.¡± Trice responds to my answer. ¡°That would work¡­ Another problem then is instead of having the griffin riders focus on burning down the food storage buildings. They can focus on burning the buildings closest to the assaulting force. This would draw more attention away from the other side of the island as well...¡± ¡°Noted, I''ll have to discuss the new plans with Zergnar to make sure he understands his new mission.¡± Shikki speaks next. ¡°Master¡­ If it wouldn''t be too much trouble¡­ I would like to acquisition extra mana canisters as well as a few mana crystals to help in the destruction of the ships.¡± ¡°Of course Shikki, I give you full permission to take the extra stockpile of mana canister''s and 20% of the mana crystals for your mission.¡± Trice speaks again. ¡°I would like to get a few extra air helmets and stick propellers to help in sinking their ships. Once the ships leave the bay, we can start poking holes into the belly of the ships before they manage to make it to open water. Even helping with sinking one ship might help Lance win his battle.¡± I can tell she is asking because she is worried about Lance¡­ In all honesty I feel that Lance needs no help, he will have the easiest battle to fight. I doubt even if he was outnumbered 2 to 1 he could still defeat the other ships. If it will help keep Trice calm for her own mission I''ll allow it. ¡°That makes sense. Before you get into position, Trice you''re turtle will stay submerged the entire process, drilling holes while Shikki''s surfaces and unleashes hell on the unsuspecting enemies. Blue, can you help out this group?¡± Blue nods at hearing his name but then speaks against it. ¡°I should accompany you since the leader is a female. I might be able to charm her and have this entire war avoided by her own words. Trice can handle her group without my help.¡± Swift steps forwards next. ¡°I would like to request the aid of the troll, the red ogre and the giant golem for the assault force. This mission could be seen by the enemy as a test of power and if they see very threatening giants they may back off and even acknowledge our power as an army.¡± I had already planned on doing that. As soon as I seen the red ogre enter I was planning out armor and a weapon for him¡­ With a few hours left before nighttime, it will be patchwork compared to my other elite troops like Troll''s and Rock''s. Troll has a lightweight set of leather gear made for him to cover up most parts of his body. He doesn''t need it but the iron plate covering his heart and iron helmet covering his head will help him survive lucky strikes from enemies. Rock is another case of why armor a giant golem made out of stone. He doesn''t need armor or a weapon but I''ve made him one none the less. His armor is similar to a giant version of Green''s. Soil covered clothing he can harden with his control nature. He can''t harden his own body so the increase in protection is like having another layer of rock they need to get through before they start dealing any actual damage to him. A giant golem covered in a thin layer of cloth is weird to see but it does help protect him. He is primarily a caster so his weapon is gloves that are enchanted with a few different types of magic. ¡°I was already planning that. I''ll have a crude set of armor and a weapon made for that ogre before the fight tonight. Anything else?¡± Kline steps forwards next¡­ I didn''t expect him too¡­ I only let him stick around because he would have been the only healer left out at that point. ¡°I would like Gobber to lead the main forces in the assault force.¡± Hilda only looks over at him confused¡­ I doubt she expected Gobber to be brought up by anyone besides myself. She goes to protest but Kline cuts her off. ¡°He is Kite''s strongest general¡­ None of us can doubt that... If we don''t have the full force of the army behind this first assault¡­ There could be far more casualties without Gobber leading our men.¡± Hilda¡­ Knowing that Kline is right¡­ Begrudgingly agrees to this. With Gobber leading my main force¡­ I do feel better about their chances of fighting. They might be able to hold the beach until morning with Gobber leading. I ask again. ¡°With that¡­ Does anyone have anything else to add?¡± ...No one speaks up. It seems with the rearranging of the plan I will have to talk to a few people before the mission starts. I send an escort to get Nami and her ninjas while I do last minute preparations for this night raid. I explain the new mission to each general involved. Help make a very spotty set of gear and talk to Gobber''s new friends. Kikaa is a tengu, he doesn''t have any classes but he exceeds in telling lies. The ogre Gobber had brought back was an oni. With Gobber besting it in a fight and tying a string around it''s horn, it will serve him. I ask the oni for his name and he says Tenshitakato. I''ll call him Tenshi for now. I tell him about the upcoming battle and he only smiles as he puts the iron plated shirt on to cover his chest. I hand him a helmet and quickly make another bat like weapon for him. Similar to Trolls but more hastily constructed. With that, Nami shows up and the stealth team''s are now ready to go¡­ I take a deep breath and head to the ships¡­ Nami''s group will have to travel by rowboat around the side where the cluster of rocks are. I fly my team in and wait until Nami''s team reaches ours with their rowboat¡­ I whisper into my slime communicator. ¡°Stealth mission is starting now.¡± Chapter 127 First strike Nami''s point of view We sneak onto the edge of the cluster of islands under the cover of darkness. Our group consists of 10 people exactly. 6 of my men. Myself, Leon, Nargzar and Fast¡­ While I''ve been training with my men for years¡­ The men Kite gave me far surpass them in fighting skill¡­ My ninjas will not be beaten in stealth missions though. We approach our first target. The outside door of the main building. We stealthily made it there without any problems. Without the sight of any men on the outside, I think there is a curfew put on being outside during night. This would make spotting potential threats easier and keep a strict rule over the unruly pirates. It would also cut down on crimes committed by her own men. We move into position to ambush but Kite''s team beats us to it. Tiny animals rush at the door and turn into full size monsters to finish both the guards off simultaneously. The precision of the attack is terrifying. After that point, Kite grabs both corpses and throws them into the shadows near our position. We follow in behind them¡­ I think anyways, they are all so small and well concealed by the darkness it is hard to even tell they are here. Especially Kite¡­ He is truly a threatening enemy to fight with his wide variety of skills. We continue onwards¡­ The children could be in any location so I need to get a hold of a pirate to interrogate him. We continue down the hallway and the only reason I know Kite has been this direction is because of a small amount of blood on one of the walls. He must have killed more people here and hid their bodies in a void bag. My group goes a different direction then them. This is the biggest building¡­ If I have to check every single room it will take hours to do so. We find the first set of guards¡­ Leon and Nargzar both move to kill but I stop them. I motion for them to attack the one on the left leaving the one on the right alone. We move in unison and I grab mine right as they kill the other. I hold my hand over his mouth and my blade to the guards throat. Cutting in a tiny bit to show how sharp it is and that if my demands are not met, he is a dead man. I very quietly whisper into his ear. ¡°If you make any noise besides a whisper¡­ I''ll cut your head off. Now¡­ Tell me where the prisoners are held in this building." I take my hand off his mouth¡­ Leaving it close so if he attempts to scream I can cover it while slitting his throat. ¡°The¡­ There are two prisons. One on each side of the building¡­ The closest one is down this hallway¡­ Then make a right.. Then another right¡­ Then a left after passing two hallways to the left¡­ There are two guards standing in front of the room¡­ The hallway is long enough that they will see you in signal for help¡­ You can''t free both prisons because of this...¡± Because he so cowardly gave me more information then I needed¡­ I knock him out with the butt of my sword. This is a problem then¡­ How are we supposed to break into both prisons then?¡­ We can''t, it is impossible. I start to feel fear build up in me... If we can''t free both sets of prisoners... We''ll have to leave potentially half. I start to hyperventilate trying to think of something. Leon answers the question. ¡°Me, Nargzar and Fast will split off of your group and free the other prisoners. We''ll have Kite contact you when we are in position but we should tell him about this before hand.¡± ¡°A-alright.¡± I fill myself with more resolve then I had before. I can''t fail this mission¡­ If I do¡­ No I can''t think like that. I will not fail. That is the only way I can think. We head into position after talking with Kite. We''re going to wait for the commotion of the outside attack to strike both prisons at the same time. Kite is in a close position to where he thinks the leader is¡­ We''ll only have one shot at this. Lance''s point of view I''m on one of the black daggers, heading in to attack. I''m attacking from the very south position of this island, where the main assault force will be heading in from the north east. I fire a few shots to get their attention¡­ I wait until I see ships start to move towards me before I start to retreat back to the trap. Behind a cluster of rocks lies the other ships. I''ll lead the enemy ships into a flanking position for the other ships to fire on them at. I take in a deep breath as I shout orders to the crew. ¡°Retreat! Hard retreat!¡± We''ve started the chase. 10 ships are all heading towards us. We''re outnumbered but with the drop on them, I doubt we''ll have much difficulty taking them out¡­ Even with the skeleton crew''s left to operate the ships¡­ I should be excited¡­ I should be scared out of my mind but¡­ I only wish I was part of the main assault crew. Making a name for myself on the battlefield¡­ This mission is too important to take lightly though. I take another breath as I steel myself for a hard fought naval mission. Leon''s point of view We waited for the bells to start going off. Everyone must have been alerted to the presence of the attack outside¡­ We look down the hallway and I expect the guards to move or panic at the sound of the bells going off¡­ They don''t even budge¡­ These two guards are far better than any of the other ones¡­ Perhaps because of the precious valuables they are guarding. These prisoners guarantee the murine folk will never rebel against them¡­ Well that ends today. All three of us rush at the guards¡­ Should I use my powers to take them out before they can even react? No, there is no need to against two guards. If worse comes to worse, I''ll use it to kill the enemies they can signal for. We have no healer with us so it would be too risky¡­ Even with a healer, I would be rendered fairly useless afterwords¡­ We all use our shuriken launchers. Nailing both the guards at the same time¡­ One reaches for the bell but collapses before he can ring it. We instantly win the fight before they can even fight back. We enter to see over 25 murine folk children inside prison cells¡­ Also inside is a few pirates who were being held prisoner¡­ Most likely for starting a fight or doing something stupid. One goes to yell but I throw a dagger into his throat before he can. He makes a gurgling noise before falling over dead. I say quietly. ¡°If anyone else tries to scream they are dead. We''re here to free the murine folk children and bring them back to their village. If you stay quiet I''ll let you all off the-.¡± One of the other men tries to scream and another dagger ends up in his throat next¡­ None of the children even seem to be worried about the sudden deaths of the two men inside and the two bodies visible on the outside of the room. We free the children and they all follow obediently¡­ As if they were brainwashed into following any order given to them¡­ Fuck, this makes it easier but I can only feel bad for them¡­ Nami''s point of view We time our attack with Leon''s. All of us ninjas rush forwards at the same time they do. I go to throw my shurikens out and manage to kill one of the guards but¡­ My men couldn''t manage to kill the other one fast enough. Three kunai knives hit him but he manages to ring the bell before I can catch him with a fourth kunai to his right eye. He makes a loud scream before he falls over¡­ Getting a solid two rings out of the bell before he fell over¡­ FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK! Guards will be here any second to investigate. We head inside and I see over 25 murine children here¡­ A few pirates are screaming for help when we enter. I kill all five of them¡­ We open the cell the children are in and tell them to follow right as the first wave of enemies shows up¡­ FUCK! 6 men block our path now with more on the way most likely. I summon my substitute from my void bag and rush them. Fighting against all six with my substitute. I kill them all in a few seconds but one managed to clip my arm with a lucky hit¡­ Blood starts pouring out enough to become a problem later on. Fuck! We proceed down the hallway but are attacked again by an even larger number¡­ God''s please help me! Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Zergnar''s point of view We''re supposed to attack the buildings close to where the main assault force is. I beat them there and start attacking. The main building that needs to be burned is the food supplies. That is the most important and first target. I call out loud enough for the 80 griffin riders to hear me. ¡°DROP DOWN CLOSER! WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE''RE ON MARK!¡± We start to descend into mana cannon range. If the main assault force had started drawing attention this would be impossible. Since they haven''t, we can make sure the most important building is destroyed before they start firing on us. The first pass was perfect. The entire roof of the building was eaten away by the acid. We turn around for our next run when I hear the first cannon go off. I yell out. ¡°DON''T FLY UP YET! WE NEED THIS BUILDING TO CATCH FIRE!¡± The mana cannons fire at us, one barely missing me. It would be a death sentence to get struck. One of us do as we go in for our second bombing run. Even under heavy fire we finish the main building off¡­ I breath a sigh of relief as I yell out again. ¡°GET OUT OF RANGE OF THE CANNONS NOW WE''LL KEEP BOMBING FROM A SAFE DISTANCE IN THE AIR!!!¡± Darkclaw''s point of view I fly passed the griffin riders who are attempting to burn a building down. Flying close to each building. Throwing out several flames as I do. The sight of a dragon is really scaring most of the people. My breath isn''t strong enough to burn a building down unless I use my focused breath. I only have a limited amount of that I can use each day. I''m saving it for later attacks. Master told me to harass but I''m looking for something in particular first. Greed answers me. ¡°This entire base looks nothing like it did before. I can''t feel gold anywhere around here. We''re going to have to do a quick pass by of the main building to see if I can sense it.¡± ¡°How are we going to get into the building if it is made out of stone?¡± ¡°We only need to know its location, if this fight goes right we''ll be the first to find it and we can claim a portion of it as our reward for finding it.¡± ¡°Alright, we''ll find it then go back to harassing.¡± I fly over the main building¡­ I still don''t sense anything. Greed yells out. ¡°It has to be here¡­ Where else would the treasure be¡­ FUCKING DAMN IT! She pulled something I would do and is hiding it all offshore! FUCK! That means we might never find the treasure.¡± While I''m a bit disappointed, I still have a job to do. I get back to attacking small groups of pirates and slowing down the progress of the group forming up. That way the main force can keep fighting for longer. I start to get close but hear cannon fire and fly upwards just as I avoid it. Attacking is going to be difficult to do except in small bursts. Fayeth''s point of view At the first sound of mana cannon fire I start eating through the backside of the food storage building with acid Kite had given me. The 20 men I was given are a mixture of every crew. Not very stealthy for a stealth mission but with the spectacle happening on the opposite side of the island. We don''t need to be very sneaky. We dissolve an entrance size hole into the wall closest to the ocean. This building is on the west side of the island. We have 5 rowboats set-up for our escape where we''ll meet back with the main force¡­ IT HAS BEEN A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE I''VE BEEN THIS EXCITED! I open the castle mimic up and lay it on the ground while the 20 soldiers and myself start filling it as quickly as possible. Throwing in as much food as fast as we can. The storage would be impossible without this weird box. I''ve been inside but to be able to use this as a void storage bag without any weight restrictions¡­ That takes a smart person to think of¡­ We don''t leave a single bag of grain or loaf of bread around and move out the room without a single enemy being aware of our exploits. A smile comes across my face as a single tear of happiness is shed. I can''t thank Kite enough for not putting me through the same boring routine. I feel my position in his army is now solidified with this act¡­ I''m glad I was given a mission. Gobber''s point of view We land on the north east side of the island with the ships all landing together. Their mana cannons won''t be able to reach this beach so they''ll have to come at us with troops instead of trying to reach us. We are still in range of some of the buildings so some of the men stay behind to operate the mana cannons. Wham! Wham! Boom! The cannons all fire at the closest building destroying it after a single volley from the ships. The enemies start trickling out to meet us. Then it starts to become more and more¡­ Soon enough the sand has become a battlefield of uncoordinated enemies with us meeting them head on. They rush at us one at a time at first. But after seeing our formations they quickly stop and wait for more numbers. They start to form up their own ranks, I hear a general of theirs yelling orders and pull out my kniferifle Kite had made me. Eying up a shot, I take him out, throwing their troops into chaos. Before they can get a handle on the situation I call for charge from our troops. Archers in the back lines firing volley after volley of arrows into their ranks before we reach them. We stay in formation, side by side with our comrades as their group is in disarray. Hundreds of our men slam into hundreds of their mess of an army. Our three giant allies stick out far more than anyone else. They lead in front of our formation. Every person they run towards is either crushed without mercy or run as hard as they can away from them. Troll doesn''t use his bow, instead opting to just destroy them as we push forwards. Finally running out of enemies he pulls his bow out and fires it at the main building tearing a tree size hole in the wall. Without much difficulty, we''ve defeated the first wave. Our casualties only number in the single digits while theirs is easily in the hundreds now. If they keep fighting like this, we''ll win this war in a single night! We fall back and heal up outside of the mana cannon range. Charging in, we were in range for only a few moments. I doubt they would fire on their own men though. We fall back again but instead of charging at us stupidly like the first group¡­ This next group is staying back and waiting¡­ We could move in to attack them before they are ready. I call for a charge and as we enter range of the mana cannons they fire on us into their own men. A rock explodes right in front of me, killing the pirate I was running at before throwing me back 10 feet. I am almost knocked unconscious but I manage to yell out the word. ¡°Retreat!¡± Before I feel the warm liquid of my own blood flow down my face. I fight to remain conscious as I pray for a heal. Chapter 128 First strike part 2 Gold''s point of view Ding ding ding! I hear an alarm bell being sound in the comfort of my bed. Rousing me from my slumber. My husband sleeps through it so I have to shake him awake. I yell out to him. ¡°Wake up. We''re under attack.¡± In a drowse induced stupor he says. ¡°Who would be stupid enough to attack us?¡± I yell at him again. ¡°Get up and put your armor on. I need to go see what the situation is.¡± I exit my bedroom and enter the main room of my fortress. My father had given me this base but it was so full of weaknesses. Any force could come into the base and ruin the inner workings with a single attack. I reorganized everything so it would be impossible to assault the base thoroughly in one attack. The main entrance to my court room where two guards should be is wide open. I look right at the side door and it is wide open as well... I start to look to my left at the last door but I get interrupted as my view starts to spin around. Before I even realize what has happened. My head is cleaved form my body¡­ The last thing I hear is someone yell. ¡°SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!¡± I am dead. Shikki''s point of view We surface and unload on the two ships we are in between. They both sink, I have the black turtle fire another volley. If we can keep this up for another 20 minutes we''ll have all the ships sunk. By the time the 3rd and 4th ships are sunk. The next rounds of cannon fire are ready to be shot. We get through 10 ships before we start taking counter fire. Wham! It rocks the ship but the turtle is built with an extreme care. I doubt a hundred attack would break through this hull. I hear master speak through the smile. ¡°Shikki. If you think you''re getting too overwhelmed. Submerge and retreat. Let Trice handle it if you can''t.¡± Is master doubting his ships? Why, there is no way we can be sunk. 2 more ships down. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Another 4 ships. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! They hull of the ship is starting to show signs of damage. SHIT! We get 4 more ships. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! FUCK! About half of the troops are dead. The entire side of the turtle facing the building is destroyed. We need to destroy another ten ships to finish the mission¡­ ¡°Turn the ship towards the rest!¡± One of my men yell out¡­ ¡°We¡­ We can''t, We have no control over this ship any more. It can only go left.¡± ¡°THEN GO LEFT!¡± We start to move and take another volley of attacks. 60% of my troops are dead. SHIT! I yell out. ¡°Get us close to more ships then jump into the water. SWIM AS HARD AS YOU CAN ONCE WE''RE IN RANGE!¡± I hear master shout in my ear again. ¡°SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!¡± It is too late for that¡­ We''re in range of another cluster of ships¡­ Shrapnel has struck me in my head¡­ It takes heavy amounts of focus to stay conscious. All of my men have left¡­ I start clustering the remaining canisters together before another volley strikes the ship¡­ I stab myself in the leg to keep myself awake¡­ I finish gathering the rest of the canisters together. I grab the remaining mana crystals master had left me¡­ I yell out¡­ Even without no one around to hear it. ¡°FOR MASTER!!!¡± I force all of the crystals into one mana canister. I don''t see the explosion, it is so quick and fast I can only see light¡­ I am dead. Lance''s point of view I finish sinking the last ship. Our ships have taken some damage but nothing serious. If we weren''t outnumbered I doubt that even the small amount of damage we had taken would have happened. I look back towards the island and see a giant explosion. Bigger than any I''ve ever seen before. The explosion is so big it lights up the night sky for a few moments. I''m far away from the island and I can still see the explosion¡­ WHAT HAPPENED!? Gobber''s point of view Kline healed me up immediately after I was knocked down. We all escaped back to the beach, only a few of us died in the suicide attacks the pirates had made. I wait for the next wave to come and attack. We''ve killed at least 500 pirates altogether so far. They have no leader to stand behind. Continuing to rush at us like idiots out of a formation. Our archers pick off a portion and injure a larger portion. By the time they reach us they are in no shape to fight. We''ll easily beat them since we''re out of range of the mana can-. BOOOOOOM!!!!! A giant explosion covers up most of what I can see. What the death god was that!? Trice''s point of view We''ve sunk our third ship by drilling holes into the ships hull. Shikki''s ship is under heavy fire. I''ve had Kite get a hold of him and tell him to submerge. We''ll sink the rest of the ships where they won''t be able to attack us¡­ Eventually¡­ Maybe before we run out of air in our helmets¡­ Our fifth ship is sunk Shikki did not retreat, he remained on the surface. We head towards our sixth ship and now I can see how bad Shikki''s ship is doing. An entire portion of this ship is missing. I yell towards Kite again¡­ ¡°Shikki needs to be told to flee. His ship is falling apart!¡± Another 30 seconds go by before I hear Kite yell. ¡°SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!¡± Kite''s point of view We''re waiting inside the room I think is the main room of the building. For the attack. We''ve already cleared several rooms leading here of all the men inside and the three groups of guards on each door of this room. I hold my attack against the leader to pair up with the rescue missions. If I invade to early and they are alerted by my presence here. It could throw away our chances of saving the children. I hear a bell ringing as Trice yells into my ear. ¡°Shikki needs to be told to flee. His ship is falling apart!¡± I can''t¡­ If I yell now my cover will be blown. A women comes rushing out into the room. Is she the leader? It doesn''t matter I have to kill her. She is the only female I''ve seen inside so she must be important. I rush behind her in mouse form from the corner of the room we were hiding in. Changing back into a human and growing out my heirloom sword to full length before swinging it down on her neck. Her head is cleaved from her shoulders from the attack¡­ If she was the leader this mission is over. I yell into my slime communicator. ¡°SHIKKI RETREAT DAMN IT!¡± I''m ready to retreat as our mission here is done. I need to make sure this is the boss. A fully armored male comes rushing out of the room next and see''s the corpse on the ground. ¡°NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?¡± As he responds an explosion goes off. It is big enough to shake the entire building to its core. What the fuck just happened!? I lose track of myself thinking of this for a few seconds before I realize I''m still in the middle of the enemies base. I can''t worry about that right now. I go to move towards him but feel the room get colder¡­ With the corpse still in front of me I barely jump back out of pure instinct before I realize that the corpse has started floating mid air with a scythe appearing out of no where. SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!? The man tips over four barrels of blood that spill onto the floor. Weapons form out of the blood, I still don''t understand what is happening. I call out to my pets. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Get ready to fight! My attack didn''t work! Some of you block the side doors!¡± I barely get my sentence out before 30 of the blood weapons fly at myself. A few have also targeted my pets. Blue attempts to charm the floating corpse of a woman now before saying. ¡°N-no! I can''t charm her! She isn''t a person any more!¡± ¡°Then what is she!?¡± ¡°I-I don''t know!¡± She attacks with the weapons. Swinging several of them with herself. FUCK! My body is weighted down by these corpses I stored in my void storage pouch! I throw the storage pouch off myself just as it is struck with a blood weapon. The explosion isn''t bad but at close range I''m almost injured, the explosion would have done some damage if I didn''t have my mask down for this fight. The corpses come flying out of the bag when it is destroyed. I get a strange chill that something bad just happened, the floating corpse now smirks. Her skin starts to explode off of her. ¡°HAHAHA! YOU FOOL! YOU BROUGHT ME MINIONS TO FIGHT YOU!¡± The question of what she is has been answered. She is a human formed lich! What!? How is that even possible! A blue vial hangs around her neck¡­ I think I''ve read about this before, it is a phylactery. Humans can become liches if they have put their soul into a phylactery in which they carry around. I yell out. ¡°DESTROY THE BLUE VIAL AROUND HER NECK!¡± ¡°You won''t get the chance!¡± The night from the back has made another 50 blood weapons. The ones he had thrown around the room have been splattered into regular blood. I try to take him out of the fight with control blood. He must have an innate ability to control his own blood because he shrugs off my attempt to detain him. The lich starts making the bodies around me rise up to fight. I hear Neko yell out. ¡°I¡­ I can''t control these corpses¡­ Something else is!¡± I start to hear the sounds of people beating on the door Sock is holding shut. A second later I start to hear the same sounds on the door Red and Blue are holding shut. Neko rushes over to the door Sock is holding to help keep them shut. I throw out all of my shuriken''s, all are soaked up by corpses using themselves as shields. FUCK! I have to take the lich out! She can just continue to keep these corpses up and fighting until they are destroyed. I change into dragon form. The sight of me makes the male shocked as several blood weapons fly towards me. I unleash a powerful breath attack, without enough time to fill my mouth with wind scrolls or explosive liquid. 4 of the 10 corpses she has under her control were cooked by the attack into being rendered useless. Another 2 were hurt but as a corpse it doesn''t matter. She only smiles an undead smile as the rest of her flesh falls off her face. She is now 100% lich¡­ The noise of us fighting has drawn the attention of a cluster of pirates. 10 enter the main door. I just realized how dire our situation is. The longer this fight is drawn on for. The more corpses and blood they''ll get to use as ammunition. SHIT! I call out to my pets. ¡°Someone get the lich''s phylactery!¡± The pirates don''t understand what is going on right now. The only person they recognize is the male in the back room¡­ Maybe the corpses of some of their allies. I switch back into human form and am now ready to fight against these men but they don''t come. Only standing at the door blocking our escape as they try to grasp the situation. The man finally yells at them. ¡°KILL THE INTRUDERS YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!¡± With the threat of their pirate leader now against them. They all charge me. I have to pay attention to my sensory map to make sure none of the corpses are trying to sneak up on me. I cleave a person in half with my broadsword sized heirloom weapon. Their armor is paper thin compared to my troops. Even these elite guards go down with no problem. The situation I feared is now upon me. The corpses of the fresh troops start resurrecting¡­ The lich has also started creating skeletons to fight with her¡­ FUCKING FUCK! The blood of each corpse is coming out and now forming armor for the corpses¡­ These two work too well together. I call out to my troops. ¡°We need to kill them quickly or we will need to retreat!¡± I cast turn undead and it has an intense effect¡­ I look at my mana¡­ WHERE DID ALL MY MANA GO!? I''m down to 30% mana some how! Is it the lich''s doing!? If it reaches under 10% I''ll lose the ability to shape shift into a dragon. The corpses become far more shaking and sporadic in their movements. The blood armor looks to be the only thing holding them up. I turn back towards the lich¡­ The enemies in the room have become numerous but they can''t fight evenly against my elite pets. Another 20 pirates enter the room with the same situation as the last group. The doors being held shut by my pets are now being slammed in. Several holes appear on each door as weapons are being swung at them. In a few seconds each door is going to be broken through. ¡°SHIT!¡± I pull out a void bag I wish I didn''t need to use, I throw it up above the lich and just before it hits the ceiling, I throw a knife cutting it open. It spews out acid opening a hole right above her. I call out. ¡°We need to retreat!¡± I change into dragon form as my troops all rush towards the lich. Pirates spill into the rooms from the almost destroyed doors now. I grab her with my dragon hands as all of my pets change back into their small versions and we fly through the exit. We''re out! Flying up only ten feet out of the hole before Red falls off. Not being able to hold onto anything as we made our escape. I flap my wings backwards, changing my trajectory to fall down. The height at which she would fall for isn''t high enough to kill her. But she is falling right into the freshly made hole in the ceiling. I can''t hold on to the lich and her. The lich chooses who I am going to catch by slashing my hands with her skeleton fingers. It isn''t enough for me to let go normally but it is when I''m wavering on weather to drop the lich or not. She falls back towards the hole just as I catch Red and slam into the roof trying to catch myself. I hit so hard the roof starts to cave in right where I was. I start to fly away just as I get struck in the belly by the 5-10 well thrown blood weapons. The other 50 thrown completely miss and fly through the air or hit the ceiling near me. I''m hurt¡­ Hurt bad enough to need healing which Pokodo had done to me¡­ My mission was a failure¡­ This war will continue¡­ Even if I killed the lich¡­ I still don''t understand why she was able to turn into a lich in the first place¡­ Shit¡­ FUCKING SHIT! DAMN IT! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN IT! We were so close! Chapter 129 After battle discussion Our forces regroup¡­ I can''t believe my failure¡­ I''m on the verge of tears at my mistake. Hundreds of lives are going to be lost because of this failure. Thousands if you include the pirates who''s lives would have been spared if she was dead¡­ I have failed¡­ My mission has failed¡­ My group escorts the children back to the ships¡­ At least¡­ At least something good came out of it¡­ Nami is in bad shape¡­ Missing her arm, several scars now cover her face¡­ She was knocked unconscious from continuous fighting. They barely made it back to the ships. Leon, Nargzar and Fast had luckily made it to the other group and fight off the remaining pirates before they were overwhelmed. She was being carried by Nargzar and one of her followers fortunately just learned white mage or... Nami fended off the majority of the pirates attacking her group by herself. The automaton I had made for her has already been destroyed¡­ The gear I had made for Nami was torn to pieces¡­ Even the chest piece which would automatically repair itself was still cut to pieces... The groups had killed 80 pirates while retreating with the children¡­ Combined with the pirates I killed making it to Gold and the 10 inside their room¡­ It is equal to 100 pirates altogether. We make it back to the ships¡­ There is some cheering but also a somber feeling in the air¡­ We won the battle but now there is a war ahead of us¡­ Some people are passing out now from fatigue. The night had gotten dark. There is still a few hours before daybreak¡­ I call in all my generals¡­ We need to go over a list of casualties and kills¡­ Where is the other black turtle¡­ We head back to the fortress. Their ships are mostly destroyed. With maybe 5 remaining for them to flee off the island if they decide to. If they head towards us, even without any generals here. Our forces would be able to defeat them¡­ I let out a quick yawn before beginning the casualty count. Hilda had snuck away from her children to listen in on the meeting and check to see if Gobber was okay. We begin the meeting. ¡°Alright. Let''s go over each persons mission. Starting with Nami¡­ Did you manage to get all the kidnapped children back?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ All because of the help of your generals¡­ We couldn''t have done it without their help. Even the distractions you had set off helped in our escape. Some of the men rushing passed us to get to the main room where the leader was. I would like to speak to you more later but for now, I need to make sure all of them get situated back in the village.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Before you go let me heal your arm.¡± I spit some numbing poison on my claws and pierce them into her arm. She almost goes limp from the amount of poison I just injected into her and the fatigue she had. I cast regrowth and her and her arm starts to regrow before everyone''s eyes. Some of my generals haven''t seen this power of mine yet. Her healed arm is hairless now¡­ I doubt she cares much, she was willing to sacrifice that hand to save the children. I let out another yawn before proceeding to the next general. ¡°Fayeth. How did your mission go?¡± ¡°We managed to raid all three buildings of their supplies with no issue, tomorrow when they take inventory they are in for a surprise.¡± I see a giant smile go across her face, one I''ve never seen on her. It looks almost mischievous. Like she is happy to get one up on the enemy like that¡­ I knew I picked her as a general for a reason. I don''t really need to go over Darkclaw''s mission but I do need his estimated kills to get an accurate measurement of how many enemies were killed tonight. ¡°Darkclaw. How many enemies did you kill.¡± He starts to do some math in his head. It looks like he has a quick conversation with Greed and then he says. ¡°I killed 12 groups of 5 people so¡­ 60 people. I also injured about 100 on top of that.¡± ¡°Good to hear. Next up is¡­ Where is Shikki? Is Shikki still making his way here?¡± Trice only looks on sad¡­ What the fuck happened? She finally speaks. ¡°He¡­ His ship was in bad shape and¡­ He blew himself up...¡± I can see tears forming in her eyes now. She was the closest to the explosion¡­ She might feel she is at fault because of it was also her job to destroy the ships¡­ With two targets, Shikki''s ship would have been less likely to be singled out and attacked¡­ I still call out. ¡°I¡­ Why didn''t he listen to my warning!? The entire reason we have these stupid slime communicators is to communicate! I warned him twice! WHAT A FOOL! WHAT A DAMN FOOL!¡± I slam my fist down on the table¡­ I shake from the loss. An entire ship¡­ His crew was 50 men¡­ I lost one of my generals in a surprise attack¡­ How much of a failure of a leader does that make me!? I start to cry, I wipe my tears away I ask Trice for more details. Her response is. ¡°I¡­ I was watching and he¡­ Drove close to some ships and¡­ Blew himself up¡­ Only 10 of his crew made it to our ship where we could help them¡­ That means most of his crew is dead or MIA...¡± DAMN IT! That brings our total loses up by a total of 40 men¡­ The number of ships destroyed by Lance, Shikki and Trice was approximately 45¡­ Most people would see that as a victory¡­ I can only see that as a failure¡­ If I had prepared more¡­ The casualties wouldn''t have happened¡­ If I had made another black turtle to help with the assault¡­ There is still too much to go over to get distracted by what I could have done differently. I wipe the tears from my eyes again and talk to Lance. ¡°Lance¡­ Your mission was a success right?¡± ¡°Y-yea. We had no problems defeating the ships that attacked.¡± ¡°Zergnar¡­ How did your mission go?¡± ¡°Smoothly. We wiped out the food storage and most of the gear and other supplies as well. We lost a few griffin riders in the process but after bombing them we still managed to rake up 30 kills ourselves against the enemies.¡± ¡°Gobber¡­ How many casualties on both sides?¡± ¡°We wiped out a group of 300 to start with. The next group was more difficult. The main building was firing on its own troops to push us back¡­ We lost about 20 men to that but managed to kill another 200 pirates in the next few waves.¡± ¡°So¡­ Doing some quick math¡­ We managed to destroy 45 ships at the cost of 1 of our own¡­ We managed to kill at least 690 pirates at the cost of around 60 men¡­ We''ve injured hundreds more¡­ That will be a burden on their healers¡­ We also freed around 50 kidnapped children¡­ Why does it feel like we lost then?¡± Zergnar is the one to ask a question¡­ The question is the answer to why it feels like we lost. ¡°How did your mission go?¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°¡­ I killed her but¡­ She transformed into a lich¡­ We barely escaped before I ran out of mana. That would have meant I couldn''t use my dragon form to run away¡­ We ran with our tails between our legs against Gold¡­ I¡­ I should have done better against her¡­ I should have known it was too easy.¡± Hilda steps forwards now. ¡°Are you kidding me!? Your army won this fight! And you''re sad because you didn''t know that the enemy was a lich!? How are you supposed to know shit like that in advance? You''ve done¡­ Far better as a leader than any of us could¡­ Kite¡­ Listen¡­ If you weren''t here¡­ Most of us wouldn''t be alive.¡± I wipe the tears away from my face again. ¡°Yea¡­ B-But at what cost is my leadership doing? We lost valuable men fighting a battle we didn''t have to wage. We could have waited for them to attack Shienta and fought with even numbers if we waited.¡± Next Trice is up to talk. ¡°Yea. We could have waited. But then what? If they had invaded. Who is to say that we would have won then? The casualties would have been far higher if we brought weak citizens into this war.¡± I can''t stop myself from crying. All my generals are looking at this person who should be the strongest of them all. I should be the last one in this room to cry. I can barely get another sentence out of my mouth. ¡°Y-ya b-b-but who cares if other p-people d-die? I w-wouldn''t mind sacrificing a few hundred citizens to save my own t-troops.¡± Leaf steps forwards this time. Slapping me across the face. I look at her shocked before she finally speaks. ¡°Kite, that is an outright lie. There is no way you would be willing to sacrifice a village of weak, innocent people to save some of your men. We all follow you because you are so kindhearted. No one expects to live forever. We''re following you because of what you are trying to do. You could have ignored all those people in trouble. You could have not mentioned the pirates invading. You could have left the demon folk to die on the front lines. You could have killed off all the gnolls and other people¡­ But you didn''t¡­ You built up this army of friends¡­ Of the little people of this world who keep getting stepped on by everyone else. That is why we follow you¡­ Even to our deaths we''ll follow you.¡± I wipe the tears away again. Gods I must be a mess right now. I''m so tired¡­ Gold''s point of view ¡°WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!? All this planning and preparation was thrown away at the last minute!?¡± I''m beyond mad. A group shows up and barges into my throne room. Killing me! Sending me into my lich form decades before I am prepared to enter it. So many plans were just destroyed tonight! I''ve been planning this since childhood, forcing myself to learn necromancy as my second class for the sole purpose of lengthening my life. I yell out. ¡°BRING ME THE HEADS OF THE CAPTAINS WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO GUARD THE SHIPS!¡± A young pirate, visibly shaking speaks up. ¡°T-t-they are a-all most likely dead. The ships c-chased after a tiny ship a-and haven''t returned ma''am.¡± I kill him for giving me a poor answer. I feel slightly better by his death. DAMN IT! What useless pawns my men are! I ask more questions. ¡°So¡­ How many of our men have died?¡± The next captain steps forwards. I think his name is Pyrius... He is fairly attractive and confident so I do like him more than some of my other captains. ¡°We''re still counting them commander.¡± ...So many deaths that they are still counting over an hour later¡­ What an expertly laid attack against us. To be able to cripple us so thoroughly. I can''t believe this. Another pirate comes rushing into the room. Kneeling in front of me. He speaks quietly. ¡°All the prisoners are gone commander. All of our storage buildings were also attacked. They had taken everything from the west buildings and burned everything inside the east buildings. Barely anything is salvageable.¡± ¡°WHAT!? HOW! WHEN COULD THEY!?¡± Years of planning destroyed! How was my army routed so completely at every turn. I had stolen the murine folk children so I could brainwash them into being obedient soldiers. With their life expectancy much longer than humans they would make better troops for an undying lich. All of my plans were formed from the idea of world conquest¡­ You need to have longevity in mind. After this war with the south continent, I had plans to head east and learn automaton creation. That way I could make an army that would never die of old age. I need to rethink some strategies for now... Longevity isn''t going to happen if I''m killed here... I''m going to have to sacrifice a few pawns to beat an enemy this strong... I''ve been making backroom deals my entire life to get myself where I am and all of that has been destroyed in a single night. I question the man that is still in front of me. He is one of my captains but he is so average I haven''t bothered to remember his name. I point at him. ¡°YOU! Why haven''t we started preparation on chasing them with our ships?¡± He starts to look afraid as well¡­ Like the boy who had started this line of saying the wrong things. ¡°Please don''t kill me¡­ Almost all of our ships were destroyed in the attack. Only 5 managed to escape sinking.¡± I pull my scythe back and swing it at him. He yells out. ¡°PLEASE DON''T KI-.¡± I cut him in half. ARE ALL MY MEN SO INCOMPETENT!? AAAAHHHHHHH!!! I turn to my husband. One of the only men I can trust. I don''t love him for his looks, I love him for his power. He is the reason I am the leader of this army instead of my foolish sister. I must be visibly shaking now from frustration because he places one of his hands on my skeletal hand. ¡°Do all my men think I''m so foolish. Foolish enough to fall for this elaborate prank? There is no way we could have been so thoroughly defeated in a single night. It has to be a prank, that is the only reasonable thing to think is it not?¡± He grinds his teeth together thinking it over. He looks to be just as frustrated as me. ¡°Pranks don''t kill their leader¡­ Prank''s normally aren''t that strong¡­ I think we''ve got a bigger problem than just a little prank¡­¡± ¡°I know dear, I was just trying to be cute¡­ I have to in order to not kill all of my men on the spot for how little difference they make against a strong enemy. They would be more useful as cannon fodder corpses then as troops.¡± This set''s a lot of things in motion¡­ I have to start working on a strategy to beat them now since they''ve made the first step. I''ll start putting pieces into place to finish them off quickly. If we can''t¡­ Our deal with the north eastern continent will fall through. That will set my plans back decades if it happens. Chapter 130 Spy mission Nami''s point of view I led the children back through the portal to our village. It is still an hour before the sunrises. I still call out as loud as possible. ¡°WE''RE BACK! WE''VE SAVED THE CHILDREN!¡± People come rushing out of their houses. The children are years older than they were when they were kidnapped but everyone is making it to each parent. Everyone knew who their child was. Tears begin to form on everyone''s faces as they hugged their children¡­ The children just staring off into the distance¡­ Some form of brainwashing must have been done against them¡­ No one seems to care at the moment. Everyone is so caught up in the event it doesn''t matter to them. I''m the last one to leave. Three children still remained standing there¡­ My three siblings have come back to me¡­ Two years before my mother and father had been killed, my mother had more children. 3 of which died at birth along with her but the other 3 lived¡­ I have my family back. I put my arms around them¡­ Hugging them in tightly, their faces staring blankly out at nothing¡­ The sun has just started to rise. I take them home and let them sleep in our parents old bedroom¡­ I fall onto my bed¡­ I''m dead tired but I can''t sleep. Everything that has happened¡­ Even with all of that help it was still so close to falling apart. I begin to cry harder than I even have before. Ten years of getting stronger for one reason. Now that we''ve accomplished that reason I can be myself again. I cry so hard it soak''s into my pillow¡­ My younger sister comes into the room¡­ She is holding her old toy she must have found. She crawls into bed with me falls asleep¡­ I still can''t sleep¡­ Sitting there awake¡­ I start to think of how any little thing could have changed the outcome of that fight. If my gear was slightly worse¡­ If my men didn''t have new classes¡­ If I didn''t have an automaton to distract opponents until it was finally destroyed¡­ So many things could have resulted in the loss of my life and the recapture of the children¡­ All of that was avoided because of the work of one person¡­ Kite¡­ Our savior Kite. Kite''s point of view I wake up the next day and immediately head to the ships. I fly about 1 minute to talk with the scouting boat left to watch the island. If they had done anything, my ship would have seen it. I land and ask a troop if anything has happened. Nothing I didn''t expect. They were running around to each building. Checking the bodies of the deceased and surveying the damage. I didn''t expect them to leave after a single attack. With 5 ships they should still be able to make it back to shore to the north. If they wish to retreat that is. The ships would be very cramped but they could manage. If our estimates were right¡­ There should be around 4300 pirates left¡­ Give or take a few hundred we couldn''t count who died on the ships. That is still far too many for them to back down. Gold might have killed people attempting to desert already to set an example. The biggest problem now is¡­ With a lich, they could still have 5000 troops¡­ Even more than that¡­ If she can resurrect the dead with no drawbacks, we''ll have to kill them and take their bodies with us from now on to lower the amount of troops she has. Controlling 700 corpses seems like a stretch on possibilities though¡­ With how easily she handled the 20 corpses before¡­ I would guess controlling 100 is no problem for her. She might also not want to be seen as a lich¡­ I doubt anyone besides her captains even know that she is a lich¡­ Most humans would never serve someone who was willing to become a lich¡­ So this could have potentially screwed her¡­ We''ll have to see how it plays out¡­ Some men are walking around, keeping watch. Some are tearing down the out skirting buildings so they can''t be used as cover. It looks like 1 ship is being prepared to set sail¡­ I give the troop a portal scroll and tell him to come back and warn me if there are any changes. I need to speak with everyone about the changes to their stats¡­ With the fighting during the war¡­ Some might have gotten far stronger from killing enemies¡­ Especially the front line fighters. I had gained 2 master of learning levels and a few levels with the pirate¡­ I imagine that the front liners had gained at least 50 levels from killing the several hundred pirates¡­ I call another meeting with my generals. Yawning, I ask how much everyone has improved. It is as I thought¡­ Almost everyone had gained a huge portion of levels. Red had evolved into an 8 tails yokai. Which barely did anything. The stats I gained from her evolution were so minuscule I didn''t even notice¡­ From asking her about her previous evolutions¡­ Very little was gained from them as well¡­ Gobber had¡­ FUCKING DAMN! Gobber had gained enough levels to show how strong he is. Maxing out the 2 awakened classes at 100 and breaking through the third rank up barrier on some of his classes¡­ As he is right now¡­ I have no doubt that Gobber could kill 100 pirates by himself at this point. The other generals who were at the battlefield had also gained many levels. None of my generals still have a non ranked up class now¡­ It makes me slightly sad that they are improving so quickly¡­ I am rapidly becoming the weakest person in my army again. Besides the levels everyone gained. We also gained a 6 month supply of food, hundreds of sets of gear that would fit an average human. Some other supplies¡­ The most valuable of which was 4 crates of mana crystals¡­ I still don''t understand how they are made so I will have to go talk with Merlin about them eventually¡­ I need to know how they are made. We also received some very rare items from the country to the north west. Sugar cane is very hard to grow in our country. Resulting in the price of sugar skyrocketing because of our war with the country that produces it. Still in the meeting with my generals I start to speak about the changes to our position now. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°With the enemy being aware of us. We''ll have to be far more guarded from here on out. Any attack now will be met with a counterattack. They will most certainly not charge at us like they had on the beach. We need to start thinking long term strategies now.¡± Trice speaks up. ¡°Hmm¡­ Perhaps a few acid bombs to destabilize the main building.¡± ¡°...That would have worked earlier¡­ When I check the fort earlier today, they were in the process of strengthening the building. All the extra buildings were torn down and it appears a second level of makeshift wood was added on top¡­ Perhaps because of my method to destroy their food¡­ The top part of the base must contain all the soldiers now¡­ As it is still being built, now would be the best time to strike them.¡± Trice continues to speak. ¡°Hmm¡­ I doubt they would drop their guard a single day after being attacked. The builders must be under heavy protection from mana cannons. Attacking now under the farce of them being under prepared would only lose us more men¡­ I would suggest waiting until we can dig under their structure and place several charges to weaken the structure. We''ve already removed a huge portion of food, I expect to see far more deserters once their food runs out.¡± Swift steps forward to speak now. ¡°I would suggest that tonight we let the elementalists build some walls for our men to hide behind. Best case scenario they waste ammunition on destroying the walls. We can also use it to get closer to the main building and use it as a facade to start the construction of the tunnels somewhere else on the island. Perhaps we can sneak through the water channels underneath the plank structures the island is made of.¡± Gargarz steps forwards next. ¡°We should also send in some spies. As they are primarily a human force. I doubt they''ll notice if a few fledgling children appear out of no where. You and Lance can possibly sneak into their base. Try to figure out their next plan and maybe raise the tension of the situation¡­ Making people more willing to desert.¡± Pokodo speaks next. ¡°We can also offer to treat any deserters and feed them. I doubt they have the medical supplies or healers to keep up with the high demands of war. Especially one with such a high injury number. It might get even more people to desert.¡± ¡°Green and Brick, split up and start building defenses around the pirate base. Me, Leon and Lance can start work on infiltrating their base under the cover of night. I had my mask down for the fight against Gold and I doubt she will make any attempt to contact her troops now that she is¡­ A lich¡­ It would also help to throw out papers stating our goal. Not the destruction of all pirates but the stop of their planned attack against the southern country. Everyone who can write should start working on the papers we''ll use to get our point across to the memories.¡± Tonight¡­ We will start the long game of weakening our enemy. Our main forces will be ruled out for this mission. I doubt we''ll be able to convince all of them but¡­ This plan is to convince the wavering ones to not throw their lives away. Using propaganda to our favor, perhaps even mentioning the fact that their leader is a lich. The day is spent preparing for the infiltration tonight. We pick up the generic sets of gear we had stolen from the pirates¡­ I feel almost naked without my normal gear on. I look at Lance and Leon then say. ¡°Well¡­ Let''s hope this plan works¡­ Otherwise we''ll be surrounded by thousands of enemies.¡± Lance and Leon both look far more excited by this mission than myself. Perhaps not realizing the implications of this mission. We could all die¡­ We could be captured and used as bait to get all of our allies killed. We could be tortured¡­ We move under the cover of darkness to the outskirts of the main pirate building. The wall creation process has already been started by our elementalists. With any luck, tomorrow we will be able to fortify a spot on the island to fight against the pirates from. I have a few crews of elementalists digging the ground out towards the main building as well¡­ It might take a few weeks but¡­ Eventually we can potentially sink the entire building into the ground. I call out as we get close to sneaking up on the side of the building. Since the main changes to the pirate base, we''re going to install ourselves on the new top portion of the building. This part will most likely have the men who will be the first to desert this cause. Approaching in the darkness¡­ I notice the base is far more heavily armed then it was previously. They must have dredged up the cannons from the ships sunk in the bottom of the harbor. The base will now be far harder to deal with now that it has the armaments from the ships. We climb up a rope ladder made to reach the second level¡­ This top portion of the base is far less impressive then the building it is built upon. The walls are less walls and more rows of planks with several man sized holes in them. Most of the ceiling of the second floor is non existent, the second floor isn''t really a building but rather a living space for the remaining pirates. We climb the ladder before I hear someone from above yell. ¡°HEY! What the hell are you doing outside the base? Curfew was pushed forwards two hours.¡± I think quickly. ¡°Uhh¡­ Sorry sir, we were on the mission to get the cannons from the ocean floor.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Alright, as long as you don''t break curfew again then.¡± ¡­We managed to get into the base. Now begins the spy mission. Chapter 131 Grotesque findings ¡°Do you want us to take over watch sir?¡± ¡°Nah. You three have been working all day. Go ahead and take a nice long rest.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Thank you sir.¡± ¡°Hey¡­ You don''t have to be so polite, people will take advantage of you if you keep offering help.¡± ¡°Thank y-¡­ Alright. Talk to you later than si-¡­ Stupid.¡± ¡°Haha. Now you''re getting it. You''ll make a fine pirate some day with that attitude. Maybe even serve under our captain directely.¡± We head to the base¡­ Asking where the bunk''s are to sleep. The good thing about the new building being built is asking questions isn''t out of the ordinary. I would have thought that Gold would have been more prepared for infiltration than this¡­ There are some negatives for having such a big force. Me and Leon discretely sneak out and spread the propaganda papers. If they desert and head to the south, we''ll give them far better treatment than they would get here¡­ Destroying all their food was too good a strategy. The next morning¡­ The man who was throwing blood approaches the outside of the building. I watch him through one of the openings in the 2nd floors wall. He must be the face of the pirates with Gold hiding behind the scenes and pulling the strings of the operation. He begins to speak. ¡°LISTEN UP!¡± He has to yell very loudly so the majority of the people can hear him. ¡°You all know the rules! Anyone caught deserting will be put on a spike outside! There is no surrender! We can''t do anything about our food. We are rationing the food right now and you can only eat every other day!¡± Shit¡­ So by starving them out we essentially killed hundreds if not thousands of them unless they get food. Perhaps having a supply drop given would show our kindness to the enemy so they''ll be more likely to desert. The man who was keeping watch yells out to the man now. ¡°WE''VE GOT A TRAITOR AMONG US! Last night we found papers stating the enemy is willing to take our injured and help them! The papers also say some disturbing things about our leader! They also say that if we desert, they''ll give us fair treatment!¡± The blood knight responds to him. ¡°DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD GIVE YOU FAIR TREATMENT AFTER AMBUSHING US!? NO! It is a trap to weaken our numbers! The only way to win this war is by sticking together! Any deserters caught will be put to death immediately!" ¡­This is worse than I thought¡­ Gold would rather her own men die then betray her¡­ That''s not the worst of this situation¡­ Even if her men die¡­ They can still be used as fodder to fight for her¡­ If all the pirates die¡­ She''ll still have 5000 corpses she can use as minions for her plans in the future. Even controlling 100 at a time, she could eventually whittle down a very big force by using this method. As the corpses fight, they will kill more people, then she can use their corpses next. People would be less than willing to attack their comrades corpses¡­ This could end badly¡­ Perhaps going under cover to hear their plans was a bad idea¡­ Until I hear a few of the pirates whisper. ¡°Even at the risk of death¡­ I might still be willing to desert just to get a decent meal. We wont have to fight those monsters if we surrender...¡± The pirate that was keeping watch overheard this person. He turns to him and says. ¡°It looks like we got ourselves a traitor here. Perhaps we''ll make an example out of you to keep everyone else in line¡­ No¡­ If you desert, your death will be slow and painful¡­ There is no way the enemy would be willing to just take prisoners¡­ You''ll either be killed on the spot or eaten by that army of creatures¡­ You didn''t fight them¡­ It was awful¡­ They were so ravenous¡­ Everyone they killed they would eat. If you surrender¡­ You''ll be eaten with them.¡± What kind of stupid lie is that? I guess¡­ If you were trying to scare an army into staying¡­ Something like that would work well. But even so, there were other pirates that had seen us fight. They would have seen the corpses left behind¡­ Gold must have hidden them afterwords to use as pawns in future attacks. Padding her numbers with extra troops for every future skirmish we have against her army¡­ This seems like it keeps getting harder and harder to win without a full scale assault. ¡­If I can slip away¡­ I might be able to find the rest of the food being stored¡­ Perhaps poisoning it so that it will be inedible¡­ The main question is where did the food come from? If we had destroyed the 2 food storage rooms, there shouldn''t be any food left. Unless their was another food storage inside the main building¡­ That seems most likely. I walk up to the main guard, the one that was keeping watch¡­ I think he might be a subordinate directly under Gold¡­ I ask him stuff about the food. ¡°It is far more heavily guarded now. With the small amount of food left, we need to make sure the enemies can''t get to it¡­ As well as our own men who might steal it from under our noses.¡± That is my next goal¡­ If I can ruin the remaining food, there will be nothing they can do but surrender¡­ I do busy work, I had extra food stored inside my void tooth. We eat our hidden rations in silence before the plan tonight. Lance will attempt to encourage some of the pirates to desert. Leon is going to attempt to find the captains aids¡­ The man who had helped me will perish tonight, without their leaders holding them together. They''re more likely to desert. I''ll sneak inside the main building and look for the food to poison. Even if I have to give myself away, I feel I could still get away even after contaminating the food¡­ I wouldn''t question it if their were 100 guards for the food. If the pirates were to mutiny that would be the first place they would attack¡­ Perhaps causing a mutiny would be better than trying to get them to desert¡­ We''ll just have to do this mission for now. It is late enough¡­ We break apart for our separate missions. Lance will meet with a group of men sitting around a boiling pot of food. Or¡­ Leather that is being cooked for the purposes of eating instead of food¡­ These men have a rough time ahead of them if they still plan on following Gold¡­ I will keep pushing for the circumstances to be too desperate for them to stay around. Leon separates¡­ I hate putting my men through these missions¡­ He will have to kill at least a single person tonight¡­ Maybe even more if he can sniff out the men directly under Gold¡­ He personally has the hardest mission¡­ At least to me¡­ It would be hard for me to kill someone, especially someone as nice as that man¡­ I break off myself¡­ Burning a hole into the main building with some of my remaining acid. Thankfully with sensory map, I know there is no one underneath me. I eat through the roof enough to make a tiny hole. Shape shifting into mouse form, I jump down. The room I land in is very messy¡­ It looks like an officer of her armies room¡­ It isn''t nearly as nice as one of my generals rooms. I open the door¡­ As expected the hallways are far more guarded then before¡­ This mission is going to be very difficult. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Even as a mouse¡­ Even with true stealth¡­ I can still be caught. It will be difficult but with the clutter of men in the hallways. If I accidentally bump into one¡­ Hard enough¡­ No¡­ I don''t think I can be caught as it is right now. I feel a familiar presence in the room with the majority of the guards in front of it¡­ That must be where they are guarding the food¡­ Why is the blood knight inside though? I try to sneak in¡­ There are no ways to enter without the door being open though. I could attempt to break through the wall on the side of the building¡­ But that would result in my cover being blown immediately¡­ I''ll just have to wait¡­ Over an hour later. The blood knight comes out¡­ I use this opportunity to sneak past¡­ There is still 1¡­ No 2 people inside I can sense¡­ Entering the room¡­ I am terrified by what I see¡­ The room isn''t a storage room for food¡­ It is a butchers room full of the corpses of the men who died on the battlefield¡­ Mostly human but I see some of my own men mixed in¡­ The food they plan on serving to their own men¡­ It is people¡­ I gag a tiny bit. Glad I haven''t been forced to eat their food yet¡­ What a sick idea¡­ I couldn''t imagine myself eating another person. As disgusting as this is¡­ I need to figure out a way to use this against the enemies¡­ If I kill the two men inside preparing the ¡°meat¡±¡­ I can then contaminate this food¡­ After that I can call for help and go into true stealth before they open the door. Sneaking past them as they see what their leader is planning for them to eat¡­ Chances are¡­ There men will be far more likely to desert after that¡­ This is the plan I''ve decided suits this room the best¡­ It will take hours to poison all of this meat though... If the blood knight comes back¡­ It might be advantageous to ambush him and take him out of the picture¡­ With Gold losing her most valuable man¡­ She will be forced to show herself. She might even surrender at that point. If worse comes to worse¡­ I''ll retreat¡­ With my speed I doubt even if they all jumped on me at once they wouldn''t be able to stop me. That is only if the blood knight even returns. I get to work now. I sneak up behind the first worker I plan on killing. Changing back into my human form I assassinate him with my heirloom sword. As I do this, before the other butcher even realizes what happened. I use my shuriken launcher to kill him. I had been using expose weakness on him long enough for exploit weakness to work. Several of the shurikens hit his throat, muffling the sound of him dying. He attempts to let out a scream but only a gurgle comes out. I start poisoning all the food. First with some numbing poison. If consumed, it would make the person have violent stomach pains. Possibly long enough to attack them while they''re not in fighting shape. I also add almost lethal poison and get ready to leave. I''m about to leave and call for the guards¡­ I sense the blood knight returning back now. I call for help before he rounds the corner. ¡°Help! Someone is in here!¡± I immediately go mouse form and cast true stealth on myself. Several of the guards rush into the room. I sneak out as I hear the people enter the room¡­ One of them says. ¡°By the gods. Is this what they have planned for us to eat?¡± I scurry through the remaining guards feet. Almost getting trampled as the blood knight rushes towards the guards after he sees the door is open. I hear him yell out. ¡°I TOLD YOU TO NOT LOOK INSIDE!¡± I leave before I''m found¡­ Returning to my room where Lance has already returned a few minutes later Leon returns¡­ We discuss our missions¡­ Leon was successful on killing 4 of the leaders¡­ Lance had riled up several camps worth of pirates. They were cooking on the second floor of the building. All cooking something made of leather to eat just to tied their stomachs over. With the building still being under construction, the roof is missing in several locations. Then I get to what I''ve seen. ¡°They don''t have any extra food¡­ They are going to force feed the troops the corpses of the fallen from this war.¡± They both looked shocked. None of us had expected that¡­ I start writing up some new propaganda papers¡­ This time the only words written on them are. ¡°The food your leader Gold is serving you is the dead from the battlefield.¡± We spend the rest of that night spreading the message¡­ It is very difficult to sleep since we''re in the middle of an enemy base¡­ We all manage to get some sleep. The next day the urgency is far greater then before. The blood knight comes out and before he can say anything, someone else asks the obvious question. ¡°IS GOLD FEEDING US HUMAN TODAY!?¡± The blood knight barely moves¡­ He knew this question was coming¡­ Even if we hadn''t spread the word¡­ I doubt the guards would have kept silent¡­ He could have killed them all but the chances of causing a riot would be far more escalated. He finally speaks. ¡°Our leader had thought the enemy would be spreading rumors about our food¡­ I didn''t expect them to know the leaders name so soon though¡­ Gold is your leader and she has taken her own supply of stored food to give to her men. Do not listen to speculation¡­ We aren''t forcing any of you to eat anything you don''t want to.¡± As he says that several guards wheel out pots of stew and plates of meat. Everyone¡­ Even considering the fact that the meat could be human looks on in hunger¡­ Perhaps this plan will not work¡­ Once they eat it they will be poisoned, making it far more believable that it is human meat¡­ Some of the men start going down, warily picking the plates of tainted food up. As they eat¡­ I expect them to get sick¡­ I expect them to start throwing up and falling over in pain¡­ None of that happens¡­ Instead something far worse happens. The men who eat start to shake from consuming the food. It looks as if the flesh on their faces starts to split, blood pouring out! The eyes go light as if they have been blinded and they let intense screams as if their insides are being torn apart. All of their flesh is starting to fall off! The several men who had eaten the food run off towards¡­ Where my some of my men are located! Chapter 132 Found out Green''s point of view We are still making the walls for our defense¡­ None of them have been attacked yet¡­ They should just attack us. They outnumber us over 4 to 1. What fucking cowards. As I think that. I hear the lookout yell. ¡°Enemies approaching! Something is¡­ Wrong with them!¡± The wall we had made is a 10 foot tall wall. Even if they do attack, they''ll have to run all the way around to get to us. I head to the wall to see the enemies¡­ They are rushing straight towards us at an insane, inhuman pace. Some rushing at us in a non humanoid running style, down on all fours rushing like an animal. Blood and fresh cuts cover the creatures. This is all I can see before they hit our wall. Scaling it almost instantly, I yell out. ¡°Elementalists back off! Let the archers pick them off! If we must, we''ll fight!¡± ...That is so unlike me but in this case it is an enemy I don''t understand. I would normally be all for rushing in but as I am leading them¡­ I have to think of the group before I go rushing in to fight. The enemies come barreling at us as we retreat. Arrows fly very close as a few dozen archers pick off the enemies. Some have an almost uncanny dodging ability. Dropping back and rushing forwards just as an arrow would strike them. The sheer amount of arrows is the only reason they are being struck by any. They still make it through the rain of arrows to us, the ones pelted with arrows were barely slowed down. ¡°FUCK! TURN AND FIGHT!¡± Just as I say this one of my men get pounced on by 2 of the enemies. I spike through one with an earth pillar but the one remaining tears at the elementalist''s throat with his teeth. They had long since abandoned their weapons, choosing to fight like animals instead of humans. I see no life in his eyes¡­ It is as if he is dead and being driven by something else other than life¡­ He is an actual monster. A few attempt to attack me but I repel them, my men don''t fair as well as myself¡­ 2 of my elementalists are killed¡­ 3 injured in the attack¡­ I call for a healer but when they try to heal the bites and scratches¡­ They don''t heal over¡­ Instead the flesh only rots away almost at an unbelievable pace. SHIT! My men have survived the front lines of war only to die here on the battlefield! I can''t believe this! SOMEONE SAVE MY MEN! As I think this¡­ I hear a small child''s voice call out. Kite''s point of view What the fuck were those things!? I start to become more panicked at the sight of them. Instead of being rendered useless by my poison they instead became some form of undead monster. This has to be Gold''s doing¡­ Shit! How do I respond to this¡­ The first thing I should do is try and convince them to not eat the food. That they should be judging this leader as corrupt because of what just happened¡­ I call out. ¡°What was that!?¡± The blood knight calls out to the crowd. ¡°I¡­ I don''t know! Someone had broken into the food storage room earlier and they must have planted something to make the men freak out like that! I''m not sure what they''ve done but the enemies are far to dangerous to be taken lightly. We must remain vigilant in our fight or this will continue to happen.¡± That isn''t true at all. They are using my destruction of their food as a more nefarious method of turning weak soldiers into undead elite soldiers with no fear of death¡­ The difference from the men eating the food was extremely vast¡­ I wish I knew more about it but now isn''t the time to be fascinated by something. I need to think of something that will show that it is their leader that is doing it. I''ve already placed propaganda down stating that she is a lich¡­ So it wont be odd for me coming to the same conclusion as a pirate. ¡°That isn''t right! Those were undead creatures! The papers we saw said that our leader is a lich now! Without proof that she isn''t a lich, it makes sense that she was the one who caused it! Those weird zombies ran off towards the enemies! She obviously sent them to attack them! Without proof that she isn''t a lich, I am heading over to their base and begging for my life so I don''t starve to death on this island!¡± I hear some mutters of agreement behind me. This might have been the thing needed to stop this war from becoming more bloody. I think that too myself as someone emerges from the main building. Gold''s point of view What a fool. Not only did they play into my hand several times already but the enemy has also stated the fact that the meat we were serving was human. Without that piece of information, it would have been impossible for the men to change into ghouls. The process takes the knowing consumption of the flesh of another human, also some of my necromancer magic. The process takes a very long time and is very difficult to do without the proper set-up. Whoever this leader is fell right into my hands. I exit the main building. One of my subordinates is adept as an illusionist, he made me appear as my old self except some slight differences. On my neck is a huge fresh scar from where the enemy had cut me. I walk with a cane now even though I don''t need one to play into the sympathy as my men. As this battle goes on it becomes a war of attrition. My men will cave into eating the tainted food. They will rush off to fight the enemies with an insane, unprecedented strength. Die, hopefully taking a few with them then repeating the process. All of the corpses piling up on both sides become fodder for war later on. The longer this battle plays out, the better it is for me. I come out and address my men. The one making a fuss must be a spy. I had expected this much but I have to play the weakling for now so I wont make a big deal about him. If I act as if I know he is a spy right now, my men will perceive that I know more than I am letting on¡­ I start to drain siphon his mana¡­ This mana is similar to the man who tried to kill me¡­ So rich and delicious. His mana is like drinking a fine wine. All of the mana from my other men taste like liquid shit compared to his mana source. I don''t know why his mana is so special though, if I can. I would like to make him a prisoner so I can drink from him every day. I address my people¡­ Talking in a very low tone as I clear my throat to emphasize the fresh scars on my neck. ¡°Men¡­ I have come to address you today because we are under threat by a serious enemy. One that will not pull a single punch against us. Not only did they attack our food, our equipment, and our boats. They also attacked me while I had slept. I didn''t want you to see me like this¡­ But the current situation has become this desperate. The enemy is now using these new dangerous tactics to gain more allies. Those ghouls didn''t run off to fight against the enemy. They ran off to join their master. If you leave now, you''ll be turned into one of those creatures to fight in their army as an undead abomination.¡± I turn to look at the food, picking it up and sniffing it as if I am disgusted by it. I cough slightly as if my throat scar is in pain. ¡°This food, it is laced with some odd type of poison¡­ The mere smell makes me slightly sick¡­ The enemy has also infiltrated our ranks. They are spreading false rumors to try and get you to leave and join them. If they were just trying to fight us normally, I would have no problem with surrendering to them and listening to their demands. But because they have chosen such a deceitful way of fighting they are obviously in it for nefa¡­ THAT MAN THERE IS ONE OF THEM! He is the one who attacked me!¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I point at the red head now wearing a set of armor he had stolen from us. All of my men close to him turn to face him. He looks slightly worried trying to think of a response. If he attempts to fly my husband will launch more blood weapons at him. His mana should be close to completely drained by now. I feel far stronger after soaking up his mana. I await his response. Kite''s point of view S-shit! How do I respond to being spotted! How did she know it was me!? I was wearing a mask when we fought! I try to think quickly as the men surround me. I go to turn into my dragon form to run but I can''t! SHIT! I knew she could drain mana why didn''t I anticipate this. I will have to bluff as I think of something else. ¡°What are you talking about!? I''ve joined your army several months ago. I am no spy.¡± The men have me completely surrounded now. Of course they would believe their leader over some random person. This is bad! I remember all the things I had previously thought about. If I get caught then I could be tortured. The men are too close to me now. Even if I pull out my weapon, I doubt I could swing it with enough force to hurt anyone. No mana to use any of my magic, it will take time to use mana recovery¡­ I guess I''ll have to improvise a strategy. ¡°If I was a spy why would I question your orders? Wouldn''t that bring intense scrutiny to myself?¡± Some of the men turn to face her and she says. ¡°Detain him.¡± Before they can turn back around I jump into the air and kick two in the face. Being so close range, the only thing I can do is use my unarmed fighting experience. I start dancing to avoid the attacks. Throwing in leg sweeps to the people in front of me while jumping passed them to get out of the building through an opening. If I make an attempt to run towards our base on the island or our ships, I wont make it. I jump down from the second floor of the building landing on the ground, I hug the wall as several other pirates jump down to chase me¡­ It will be far more difficult to strike me from the second floor now. With my cover blown I half expected Lance and Leon to jump in. Leon must have held Lance back because they didn''t act. They know they''re more helpful as spies right now. I rush along the wall as more people continually jump down from the second floor. I need to get to a different side of the building or I wont last against the enemies jumping down. Using my superior movement speed I stay outpaced of everyone falling behind me¡­ Still the amount of people giving chase is far too many to shake off. As I run I punch my way through the ones who landed in front of me, not slowing down at all. A cluster of pirates jumps right in front of me. I wont be able to punch my way through this crowd and if I take too long fighting the ones chasing me will catch up. I could possibly jump over them but if any can read where I''m going to land they could easily throw something where I am going to be. Or even get into place to attack me if they can run fast enough. I check my mana... Just enough. I guess I need to pull out one of my trumps. I hope Lance and Leon aren''t watching this fight. I throw a flash bomb at their feet, continuing to run towards them I shield my ears with my hands and close my eyes. Men fall down screaming in agony as I get pelted in the back with several blood weapons. The blood knight had thrown them before the bomb went off. The attack ate up most of the mana I had left. I''m looking in bad shape. His attack also struck some of his own men, his accuracy is awful with it but just the sheer number of blood weapons thrown... I jump up towards the second floor of the building. I''ll run through it now that the people who have seen my face have all jumped down to catch me. I''m in bad shape already¡­ This armor isn''t well made. If I had my own crafted gear it would have helped stop some of the weapons but almost half a dozen are still dug into my back. Even with him losing sight of me he still controls the weapons. I feel them dig more in my back as I rush towards the opposite side of the base. I might have recovered enough mana to change into dragon form by then. The swords continue to dig in¡­ it feels like they are spreading out now¡­ Almost soaking into my blood to poison me. My health continues to slowly drop¡­ If I reach 10% I might pass out¡­ I need to focus on getting away as I cut the blood weapons out of my back with my heirloom sword before putting it away. I start yelling. ¡°HELP! They found a spy over on that side of the base. They need all the help they can get!¡± The few people who have seen my face might not take a second look at the person calling for the capture of the spy. I rush through the base and jump from the second floor and fall down onto my side. The blood weapons have the same effect as poison but can actually effect me. The little I still have left in me is starting to spread out and shut down my limbs¡­ Potentially my organs unless I get treated¡­ I have enough mana to try something but¡­ Do I change into dragon form or try to use control blood to force the blood poison out of me¡­ If I pass out I''m done for. I start to force the liquid that doesn''t feel right out of my body. If I hadn''t practiced this yet I would be in a very bad spot. I force it out and almost black out from blood loss. I had bitten down on my hand and I think the pain is the only thing that kept me awake. I crawl to my feet and start moving towards one of the freshly constructed walls, I still wouldn''t have enough time to use mana recovery. Some pirates have just rounded the corner of the building¡­ I''m not sure how long removing the blood poison had taken. I feel lightheaded, this is bad¡­ I can''t run my full speed and I feel them getting closer. I could throw out a heal in a few more seconds. I''m getting closer to the wall, I need to make it their¡­ I turn and check dozens of pirates are now chasing me. Turning back around, I trip over a stone. FUCK! SOMEONE HELP ME! Gobber appears in my vision and yells out. ¡°ARCHERS!¡± Several dozen automatons poke their head up over the wall now and fire at the pirates. A dozen pirates mowed down in the same volley. They start to retreat as they aim another volley. Very few pirates make it back to their base who had chased me¡­ I breath a sigh of relief before casting a heal on myself and stand up to jump the wall. I''ll have to rethink my strategies now that this has happened. Chapter 133 Learning more about enemies I''m standing in my tactics room with my generals again¡­ It feels like this has become the norm. The new information I have now about the enemy is needed to be given¡­ Several of my generals have decided to opt out of this meeting. Brick, Epieoth, Fast, Tough, Strong, Zergnar¡­ Almost all my fighters stepped out while almost none of my mages did. Only Kline had decided to miss the meeting. Trice recaps the meeting. ¡°¡­ Hmm¡­ You''re telling me the leader is a lich¡­ And she is forcing her men to eat¡­ The flesh of other humans to become grotesque monsters that aren''t human. So the longer this fight goes on, the more dangerous becomes. She has turned every one of our plans against us and you also left Lance and Leon back in the base to continue to spy¡­ You also were found out as a spy and she can drain mana from people¡­ Her blood knight can use his weapons to infect people with a blood poison as well¡­ This fight seems far to dangerous to take to them¡­ This situation sounds far too dire to take head on but she keeps routing our plans¡­ This is going to be far more difficult then I originally planned.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ That''s the gist of it¡­ So¡­ Does anyone have any plans to counter Gold''s manipulation of the situation?¡± Swift steps forwards. ¡°I would like to acquire some reading material on the subject. Perhaps a book could glean some new information on defeating the lich and you said he was a blood knight?¡± ¡°That isn''t a bad idea¡­ I''ll have to head to Shienta and Merideth to look for some reading material, perhaps a few of you should come with me to acquire future reference material.¡± I see a few of my generals eyes light up as I say this¡­ It looks like we''re going to have a trip to the cities in the middle of a war¡­ I would also like to sneak a communicator slime to Lance or Leon. I don''t doubt my abilities to sneak back into the base¡­ With how high alert they are, it would still be difficult to assassinate Gold¡­ If I get the chance, I''ll take it in a heart beat¡­ Trice speaks up next. ¡°We should try to sneak a communicator slime in to Lance. Also we need to start talking about the team that will go in too kill Gold¡­ Hmm¡­ Since she can absorb mana, it would make sense to keep those with mana away from her. I would like to have Leon there¡­ If we need him to use his skill to finish her quickly, it might save everyone who is fighting her from a gruesome tragic death.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ I was trying to learn it from him¡­ He seemed to avoid me when I brought it up¡­ I''ll try to convince him after they are done spying.¡± Hilda steps forwards next. ¡°I would like you to purchase a few things for the children in the army. We''re lacking toys and safety equipment. The children should also have some play things outside so they can get some fresh air. It might also help to reinforce the trail leading to town through the forest.¡± ¡°Of course. Are there any toys in particular you think I should buy?¡± ¡°¡­ I know that plastic toys are far more expensive but they are safer than wooden ones¡­ If you could perhaps purchase the majority of wooden toys and a few plastic ones for outside that would work. I would also like you to layer some of your silk over the toys you ride on with your silk to make them safer.¡± ¡°Noted¡­ I actually have some knowledge on making toys¡­ Don''t ask me where from but I should be able to make some equipment for them to play on.¡± I remember some of the woodworkers I had hired in my previous life as Lust¡­ While it didn''t give me any recipes, the construction of things like rocking horses, wagons and puzzle cubes would be easy enough. I could make them in different sizes for the children¡­ Maybe even make a few bigger sets of toys for my troops¡­ I''ve been thinking of making an obstacle course for a few months now but it keeps getting pushed back because of my schedule. I still don''t understand why Leon is avoiding teaching me his skill¡­ Perhaps he is afraid of losing a skill that makes him unique like Lance afraid of teaching me lancet. I have a feeling that Trice is hiding something from me¡­ Several times she has tried initiating a conversation but hasn''t done so yet. I feel¡­ That some of my other generals are hiding secrets from me as well¡­ Some of them might have unlocked awakened classes and haven''t told me about them yet¡­ It is just a feeling I get when I hear all the improvements from the first battle¡­ I keep losing track of this war. Like everyone had said, we need to stay focused on learning how to deal with Gold and her blood knight¡­ I rally the smart generals and we all take a trip to Shienta. Many of the people here have grown accustomed to the sight of different humanoids¡­ Not the type of humanoids I manage to bring¡­ Lizard men normally stay close to water so seeing one in a city is very rare. Swift looks around with a curious gleam in his eye. Constantly asking me questions and stopping at every stall selling anything. Constantly looking for something he can use and he has quickly acquired a backpack full of items he is struggling to carry. I grab his backpack from him and store it in my void bag. I''ll have to make a void bag for him next, some of my generals are still lacking in vanity enchanted items like that. He continues to buy things I see no use for. Several sharp knives I have to wrap in my spider silk as to not puncture the void bag on accident. Cooking spices even though I''ve never seen him cook¡­ It becomes quickly apparent that he has no grasp of money and I have to stop him as he has bought almost a gold worth of items I doubt he will ever use. We make it to the library and several other book stores with no luck on books about this situation. I''ve only heard of blood knights in stories. They are a force to be reckoned with in times of war because of the high amounts of bloodshed¡­ I highly doubt he would have been that much of a threat without the planning of Gold to help him. It was most likely her idea to store barrels of blood for him to use as ammunition. It might have also been her preparation that let him use his blood in so many unique ways. I''ve never heard of blood knights using even half of the techniques he used against me. Most blood knights use a single blood weapon that expands and gets bigger and bigger... He uses several small ones as projectile weapons... I doubt it was his idea, Gold must have instructed him on the manipulation of the blood into smaller weapons. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Gold is a complete mystery, I have heard of humanoid lichs but never thought I would encounter one. They are rare beyond rare, almost as rare as Darkclaw. I doubt we will find a book on her no matter how many place we check¡­ The only book we found was a children''s story book about a courageous blood knight who managed to defeat a dragon after his comrades were slain by it. I gain no new information about blood knights¡­ Except that even such a dark class can be used for good instead of evil¡­ This end of the mission is a failure¡­ We buy the book anyways seeing as it is a children''s book, we buy all of their children''s books. I head over to a corner shop selling miscellaneous items and buy whatever plastic toys they have. Plastic is an extremely rare substance, it can be found as a rare drop from dungeons and sells for higher amounts then some rares do because of their rarity¡­ I buy 3 toys totaling 5 gold¡­ That is an outrageous amount of money for a few toys, only a well off family would ever be able to afford these. Seeing as these toys are going to be played with by hundreds of children, it makes sense to buy them. One ball that bounces fairly high when thrown at the ground. I know from my previous life as Lust that they are very fragile to cutting and pointed objects, so they will be inside only toys for this reason. A plastic doll with movable arms¡­ This gives me an idea of making miniature automaton dolls for the children. They could also act as security for them when outside if needed¡­ The final toy was a box with a crank, when cranked a little clown would pop out. While not made from plastic it is very intricate so is more expensive then other toys. It even surprised me when it happened, my instincts kicked in and I almost destroyed the box¡­ Barely stopping myself when I realized it wasn''t going to harm me or my generals. Hilda liked the toys and thought they would be a good addition to the few we have at the fortress. ¡°Alright¡­ I''ll give you each some spending money¡­ I have a few friends I''d like to visit while we''re here¡­ Head back home when you''re done to store your new things then once we''re all back we''ll head to Merideth through the portal.¡± We all break off. This will be a good lesson to several of my men who don''t use money as a form of currency. Swift being the biggest person who needs to learn. I head back to my old schools first¡­ I haven''t been there for years now¡­ I wonder if they''ll even recognize me¡­ I doubt it. Seeing Milton the old headmaster brings back memories. He sees me then begins to speak. ¡°Hello, are you applying for school this year? It is a bit late but if you can work for a few extra classes you still might be able to pass this year.¡± ¡°N-no¡­ I actually went to this school before¡­ I was wondering if you remembered me?¡± He looks closer to me, almost eyeing me like an appraiser eyeing a valuable item. ¡°Hmm¡­ I can''t say I remember you¡­ Which is odd¡­ I remember most of my students¡­ Could you by chance give me your name.¡± ¡°...It isn''t important¡­ I just came by to see how everyone is doing. Are you all still preparing for the pirate invasion in case it happens?¡± ¡°Not really¡­ Most of the preparations have been done. The only thing left is to wait for their attack¡­ Speaking of which¡­ You remind me of someone who went to our school¡­ Do you have a brother perhaps?¡± ¡°No¡­ Just¡­ It was great seeing you again¡­ Actually¡­ You were an adventurer in your youth¡­ Have you ever come across a blood knight or a human lich in your travels before?¡± ¡°A human turned lich¡­ I''ve never heard of that before¡­ That is dabbling in some dangerous magic if what you are speaking is true¡­ But for the blood knight¡­ Yes¡­ We''ve had a blood knight as a student before. Really nice fellow, devoted to his studies. He passed as one of the top of his year¡­ What do you want to know about them?¡± ¡°Well¡­ One thing in particular is, do they have any weaknesses? They seem like a very strong class without many weaknesses.¡± ¡°Ah, most people would assume that but¡­ Classes like that always have a weakness or a counter to go against it¡­ With blood knight I would assume holy classes would fair better against it. Most effects would be strengthened against him unless he was standing on desecrated ground¡­ My student could do that but I had to convince him to not use it inside the school grounds¡­ If you could get a paladin to consecrate the ground before you went to fight him¡­ Even cleansing the ground as you are fighting him would increase your odds against him¡­ Why do you ask though?¡± ¡°Well¡­ That student I remind you of¡­ What was he like?¡± Milton sits down in a chair. While talking he headed towards his office. He takes in a deep breath and begins to speak. ¡°Some might have seen him as a¡­ Problem¡­ Constantly looking to learn can be a good thing but when the things you''re learning can be catastrophic if used incorrectly¡­ Most people would have seen disassembling my automatons as a crime big enough to punish, which is also what I had seen at first¡­ Until I seen his automaton¡­ Every advantage I had growing up on the island where the automatons were made. This student not only learned what had taken years for me too. But improved upon it as well¡­ I just¡­ I couldn''t punish him for being so clever¡­ I also seen the kindness in him¡­ He would never use the automatons for anything nefarious¡­ Only making a handful to help keep people safe¡­ Yes... You could say he was a good person... I still remember hearing talks about his exploits after he left here. He supposedly leads an army now but that is just a rumor.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ Well¡­ Thank you for your time...¡± I walk away¡­ I''ve changed so much I''m unrecognizable to most people¡­ Without stating that I am Kite, I doubt many people would even notice¡­ I will take his advice to heart and my plans will be changed because of this information¡­ I still have some people to visit and I need to add another to the list. The only paladin I know named Zeke. Chapter 134 Learning more and gaining aid I''ll go to meet Zeke last. I still want to visit the boot camp first and then see what Merlin has been up to. It is far more active than it was when I was a member. I see at least 2-3 times as many people now then when I was a member. It must be people trying to polish their skills before the pirates are supposed to invade. I head inside to talk to the leader¡­ I don''t remember his name, we only had a few conversations and he wasn''t very remarkable, so I didn''t bother remembering him. The assistant is behind the desk like normal. He looks up at me and asks. ¡°Are you here to apply for membership? There is a test to join.¡± ...I just got an amazing idea. ¡°Yea I''m here to apply. As long as I can fight the leader to see if it is worth my time.¡± I''m given a set of school armor and I am taken outside. I few men rush around, some continue to train, some stop to watch. Once the assistant starts yelling for the head everyone stops what they are doing. Everyone begins to watch the idiot who just challenged the leader. He comes stepping forwards, he isn''t as big as I remember... ¡°So someone wants to fight the strongest person here? Why? Do they have a death wish or something? GAGAGAGA!¡± We stand away from each other, staring each other down. I was given a training sword but have thrown it away and have my hands out in front of me. The leader speaks again. ¡°Boy, I don''t think you realize how strong I am. You''ll need 10 swords to fight evenly against me, but you''ve thrown away the only one you''ve been given...¡± ¡°I don''t need a weapon to beat you. I don''t need any fancy skills either. I''m just going to beat you bare handed.¡± He looks intently at me. Almost trying to discern my intentions. I am an unreadable wall right now. He takes in a deep breath then says. ¡°Okay, it''s your funeral though.¡± I take up my unnamed style stance. It is the easiest to switch stances from. Hands down at my sides, almost as if I am surrendering the fight. The leader steps forwards¡­ It looked like he was going to rush in but stopped for a second after taking two steps towards me. I continue to stand still without doing anything. He speaks one more time. ¡°Boy! This is the last chance you have at fighting me fairly before I come at you now.¡± ¡°Then come!¡± He rushes at me. The fight is over instantly, the leader takes a swing at me and after dodging out of the way I trip him and pull his hand behind his back as I sit down on him¡­ Instantly winning in less then 1 second¡­ Everyone had watched the fight because I made a big deal about fighting the leader¡­ Looks of shock and surprise cover everyone''s face. Not for a second did they think I stood a chance, let alone I would win the fight so overwhelmingly. He struggles to get up, his pride not letting him realize how unevenly matched we are¡­ He attitude reminds me of Burke and I have to hold myself back from breaking his arm on the spot. I let him up and take a defensive position waiting for him to attack me but he just gets up and speaks. ¡°Fine, this is clearly my loss¡­ I know it is not normal to ask for an opponents name after you''ve been beaten but¡­ Can I please ask your name?¡± ¡°It is¡­ You can just call me Jack.¡± ¡°Alright Jack, you''ve more than qualified to become a member of our boot camp, if you join now I''ll even make you a teacher of that voodoo magic you just pulled off on me.¡± I start walking away. I wave backwards as I say. ¡°Maybe some other time. I have a few more people to speak with today.¡± I exit the boot camp with some of the students following after me. After running through the old slums almost as fast as I could, I had lost them all. I stop running once I get close to Merlin''s old shop¡­ What a difference in size again. The front of his shop was very well decorated, only a master of construction would be able to make designs so elaborate. It must have cost quite a hefty amount. I walk inside and look around. Every rare is on display, neatly placed on a piece of cloth inside a display case. Several of the cheaper rares are now lined up side by side with a thin wooden barrier separating them. I see dozens of void bags, rings and other easier to make rares all neatly displayed on racks. I head to the front desk where there is a student sitting and ask to speak with Merlin. He disappears into the back room and out comes Merlin. He looks¡­ Far different then before. The lived in a heavily enchanted robe with food stains has been replaced with a finely made robe with no enchants. His matted messy beard now finely oiled and combed. Everything about him screams wealth now. His robe looks to be made for style over comfort and practicality. He looks at me for a second, harder than he normally should then yells out. ¡°KITE!?¡± I let out a little laugh, surprised he recognized me. He continues to yell. ¡°What happened!? Did you fall into an un-ugly tree or something?¡± ¡°Haha. No, I just had a growth spurt.¡± I hear him mumble under his breath as he circles around me, inspecting and making sure it isn''t an illusion. "Growth spurts don''t make you look this attractive..." I''m now looking down at him from my height. He had previously been a few inches taller than me. Now I am almost a foot taller than him. I go to put my hand on his head to pat the noticeable bald spot but stop myself. I ask him how he has been, we talk for a few minutes before finally getting to why I had visited him. ¡°So¡­ I need to ask you if you have any knowledge on these.¡± I pull out a few mana crystals I had on me. He grabs one from my hand it looks it over. Eyeing it closely he appears to be shaking slightly at the sight of it. ¡°I''ve only ever heard of these in stories from over 50 years ago. These are mana crystals, pirates use these to help them combat stronger monsters in the ocean. From what I heard the methods for making them have been lost in time¡­ If you leave a few here I might be able to reverse engineer them.¡± ¡°You can have all of these. I have a few boxes of them from my war with the pirates.¡± The look of shock deepens as he hears how many I have. I hadn''t realized how rare they were¡­ I wish I had more knowledge on how to make them¡­ I should be able to make them with mana to matter but something so mana heavy would be much harder to make than a different item. I''ve tried a few things but it seems materials not tied to money/value are the best things to make. Ingredients are far easier to make than the finished product. The herbs to make a healing potion are far easier than making the healing potion itself. It still takes far too much time, effort and mana to make ingredients that way. Perhaps it will be more useful for recreated rare materials later once I find them to be scarce. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°So, besides the craziness of you having several crates full of an item I have only heard of¡­ How is the war going?¡± ¡°We''re not doing as well as I would like. The leader of the pirates is a human born lich and her right hand man is a blood knight.¡± ¡°That¡­ That would make things far more difficult for certain. Both help each other out. As the lich would gain the boost if it is on desecrated ground. For a human to choose to be a lich¡­ That takes a singular mindset... I had dabbled with necromancy in my younger years and I know that to become a lich, you need to have a single minded focus towards a goal for it to work¡­ You also slowly lose your humanity as the time continues on¡­ To take that risk¡­ The person must be mad in the head.¡± Merlin has surprised me by his knowledge. I ask more questions. ¡°What else do you know about both the blood knight and the lich? I''ve checked several books but my research has been very limited.¡± ¡°First, you should attempt to get a paladin to consecrate the ground. If that is impossible attempt to lead them from their location. If that is impossible¡­ I would suggest enchanting several bottles of water with healing magic and weaken undead. Lich''s have a negative effect towards normal healing. The blood knight needs blood to function, try to cut off the source or limit the amount he can use¡­ The lich can control the bodies of the dead, attempt to keep bodies away¡­¡± ¡°I had known most of this¡­ Is there anything else you can tell me?¡± ¡°The lich¡­ Becoming immortal is no small feat¡­ Doing so limits any further progression in every class or knowledge besides what they had before becoming a lich. Only necromancy can be improved. You have to have lost a part of your humanity to be able to change into a lich¡­ You''re enemy will hold no punches in your fight. They are willing to do anything to win.¡± ¡°Thank you for the warning¡­ I wish I had known before I went undercover as a spy¡­ I¡­ Don''t know how to say this but¡­ She was willing to feed her men¡­ Human flesh.¡± His expression of trying to remember the past has changed to remembering something awful. ¡°¡­ You''re enemy needs to be killed quickly! The longer your fight drags on the more desperate it will become¡­ She is making ghouls¡­ They are beyond the normal power of a human. Undying servants who are willing sacrifice themselves at the whim of their master¡­ No fear¡­ No pain¡­ No mercy towards their enemies¡­ You''re army.. No army is prepared to fight against an opponent like that...¡± ¡°Thank you for your help.¡± Thinking everything Merlin has said¡­ I had known the situation was bad but¡­ For it to be this grim¡­ I need to relay the mission to my generals¡­ I head to the main guard building I''ve been to before. Walking inside I see a familiar face. In more detail than normal. Blonde hair covers most of his head, white streaks throughout. A grizzled beard of patchy blonde and white hair peak out of his helmet. He sees me and immediately starts to look frustrated¡­ He rifles through papers as he gets out a question. ¡°What do you need?¡± ¡°I¡­ Can you by chance consecrate the ground for me?¡± He is riffling through papers as I ask. I continue to speak. ¡°The leader of the pirates is a lich.¡± His hands stop at the word lich¡­ He puts the papers down and for the first time since I''ve seen him I see a smile come across his face. ¡°A lich you say? I missed killing the last one. It was attacking a village close by but when I reached the city, a group had already dealt with it. If you give me the chance to fight against an undead beast I can finally shine!¡± The look of excitement his face hasn''t seen for years looks creepy. I have to explain the situation fully. He looks on shocked when I tell him who I am but he still looks happy that he will get to fight a lich. When he hears the 4000 pirates his face of joy slowly shifts back to neutral¡­ Then to a frown¡­ He slams his hand against the table. ¡°DAMN IT! I thought I was going to get to utilize this useless class! FUCKING DAMN IT! This useless class that has given me nothing but trouble. The few unholy enemies I fought against were easy enough to destroy but they are so rare!¡± He looks defeated again¡­ I start to feel bad for him. I decide to make him a deal. ¡°If you help me by consecrating the ground¡­ I can teach you another class as compensation.¡± ¡°I don''t have time for jokes. If you want some of your land consecrated, I''ll charge you 10 silver per hour of my work. That may seem like a hefty amount but paladins are rare and I am busy.¡± I can tell he is just trying to get extra money out of me. I agree anyways¡­ He isn''t lying about paladins being rare. He gets off work an hour after I asked. I left and told my few generals who are planning to head to Merideth today that I''m busy and to go without me. Making it back just as he gets out. As we head to my fortress I ask him which class he would like to learn. ¡°This shit again¡­ I guess¡­ If I had to pick¡­ It would be something to help fight evenly against other people¡­ Warrior would be fine¡­ I have shitty warden and paladin¡­ I can''t fight evenly or even tank¡­ My shields wear off normally before they are useful and I can''t do anything except fight well against the undead.¡± ¡°Good to know... Have you ever thought of learning enchanting? You could sell your enchants at a high price because of how rare enchanting is.¡± "I actually tried to learn enchanting before but... It is a very time consuming and money consuming process... I''m far too busy to learn it." We head back to the fortress as I think of how shocked he is going to be in a few hours. Chapter 135 A dimension hopper I teach Zeke as he consecrates the ground of my fortress. He looked disgruntled at me talking until it finally happened. Just like so many I''ve taught before he looks shocked then screams out in surprise and excitement. He is on the verge of crying once it happens. I can only laugh now at the process now. He tries to consecrate the rest of my fortress for free but I say no, I''ll pay in even after me teaching him. I have plans for him and him being happy now will make the things I want him to do later easier to ask for¡­ I want him to slowly consecrate the ground around the island inward and maybe even infiltrate the base to consecrate some more ground¡­ Reducing the stats of the corpses and ghouls that will be summoned will be the biggest help in the future fight. Speaking of which, around 300 pirates have deserted¡­ From what my scouts say¡­ More tried to but those were the only ones that could get away. They are being detained in several locations but because of the pirates we had gotten from the ship before. I had thought of expanding the prisons to accommodate many people. Some of the deserter pirates see the pirates from the ship all happy and moving around and realize that their leader was spreading lies about us¡­ We are just people trying to survive the war as well¡­ For now. We make sure they aren''t hungry, that is a promise I had made that I plan on keeping. Starting with vegetables and then switching over to meat might be a good idea¡­ Seeing as¡­ They might think that it is human if they are forced to eat meat so soon after coming here¡­ Perhaps if we killed the animals and fish in front of them and cooked it as well they would eat it¡­ I don''t want anyone to starve because of fear though. With gaining Zeke as an ally, I feel a little safer¡­ I still need to get a hold of Lance and Leon¡­ Giving them a communicator slime would be the most helpful. Lance''s point of view ¡°If you wish to eat we still have some meat left!¡­¡± No one attempts it. It takes some self control to not start shouting at this person. That he is lying and that the food has been changed by their leader. With Kite being chased out the spy mission has fallen to me and Leon¡­ Unlike the ship, the idea of being a spy in this army makes me feel excited¡­ At least it would if the leader wasn''t killing her own men so regularly. That only makes me angry. They had to stop putting people onto the stakes out in front of the main building because they had ran out of room. Now the deserters are just thrown on the ground in front of the building¡­ The ones that don''t disappear into the base to become food for later¡­ Or worse... A few hundred pirates have been taken inside the main base for who knows what... None have returned after entering... It has been an entire day of no food¡­ The few summoners in the army are keeping busy by conjuring food but it can''t be eaten regularly or you will get mana poisoning. Even when the bandits had captured us they made sure we were fed at least once a day¡­ I can understand what the enemy is going through a little better because of this¡­ Many men don''t even have enough energy to bat the flies off of themselves anymore. I''ve actually started to make friends with some of the pirates here¡­ Perhaps if we can defeat their leader I can continue to be friends with everyone¡­ I want to protect them from their leader¡­ Leon is still doing things to disrupt their army. A true professional when it comes to a mission. Later that day¡­ Leon brings me into our room alone and talks to me. ¡°Listen¡­ We need to kill their leader sooner rather than later.¡± ¡°Shouldn''t we wait for Kite?¡± ¡°His identity has been revealed¡­ The longer we wait the more people will die. Her death will bring about the end of the war¡­ The next time she shows herself I''m going to kill her.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ I''ll back you up.¡± ¡°No¡­ If I die¡­ The mission will go to you.¡± ¡°...I refuse¡­ If you''re planning to attack her I want in...¡± ¡°Fine¡­ Only if we get the chance though.¡± We wait for our chance¡­ The red weapon guy comes out and talks again¡­ I don''t think he is important though. His death wont cause the pirate army to collapse¡­ He brings out more food and after a single person eats it and runs off no one else does¡­ This is bad¡­ Real bad, as time passes more people will be willing to change into these¡­ Monsters that are attacking us¡­ They are far more dangerous then a normal human¡­ It is like they are emotionless¡­ The chance to kill their leader doesn''t come that day¡­ I''m starting to get hungry as well. The man walks out again to tell us something. ¡°We''re going to let a handful of men leave on the ship. They will make an attempt to get to the north and ask for assistance to fight against this menace. This mission is going to be a very difficult one¡­ You have a very little chance at success¡­ Please know that if you go forwards.¡± That isn''t a half bad idea. If they can get help then we will be forced to leave them alone. I don''t think Kite will give them a chance make it there¡­ Several hundred men have volunteered. Even if they are caught, they''ll be treated better than they are right now as prisoners of our army¡­ They take around 50 pirate volunteers¡­ They disappear underneath the base for an hour¡­ Then when they come out, I notice something terrible. I see no life in their eyes... It is as if they are walking corpses. They are still dressed as like normal but they are now dead¡­ The corpses board the ship and leave now¡­ No one even notices they aren''t alive anymore... Not even Leon... What the hell is she planning? Kite''s point of view I''m about to head into the portal to get to our ships before I''m stopped by Nami. ¡°Hey¡­ Can we talk?¡± ¡°Yea what do you need?¡± Before she can answer Green rushes up to me and starts yelling. ¡°HEY! Kite, we need to talk.¡± ¡°I mean¡­ Nami was here fir-.¡± ¡°It''s about that little girl with the crazy magic powers.¡± ¡°¡­ Umm¡­ Can this talk wait till later Nami?¡± ¡°Sure. Come to the village when you aren''t busy.¡± She leaves as Green starts to explain. Leaning in close and trying to whisper but speaking loud enough for everyone in close proximity to hear. ¡°One of Gobber''s little girls. She came onto the battlefield and healed things that were impossible to heal by anyone else¡­ My men were saved because of her¡­ She said something about feeling the pain happening or some shit and had Darkclaw take her to the battlefield.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. This is bad¡­ If Hilda hears one of her children went to the battlefield she might want to leave¡­ That doesn''t change the fact that she did something truly amazing¡­ It brings back memories of the time that Pokodo was poisoned and she was able to heal it¡­ There might be more to those children then I first expected¡­ She also has a sense for people in need¡­ It seems she knew people were going to get injured before it even happened¡­ ¡°Alright¡­ Thank her but tell no one¡­ If Hilda finds out about it she could leave the fortress.¡± ¡°What!? Why? Her child can do something so amazing as heal impossibly difficult wounds. Wounds made by those weird ass monsters rushing out from their base and I need to keep it a secret!¡± She is now yelling at this point¡­ Keeping it a secret is going to be far harder than I thought¡­ Perhaps it would be better to tell Hilda the entire story before she hears a piece of the story from someone else. Green yells a few more times something similar to what she already was before leaving¡­ I start to head to Gobber''s room but Kline stops me before I can make it there. Can I not get anything done today? Everyone seems to need to talk for some reason. I''m the leader of an army but people still continue to bring their problems to me... I like helping people with problems but this is getting to be ridiculous... He looks visibly shaken up by something. ¡°I¡­ Can we speak in private?¡± I take him to my old room before he begins telling me what is wrong. ¡°I¡­ It is like someone is following me around. Everywhere I go it is like someone¡­ Something is right behind me but I can''t see it.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ Did you get any feelings since we''ve been in this room?¡± ¡°Not yet¡­ Even around people I still get the feelings.¡± ¡°Sit right there and I will watch you. The second you feel the presence alert me.¡± It takes around 10 minutes of sitting still waiting for something to happen. Finally he yells. ¡°I can feel it!¡± I look around. Nothing, there is nothing behind him, I would have been able to sense it even if it was invisible¡­ For a second I thought I seen something. I instinctively reach out and grab at it. From thin air, I get a hold of something. As if pulling it through another dimension, I rip something through. A green girl comes popping out. I can see through her to the other side where Kline is, it is like she is made of air or something. The second she realizes I what has happened my hand slips through her arm. She attempts to flee but I grab at her with no success. Thinking quickly I put up a wind wall in front of the door. It stops her dead in her tracks, she is now stuck in here with us. She looks terrified by what has happened. I need to ask her. ¡°So¡­ What exactly are you?¡± She goes to speak but no words come out. Only music notes are produced as she speaks¡­ I try to think¡­ What the death god could she be? A spirit of some kind? I''ve never seen a spirit but I doubt they would be tinted green like this¡­ But from reading stories and books about mythical creatures¡­ I think she might be a sylph¡­ So she might understand some fairy language. I try to speak using that¡­ At least pieces of it. ¡°Can you speak fairy?¡± She looks at me in slight shock by my knowledge. I know that the fairy language is one of the harder ones to learn. It has very long drawn out phrases that are lengthened to make entire sentences. It is hard to learn if you aren''t from the family of the fae. Me speaking it would possibly confuse her more than anyone inside this base being able to. ¡°Y-yes...¡± ¡°Good, good, now¡­ Why are you following Kline around?¡± ¡°He is¡­ Such a good person I wanted to just watch him be so nice and caring.¡± In common I say. ¡°It looks like you''ve gotten a fan Kline. She is watching you because you are such a good person.¡± I continue speaking to the sylph. ¡°So¡­ Why had you remained hidden. If you would have revealed yourself, I''m sure you would have still been fine.¡± ¡°Well¡­ It is because of what I am. Most people would try to capture me to use me as a dimensional door¡­ Or keep me locked away to admire my beauty... We aren''t very social either¡­ From the air realm, I can watch people through the tears in the dimensions. I''ve never¡­ How could you see me?¡± ¡°I don''t really know for sure¡­ Is it bad that you are here?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Not really¡­ It''s just¡­ We sylphs are very shy...¡± ¡°But you still spy on Kline.¡± I have a feeling that if she could blush, she would be right now¡­ Hmm¡­ I''m not sure how this works but I think them becoming friends for now would be in the best interest. ¡°Kline¡­ I''m going to give you the ability to talk to this sylph¡­ She was just curious about you and was spying on you¡­ I think having her close by instead of spying from a different dimension might come in handy.¡± ¡°A-alright¡­ So¡­ How are you going to teach me to talk to her then?¡± I start using my give knowledge skill from master of teaching. I focus on the sylph language and soon enough I get it all compacted into a certain part of my thoughts. Then I cut those thoughts out of my head¡­ Trying to throw them at Kline. His eyes start to glow as I do this. A few seconds later the light dies down I have to make sure it works. ¡°So? Can you speak it now.¡± ¡°I''m not sure¡­ I guess I''ll give it a shot.¡± He starts speaking now¡­ It is in a language I can''t understand now. ¡°Heesssssssshhhhhhhh. Naaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhffffffffttttttaaaaa.¡± The sylph looks excited by Kline gaining the ability to speak to her. She speaks at him now. ¡°Faaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Faaaaaaaaaahhhhhssssssssssshhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaa. Neeeeeeeeeeeeefffffffffrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuu.¡± ¡­ I now have no idea what they are saying¡­ If I could still learn it from osmosis I think I would have started picking up pieces of it by now¡­ I doubt I''ll ever be able to learn it the easy way again¡­ It still might be worth learning it if I have the time though¡­ It will just take¡­ Years to master that language now but¡­ It feels like I''ve made the right decision¡­ It let me test out my give knowledge as well. I break off and let them speak in private. The sylph looks like she has a crush on Kline. He is speaking and she continues to laugh at his antics. It is like she can finally understand the words that were making all those children laugh now. I still have to talk to Hilda. I head towards Gobber''s room. Chapter 136 Heavy losses As I get close to Gobber''s room¡­ I hear yelling¡­ Then I realize who it is¡­ Damn it Green. I run to the door and hear the tail end of their conversation. ¡°Your child is special damn it! She knew that my men would die and healed them and you get caught up on the fact that she had to go to the battlefield!¡± ¡°Are you serious!? Of course I''m upset that my child went to the battlefield!¡± Green and Hilda stop their yelling match as I enter the room. Hilda looks as if she is going to say something but Green cuts her off. ¡°You believe her Kite? She is upset her child is a fucking prodigy. What an idiot! She is already a stronger healer than every other healer in our army.¡± ¡°Do you not hear yourself? The keyword is child you idiot! She is far too young to be part of the fighting let alone be on the battlefield. How did she even get there!?¡± ¡°Kite''s dragon took her there.¡± Hilda turn towards me again. Damn it Green¡­ I go to speak. ¡°I had nothing to do with that. I was coming to tell you about the incident but was stopped by Kline who had a problem I needed to help with.¡± ¡°What was wrong with Kline?¡± Even in the middle of yelling at us Hilda is still curious about Kline. I explain the situation¡­ It doesn''t phase anyone. The things that happen around me are just so strange that strange things have become normal to everyone. If I recall correctly¡­ Sylphs are beyond rare once again. They are the messengers of the elemental world. Being able to tear through the fabric of our dimension and the air realm they come from. Making the able to almost teleport in a certain way¡­ Gaining one as an ally will be a heavy increase to our abilities later on. At least¡­ I think it will be¡­ She might head back to her own realm after speaking with Kline. Hilda gets back on topic. ¡°Kite! You made a promise to me. My children will not fight on the battlefields.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ I know¡­ I''ll tell Darkclaw to not take your children close to the battle but¡­ Perhaps it would be a good idea to have your healer start learning the ways of healing now¡­ I know the sight of blood is normally enough to gross most people out but¡­ She might be even more special than your other children. All your children are¡­ Incredibly talented already but¡­ She might be the most powerful out of them all.¡± Hilda starts to pace back and forth¡­ The safety of her children comes first but¡­ She knows that her children are beyond special. They will eventually spread their wings and some might even leave our fortress in a few years¡­ Teaching them how to be safe now will only make them surviving dangerous situations in the future easier. ¡°Fine¡­ Hilda junior will be allowed to work as a helper at the medical bay¡­ But only that, if I hear she has gone back to the battlefield again I will leave even if I have to leave Gobber here in the process.¡± Gobber who had been sitting in the corner of the room playing with his children now looks up. The children have seemed to not notice¡­ Or rather not care about what Hilda just said¡­ Speaking of which. ¡°I only count 5 children¡­ Where is the one who imprinted with Neko?¡± Hilda''s point of view Shortly after Kite left to look for my missing daughter, Hilda junior started to get a little upset by something. I pay slightly closer attention to her as she just healed someone by sensing that they needed healing. As time goes on she looks more and more upset and eventually she yells out. "I have to go save them!" I stop her and ask what she is talking about. "Something bad just happened to the ships mamma. Let me go help them!" Neko''s point of view ¡°Look over there¡­ That is the best spot to set up the prank. Hehehe.¡± I stole Hilda''s child to help me play some practical jokes. We stole a few bottles of milk, some feathers pulled from the chicken¡­ It was hard to not eat and drink them but this prank is going to be amazing. We mix the two together in a bowl and prop it above the door to the cafeteria. Sometimes the door is left open to let the smell of cooked/burnt food exit out of the room¡­ At least I think that is why. We wait and watch as people continue to use the other doors. Waiting for the one moment where they choose the cafeteria door with the trap. I can hear the little girl I had stolen snickering along with me as we wait. 1 minute passes¡­. 2 minutes pass¡­ What is wrong!? Why hasn''t anyone used that door yet!? I go to approach it. Is something wrong with the trap? The second I get close someone jostles the door and the milk and feathers fall down on me¡­ WHY! The door swings open a second later and Kite is standing on the other side. ¡°Why are you covered in milk and feathers?¡± ¡°Because of you stupid!¡± What a perfectly ruined prank¡­ I''m disappointed and angry that the prank flopped onto me. I hear laughing behind me. It is the little one, looking at the mess that happened to me. I would normally get more angry¡­ But I''m honestly happy that someone found it funny. Kite''s point of view I expected Neko to me more mad¡­ She only turns around and laughs at the mishap of her prank backfiring¡­ I get the feeling that if the child wasn''t around¡­ She would be far more upset. The children are good for my pets¡­ I noticed that Sock is even more kind then normal. Needing to be extra careful when approaching things smaller than himself. Pokodo is far more outgoing. Sleeping far less than her normal 18 hours everyday. Even Red has started to become less haughty around the children. Trying to set a good example for them to follow. All I can do is smile as the childish nature of Neko is slowly changed to be more adult like. Throwing less fits when things don''t go her way¡­ Acting for the sake of other people¡­ It makes me-. One of my men rush up screaming. ¡°LEADER! WE- SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED TO OUR SHIPS!¡± What could it have been? They didn''t have enough ships to fight evenly against us. He makes no attempt to tell me as I rush passed him through the close by portals to the ships. The one I had taken¡­ Is underwater. WHAT!? What the fuck happened? I grab the portal before I realize what is happening and start making my way out of the ships hull. I see the corpses of several of my crewmen floating in the water. WHAT THE GODS JUST HAPPENED! Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Swimming to the surface¡­ I see that several of the other ships are in a bad way as well. Almost falling apart. One on the verge of sinking. I swim over to it and patch the giant hole making it smaller than it was. Some of the few members of the ship that had sunk are surfacing but far more had just perished¡­ If these ships didn''t have the bare minimum amount of people on them to run the casualties would have been far higher¡­ I still expect the casualties to be at least 30¡­ WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!? I yell at the crew member rushing buckets of water out of the hull and throwing it overboard. ¡°What just happened!?¡± ¡°We were attacked! One of the ships just started to charge at us and before we could sink it, it got close enough to explode.¡± Fear shoots through me¡­ Gold had copied what had happened against her own ships¡­ She is willing to sacrifice one of the only ships she has to make it to shore to cripple my army and create casualties¡­ This fight is getting to be too much. An enemy who isn''t afraid to sacrifice pawns is something I just can''t understand. I would never do anything similar but perhaps¡­ The only way to beat her is to think that way. I patch several of the other holes that were facing the explosion¡­ We lost 2 ships¡­ A dagger and a shiv¡­ We almost lost a sword¡­ 37 more casualties were created in this attack¡­ I feel like I''ve failed my army by being so slow on taking the fight to the enemy¡­ We need to have another general meeting¡­ With all of my generals. I think a show of force in retaliation is best¡­ I''m going to do something I haven''t done since we''ve been fighting¡­ I''m going to work on reducing their numbers¡­ In a truly brutal way¡­ I dislike this idea¡­ Being lowered to fight so¡­ Disgustingly as my enemies¡­ My hands are played out though. I head to my enchanting crew and tell them to start work on more void satchels¡­ I''ll need more than a few for this mission. Leon''s point of view I''m¡­ I have this feeling that something terrible just happened. We''ve been waiting for our chance but I think it might be better to just sneak into the base to take her out¡­ Lance pulls me aside and whispers. ¡°Those men were dead. They had no light in their eyes¡­ It was as if they were walking zombies¡­ I think Gold killed them.¡± ¡°Why would she kill them? If they were going for help, they wouldn''t be able to ask for it if they were dead.¡± BOOM! I hear an explosion go off in the distance. Close enough to startle me. We all look towards the explosion¡­ It is in the direction of our ships¡­ That is why I had gotten the bad feeling. Several of the men have jumped down to the ground and have started walking or running towards the explosion. I do as well, but am shortly stopped by a voice behind me. It is the leader who isn''t the lich. He begins to speak. ¡°Our enemy will not give us any chance to flee or escape¡­ This is proof of how ruthless they are. They wouldn''t even let a single ship go without destroying it! We must band together to beat this threat!¡± What a load of bullshit, we''ve already captured a ship. That isn''t the way Kite would handle an enemy ship. That was obviously an attack against us by them¡­ I need to get back to the ships. I continue to walk but quickly pass by the other people who have jumped down to look. The pirate leader continues to speak. ¡°You there! Why do you continue to walk towards the explosion? Do you wish to see the enemy up close? You will never make it there on land. They''ll stop you before you do.¡± I''m beyond frustrated now. I yell back at him. ¡°Then form a group and let''s take back the land in that direction! We might be able to save some of the pirates if they swim back to land.¡± ¡°No! I am the leader! We are not risking more losses just because you want to play hero and save the useless men who failed their mission!¡± I''m beyond pissed by what he just said¡­ He is the reason I''m still alive. I need to get rid of people like him. I yell back. ¡°You''re more than welcome to try and stop me. I am going to help my fellow pirates and if any of you have any fucking backbone you will too.¡± Several men form around me. Standing behind me as I confront the leader. He makes no attempt to step forward or even address me. I see Lance now taking a close position behind him. If we start to fight he will most certainly jump the leader before he has a chance to respond. I hear someone yell out behind their, just as they exit the main building. ¡°STOP THIS! We need to stick together. Fighting right now will only weaken us against the enemy.¡± There she is! Now is my chance¡­ Do I take it though? There are several hundred pirates down here already¡­ I would be throwing my life away if I attacked her¡­ I''ll give myself a reason to fight her then. ¡°FINE! If you agree to help take back the path to the ocean so we can save our friends then I won''t be angry.¡± ¡°Of course, I was coming to mention the same thing just now before you did. Sometimes my husband just gets a little too guarded. This fight can cost us lives if we aren''t careful. So we need to be especially careful.¡± ...Fuck¡­ She agreed, now there is no way attacking her will be seen as anything besides an assassination attempt. We all turn towards the direction the ship had sailed in and start heading there when I hear her yell out again. ¡°You there! Come speak to me quickly please.¡± I head back towards her¡­ She looks like a normal lady¡­ Perhaps slightly more frail than the average person¡­ Maybe even sickly, she isn''t very attractive¡­ Far less so then her sister at least¡­ Perhaps some jealously spurred her overthrowing her older sister¡­ I guess that is speculation though. She speaks fairly loud when we talk, it is as if she wants them to hear her talk. ¡°I would like to offer you a position as one of my captains. The enemy has been spending a lot of effort killing my captains. I would like a few captains that have the trust of the people. Please come into the main building later tonight. We''ll discuss our future plans for this fight.¡± We push towards the beach. It is completely uncontested, looking over the damage to the ships¡­ I can see the massive amounts of carnage the enemy just caused¡­ 2 of our ships are missing. Several of the other ships are damaged badly as well¡­ Damn this fucking war. Even more lives have been lost, the longer we wait for Kite to decide it is time to act the worse off we a-. A dragon goes flying over me. It is Kite followed by several griffin riders. Chapter 137 Death comes for him I fly overhead of the pirates who have all left the safety of their base and are now out looking over the ocean. The attack against my army will not go unpunished. The preparation for the aerial assault has been underway since the first night raid. I just would have rather avoided such a dirty tactic. We have enough explosives on us to do significant damage to the main building. I call out as loud as I can as we fly high enough to avoid the mana cannons. ¡°WHEN WE GET CLOSE, WE''ll DIVE BOMB THE BASE AND DROP OUR EXPLOSIVES!¡± This is almost a years worth of preparation going to be spent here. I had been building up enough void satchels full of acid and explosives to destroy hundreds of soldiers at once. If we target the base they are hiding in, it will be far easier to launch hit and run tactics against them. My army may be outnumbered but we will never be outmaneuvered. We fly overhead and start to descend. We are passed their cannons now. It will take a minute to get them repositioned to where we are. We don''t give them the chance, dropping bombs on the outer part of the base where the cannons are set-up. The mana canisters that were set-up are aiding in our attack. Almost a chain reaction of them happen as we destroy the entire side of newly placed mana cannons on the second level. Even assisting in the destruction of the roof of the first floor. Almost causing enough damage to cause another chain reaction. We proceed to continue this attack. Targeting the mana cannons as we continue. Most of the attacks are done on the outer parts of this big building. I lead each assault as we target them. We scatter a few bombs onto the middle of the second floor of the building. Causing the shoddily made roof to fall apart, the casualties of this attack has already exceeded the men I just lost by double easily. With their defenses shot, their mana cannons destroyed, we fall back. They could do nothing to stop us. Before we completely leave, I yell out as loud as I can. With the help of a wind scroll to carry my message across the building. ¡°YOU HAVE UNTIL TOMORROW TO SURRENDER! WE WILL ATTACK IN FULL FORCE THEN! MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR GODS IF YOU DON''T!¡± I fly over the group again¡­ I see the blood knight. This might be the battle changing decision... I fly down and start filling my mouth with wind scrolls and flammable liquid. He see''s me dive bombing and I can see fear in his eyes. He starts killing his own men! What is wrong with these people? He kills 3 people before I am close enough to hit him with my dragons breath. I hear the sound of cannon fire as I do so. I''ll only get one chance at this. I breath fire just as he pulls the blood out of the freshly made corpses of his own men. The fire is intense enough to kill several dozen people¡­ He managed to get a shield up to stop it just in time¡­ It couldn''t stop the flames completely. They broke through and some scorched him. I see the flesh melt off his face, he screaks out in pain as I fly up to avoid being struck by the cannon fire. The rocks being fired strike their own troops, killing some of their own men. He looks to be in bad shape as some of his men fire arrows and throw knives at me as I fly up¡­ None connect as they aren''t very trained in fighting. My attack wasn''t enough to kill him¡­ Damn it! The blood knight crawls away¡­ He is hurt. Even with a healer, he is going to be covered in burn scars from now on.
Class learned Blood knight- passive skill gained Bloody strength- attacks are strengthened with the assistance of blood (uses your own unless you''ve drawn the enemies blood), passive stat increase charisma Level 1 passive skill Blood strike- every single attack against an opponent that draws blood strengthens the next attack
Secret skill Blood defense- Able to form a set of armor or shield made out of blood that will protect you and will grow in strength as it absorbs the blood of enemies
I should have used Aegis to boost my stats for that attack¡­ If I had killed him, it would be far easier¡­ I notice both Lance and Leon are in the group¡­ I would have just unintentionally burned them if I attacked with slightly more power¡­ Both look as if their hair was scorched by the attack and look slightly agitated but not harmed at least. I breath a sigh of relief that I didn''t harm my friends unintentionally. I fly back to the ships¡­ The main thing the army we are facing is lacking is ranged forces. If we can keep the fighting at longer reach or lure them out of their mana cannon range, we''ll be far more advantaged in the fight... I doubt Gold would allow her armies to be outmatched by this. Zergnar and his aerial troops will be non stop attacking with sacks of rocks now that the thin roof as been destroyed. He''ll continue his attack up until the next day, a few hours before we start the final attack. With so much left to do... I still need to go speak with Nami before the final assault to ask for her ninja''s aid. We also need to have a final war meeting. This will be the last discussion before the fate changing fight in this war¡­ Of this entire world... Kline''s point of view ¡°So you''re name is Silky? That is a nice name.¡± ¡°Thank you. I think Kline is a nice name too.¡± We sort of sat their awkwardly after that¡­ I don''t know what to talk to her about¡­ She did spy on me from another dimension¡­ But I can''t fault her either because I''m great. Of course she would want to watch me¡­ Heh, I shouldn''t talk myself up in my head. ¡°So¡­ Why did you like watching me?¡± She twitched a little, twiddling her ethereal fingers as she begins to speak. ¡°I¡­ You are just such a good story teller. The way to talk to those children¡­ You make everyone around you happy. I really like watching the smiles you put on peoples faces¡­ I wanted to hear the stories you were telling and I would make up stories as you would tell them. How you would go on adventures and save people. How you would always make jokes to make people laugh¡­ I just like you.¡± She looks as if she would be blushing if she could. Gods she''s cute, I''m not sure how a relationship would work with a creature from another plain¡­ I especially think of how the sex would work... Can we honestly have sex? Does she have... Working lady parts... Lets just start as friends then. ¡°If you want. I can tell you those stories when I''m not busy. The look of surprise and excitement comes across her see through face. The smile that she was talking about me giving to other people appears across her own face. Leon''s point of view It''s been an hour since the attack. It is almost getting dark¡­ If Kite was smart, he would attack another few nights of stealthily lowering their numbers. Calling out that we are attacking tomorrow is a huge mistake. I don''t know what he is thinking but if I can kill the lich tonight, I can leave this base and we can put off fighting the pirates until they give up. If we crush their leader, cut the head off the snake¡­ They''ll give up or they will die along with her. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I enter the building. She told me to come speak with her. Once we are in a room with a limited amount of people. I''ll use that as a chance to kill her. Lance is keeping a close eye on the door I entered in case I need back up or we need to flee. He''ll be ready to go if I come rushing out. I am lead through the hallways of this maze like structure. I think they purposely made it confusing so intruders would be confused as well. I''m lead into a room and around a dozen pirates ambush me and hold my arms. Three on each arm three behind me and one on each leg. I barely get to look around the room as they try to grab me to a table. Inside the room the giant storage room is hundreds of those ravenous dead¡­ I think Gold has been bringing down pirates and force feeding them pieces of human so they change. I start to feel fear when I understand what they have in store for me. They try to carry me over to a table and tie me down but I manage to kick one off me, dropping my body down enough for me to knee another in the face. They don''t give me time to recover, several of the ones behind me grab at my face. One of them has human in his hand and forces it into my mouth. I instinctively bite down and sever two of his fingers off. I spit most of it out before I am hit with a punch to my face¡­ I swallow reflexively¡­ They all let me go.
Race removed human, monster class changed to ghoul
Secret skill upgraded Sacrifice attack--> Ghoulish stance- Become less human, losing your sense of fear, morality and giving you temporary powers at the cost of sacrificing your body
Class limit broken
Stamina increased by 500
Intelligence reduced by 100
New ghoul skill gained Ghouls body- Removal of pain and have the innate ability to dodge incoming attacks
Awakened class champion has resisted effects of permanent mind control
Awakened class champion has retained your sanity from the transformation for now
MY BODY IS BURNING! I¡­ It hurts so bad! I go into a rage, with almost uncontrollable strength, I kill the dozen men. I... I think I just ate human without even realizing it¡­ Not the human I was forced to eat... But the ones I just killed... Ripping the flesh out of their necks as the others looked on in fear before they gained the same fate. I... I need to get out of here. I need to talk with Lance! I need to¡­ What do I need to do¡­ I need to leave¡­ That is all I can think¡­ How did I¡­ Which way do I go¡­ Lance''s point of view I''m waiting near the door, somewhat overlooking it but staying far enough away so I don''t look suspicious. I wait for Leon¡­ 30 minutes pass before he exits the buildi-. WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!? He yells out. ¡°HELP ME!!!¡± He falls over after yelling¡­ I grab him without another word and head towards our forward base on the island. Some of the pirates overlooked what had just happened but after seeing he was a¡­ Monster... They stopped in their tracks. No one knew what to do... I throw him over my shoulders and now go into a full sprint. My heart beats out of my chest at what has happened. Gobber''s point of view My little girl prodded me a few minutes ago. She whispered to me. ¡°Daddy¡­. Listen¡­ Please take me to the main base on the island¡­ I feel someone in trouble. Don''t tell mommy though or she will get angry.¡± Do I take my daughter to a battlefield? I roll around on the ground trying to think. Hilda will kill me if she finds out. It is also a giant risk to my daughters own health. She speaks again. ¡°Hurry daddy. We need to hurry if we want to save him!¡± She said it loud enough for Hilda to overhear. Hilda gives me a look as if to say. You take her anywhere and you''re as good as dead. In order to get Hilda junior out to help the person¡­ I''ll have to think of a good lie¡­ ¡°Umm¡­ Hilda junior has to poop and¡­ She wants to use someone else''s toilet to see if it feels different... BYE!¡± I grab her and rush out of the room. What an excellent lie, there is no way she will see through that. I run over to the portals¡­ This is the last chance I have to think on weather or not I am going directly against Hilda¡­ She chased us down though and I hear her yelling behind me. ¡°Gobber! I just heard Hilda junior ask to come help someone and then she has to poop. That is quite possibly the worst lie I''ve ever heard.¡± ¡°She just wants to help people¡­ If I go with her, I can protect her¡­¡± ¡°The army is filled with other healers. Can''t any of them do it?¡± Hilda junior speaks up. ¡°No¡­ If they could I wouldn''t make a big deal out of this¡­ The voice in my head says that I am the only one who can do it.¡± She has a voice in her head? She continues to speak. ¡°It is saying that if I don''t help him¡­ He will change forever... Making it impossible for him to ever become normal again.¡± I ask who? She answers. ¡°¡­ The voice says¡­ His name is Leon. Mommy didn''t let me help when the ships were sank¡­ 3 people could have been saved¡­ At least that is what the voice is saying.¡± Hilda looks at us¡­ She looks as conflicted as I do. I finally say. ¡°We can go with her and watch over her. She isn''t alone and I''ll give my life to protect her if I have to.¡± Hilda bites her lip almost hard enough to draw blood. She speaks while sighing heavily because of worry. ¡°Alright.¡± Chapter 138 Meeting with Nami I head to speak with Nami¡­ She wanted to talk and I feel bad I keep putting it off. I also need to ask for her troops to fight against the pirates tomorrow. I would also like her to visit the final meeting before tomorrow. I have my team strengthening the walls that will protect us from mana cannon fire right now. Green has¡­ Been a bit abrasive, when it''s come to following my orders¡­ Perhaps after the war is over, going over some rules would be for the best. Making a set of rules for different races, ones with different beliefs is going to be difficult though. I enter the village. It just seems¡­ Friendlier, people are approaching me. Being far more talkative then before¡­ I guess getting their children back was a huge boost to their feelings towards my army. I knock on Nami''s door and she tells me to come in. One of her children is resting on her now. She is petting the child''s head¡­ It is hard to tell weather the child is male or female¡­ At least to me anyways. She motions for me to sit down before speaking. ¡°I just wanted to thank you again for giving me the chance to¡­ Well, to save my villages existence. If¡­ If we lost a generation to the pirates¡­ Our village would have eventually died out¡­ Some of the children still act funny but a few have started to act normal again¡­ She must have done something to them mentally because it is as if they were brainwashed to follow any orders given to them.¡± She stands up and the little murine folk child runs off to play with the other children who are now wandering the streets... It seems like a somewhat uneasy peacefulness¡­ The amount of adults watching over the children playing is¡­ Far above the normal amount¡­ I understand why. Nami motions for me to follow her into the back room of her house. Once I enter, she strips naked. I''m about to ask what she is doing but she begins to speak. ¡°It is a tradition of the village for the parents of a child to arrange their marriage. With both of my parents dead, the duty falls to me. It is a tradition of the ninja''s for the proposed wife to strip naked during these arrangements as to expose any hidden weapons she may have on her person¡­ While I do not love you, you have done so much for this village. So much that it would be impossible to pay you back in my lifetime. Let me give myself to you as payment for what you have done for this village.¡± She sits down on her knees¡­ It is hard to look at her like this¡­ Like a warrior forced to become a servant¡­ I feel like whatever I say next could possibly result in her misinterpreting what I mean. Choosing my words very carefully I speak. ¡°Do you even like me at all?¡± ¡°Marriage is rarely about love in our culture. Your family would normally have to prove that we were of a similar wealth and standing¡­ Seeing as both our families are dead, we''ll forgo that situation.¡± I¡­ I''m going to have to be more forceful so she doesn''t misunderstand. ¡°Your people aren''t getting off that easily.¡± She looks up in shock at what I had just said. I continue. ¡°Your people will always owe me a huge favor for helping return their children safely. Because of this, I will not allow you to marry me to pay off the debt. So please dress yourself.¡± She stands up from her position. I had turned around until I could no longer hear the sound of cloths being rustled. I continue my speech. ¡°Your people owe me so much that I think the only way to pay me back is if you join us in this fight against the pirates. It will be a fight to the death and I need all the troops I can get for the battle tomorrow¡­ That is the only payment I will accept from the murine folk for freeing their children.¡± She bows her head again. I can only say one more thing before leaving. ¡°I don''t want servants or wives from your people¡­ I want comrades. People I can rely on for help... Not people who are forced to do something they don''t want to because of me.¡± I think she is starting to understand. I think she might have been offended when I said that I didn''t want her to be my wife¡­ Perhaps¡­ In another lifetime¡­ She could have been my wife but¡­ I''ve been unfair in previous lives, I don''t wish to fall into old habits again. The heart wants what the heart wants but it puts itself in a precarious situation by doing so¡­ I will never hurt a person for the sake of trying to make myself more happy with more than one wife¡­ You have to think of everyone¡¯s feelings in those situations and¡­ It almost never works out in the end. I leave her at that¡­ I still need to go speak with the shogun and plan¡­ Shit! I didn''t tell her about the meeting. I rush back in and startle Nami as I yell. ¡°There''s a generals meeting later today! Come by and speak with one of my troops, they will escort you¡­ Well you know the way so just come to the fortress in like a hour¡­¡± I am flustered myself¡­ I¡­ I''m not sure how to feel about her proposal, I am flattered of course but at the same time. Nami was willing to give herself to me for the sake of her people¡­ She is selfless even to the very last end. Even with her own happiness¡­ I want¡­ What is best for her and that isn''t being my wife. I walk to the shoguns castle while thinking all sorts of things about Nami now¡­ Damn it! Why did she have to strip. I can''t think clearly. I have a damn war to prepare for and I only have one thing on my mind¡­ Thinking back though¡­ When she stripped, her body language moved her body almost instinctively to hide or naked arm¡­ As if she was ashamed of it¡­ Damn¡­ Did I just make her think I didn''t want to marry her because of her arm¡­ I feel like an idiot for not noticing until now. I walk into the shoguns room and take my seat in front of him. Normally I would wait for him to speak but I go first this time. ¡°What is wrong with Nami?¡± He lets out a little chuckle before speaking. ¡°I assume she asked for you to marry her? Without a father, she came to me for advice and asked me to preform the ceremony if you accepted¡­ By your question, I assumed you didn''t agree¡­ Tis a shame, you two would make a good couple¡­ I mean besides the fact that you are a human that is¡­¡± ...For a second I had forgotten that I was an outsider¡­ Coming into contact with so many races, I forget they have their own customs sometimes¡­ Marriage of outsiders is most likely looked down upon in most situations¡­ Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. That is why imposing strict rules against my army might be an unwise decision¡­ As with many different customs¡­ Something as inane as putting in a rule about something as little as wearing a certain uniform could result in dissension from some of the races like lizard men and kobolds¡­ We would work better with a loose set of rules over a more strict set¡­ Some people like Green might outright refuse and leave my army if I put anything in more restrict. She purposefully spoke with someone after I had said not to, which is a problem that will need to be addressed eventually. Speaking of kobolds¡­ I need to speak with them after this war¡­ Having them look at me as if I am a god is only helpful in the short run¡­ I don''t wish any of them to sacrifice themselves for me¡­ Shikki had died because he thought I was some sort of divine creature¡­ If he had assumed I was a normal person, he would not have waited so long to retreat. Shikki''s death rests solely on me¡­ If I hadn''t lied and made them believe I was a dragon, they still might have joined me. I need to look at this as something I need to improve about myself¡­ The stronger I am, the smarter I am¡­ The less likely my allies will die¡­ The more likely I''ll notice something that could be a potential threat in the future¡­ The shogun is just staring at me¡­ Oh shit! Was he talking? ¡°Ah I see you are back from wherever you went. How was your trip?¡± ¡°Heh sorry¡­ I''m just thinking far too much about¡­ What has happened so far¡­ I''m sorry but if you''ve said anything about Nami''s marriage proposal I didn''t hear it.¡± ¡°I was just saying. You will need some sort of payment for freeing our children.¡± ¡°Will the ninjas fight with me against the pirates?¡± ¡°Of course, we will fight them and take our revenge against them but you still need a payment afterwords¡­¡± ¡°No¡­ That is enough. I do not wish any more tragedy on your people because of me. Putting your lives in danger one more time is all I can ask.¡± ¡°You don''t seem to understand our code. A ninja always repays their dept, even if the person is unwilling to accept payment¡­ So what would you like because you''ve put our entire race in your dept...¡± I breath a heavy sigh as they are going to force themselves into my dept because of their culture¡­ Damn it. I try to think of something as Nami enters the room. Well¡­ I have an idea but¡­ ¡°Well, after making such a big deal out of not marrying Nami. I actually do want her...¡± Both look on as shocked¡­ I guess that wasn''t the best place to stop my sentence. ¡°As a general in my army. I guess having a few ninja troops on reserve for stealth missions would also come in handy...¡± The shogun combs his beard between his finger and thumb¡­ ¡°Is that all? You''ve done so much for us already¡­ We¡­ As a people, we are so indebted to you¡­ How can you sit there and say that the payment for all of your help is just our help. Of course we will help, but we are not even. Not in the slightest.¡± I rub my face. It is as if he is trying to force me to take more than I want. And I steadfastly refused him¡­ This is the opposite of how these talks normally go. ¡°FINE! I''ll do trade with you for your wood. I know it will make amazing bows if I use it.¡± ¡°You will take the wood for free for your help freeing the children.¡± ¡°I refuse! We will do fair business for it!¡± ¡°You will buy it for 20% of what it is actually worth.¡± ¡°I say 80% then.¡± ¡°I''ll go as high as 50%.¡± ¡°Fine. But only for the first year of our trade agreement. Anything after that and I pay full price.¡± ¡°Make it two years. Speaking of which, we''ll buy everything at an increased rate of 400% in this time.¡± ¡°You are killing me. 125% price increase and that doesn''t include the price of food which will be normal priced in case your island has a food shortage.¡± He finishes combing his long beard and finishes talking. ¡°Fine. While I don''t agree with how easy we are getting off, I will agree to these terms.¡± We talk for a few more minutes. I''m still very busy today¡­ It should be getting close to the final meeting of my generals before the fight tomorrow. Nami follows behind me to the portal we had left on the island¡­ The awkwardness is very intense as we walk¡­ I guess I have to fix my mistake. ¡°Nami¡­ While I do understand the marriage of your people. It is slightly different for humans¡­ Well, for some humans anyways. We only marry for love¡­ So, that is why I didn''t want to marry you¡­ I didn''t want to force you to do something you might regret later on.¡± ¡°I get that but¡­ With all the flirting you were doing with me, I just assumed it was because you liked me.¡± I give a little chuckle at what she said before explaining. ¡°I¡­ I had a new trait influencing what I was doing. I normally don''t act that way but as I level, I can be forced to act differently...¡± ¡°Isn''t that dangerous for someone who is leading an army to be doing? What if you get a trait like cowardly that will make you do the wrong things with your army¡­ Or one that would make you extremely aggressive with your army.¡± ¡°Well¡­ If it comes down to it¡­ One of my other generals would take over for me¡­ At least until the trait had passed through me.¡± We walk through the portal and one of my guards alerts me to something that had just happened. Leon has been injured and might die soon¡­ Chapter 139 Last day before battle ¡°I need a bucket of water! Someone get me a rag! You two people in the corner, do something or get out of the operating room!¡± I walk into the medical bay and dozens of people are rushing around. Hilda and Gobber are overlooking the situation, I see several of my healers in the room¡­ Overlooking the operating table is a small child giving orders to everyone else¡­ What is going on? I approach Gobber from the back and whisper. ¡°What is happening?¡± ¡°Leon was turned into a ghoul and Hilda junior is trying to restore him to normal.¡± She continues to yell out orders. ¡°Where is that water I asked for!? SOMEONE GET ME THE DAMN RAG!¡± I get closer to look. Over the top of the few people onlooking I see Leon¡­ Gods, he looks like he''s dead. Several giant gashes cover his entire body. Only his face remains in tact¡­ Several of the cuts have been healed and I can see that Hilda juniors hands are covered in blood. I pull out a bucket from my void pouch and fill it with water, handing it to her. ¡°Thank you, finally! Someone capable! Can you check his blood for any abnormalities!¡± This isn''t Hilda junior¡­ This is someone else¡­ It has to be, no child should be this calm in front of a person with such serious wounds¡­ I check the blood¡­ Something is mixed in with it¡­ I start pulling it out before she yells. ¡°STOP! He is a ghoul right now. If you attempt to remove just a portion of it, the body might try fighting you off. We do not want that as it will lead to his permanence as a ghoul or even his death. You need to pull all of it out at once. Start channeling the abnormalities towards a single wound and force it out.¡± I do as she instructs¡­ Forcing the abnormalities towards the biggest gash on his chest. A foot thick gash streaks down his chest, it is going to leave a hefty scar in its wake. Forcing all of it out at once, I also remove a huge portion of blood. While I thought I did a good job the little child now berates me. ¡°You couldn''t be more delicate with that? Your friend''s life is on the line, if he loses too much blood he will convert completely.¡± The little girl is standing on 2 boxes to reach this operating table. She has a sharp knife in her hands and was in the process of cutting dead skin from the wound as she healed it. I pull another bucket out to put the abnormality I pulled out of Leon¡­ Mixed with his blood is a black liquid¡­ It almost looks as if it is moving¡­ If something living is part of the blackness... The first bucket filled with water I pulled out is already diluted with blood. She continues to dip the knife into the water and clean it with the rag every time she cuts a rotted portion off. Several giant scars where she had done this already are shown on Leon''s body¡­. I didn''t even know it was possible to only heal a single injury like that. Leon''s body is dripping with sweat, I see that they used several bottles of my numbing poison on him¡­ Enough to treat 20 or 30 people''s worth¡­ It takes over an hour''s worth of time for the operation to finally be over¡­ In the time, I started noticing things that Hilda junior needed in case something like this ever needs to be done again. A sharper knife would have went a long way¡­ Several times the blade had gotten stuck in the rotting flesh and started to rip and pull on the living tissue¡­ I''ll have to have a tray of black iron surgical knives made for these types of operations. With the operation done¡­ She opens his eyes with her fingers, he is still out cold¡­ They are still pitch black in color... Hilda junior finally speaks again. ¡°He¡­ I don''t think I made it to him in time¡­ I think, he might always be a ghoul¡­ At least part of a ghoul... Depending on how much he fights against it. We''ll have to wait and see if that is the case¡­ If it is, I doubt their will be any way to ever change him back into a human¡­ He might also become feral or listen to the mind control of the lich¡­ If that is the case¡­ I¡­ We should strap him to the table until we know for sure...¡± I feel so¡­ This is my fault. I left him and Lance in that base by themselves. If I was there, I could have stopped this¡­ I don''t want to strap him down¡­ I want to always be able to trust Leon¡­ Gold has taken so much from me¡­ I''m at my limit¡­ This war needs to end because my heart can''t take more loss¡­ With his condition... I don''t think he''ll be able to take part in the war tomorrow¡­ I don''t think he should either¡­ We don''t know how ghouls work¡­ Perhaps the further away he is from Gold the less control she will have over him. Several of my generals were waiting outside¡­ The room had gotten to be too full in the process, so everyone was kicked out besides the staff that needed to help in the surgery. Lance has the same look on his face that I do¡­ We both blame ourselves for this¡­ Leaf is crying and I can tell that Trice had been crying but had stopped¡­ I wish I could tell them that he is going to be okay¡­ But even I don''t know if he will¡­ Maybe¡­ Perhaps if we kill Gold, the effects on him would disappear¡­ It is a long shot but it is another reason why we have to fight tomorrow. ¡°We need to have a generals meeting right now to discuss everything that has happened¡­ I''m honestly so mad right now¡­ I''m not sure who I am mad at more¡­ Gold or¡­ Myself...¡± I clench my hands into fists¡­ We need to stop this war¡­ It is getting too damn messy¡­ I have given thought to another assassination attempt but Gold is too prepared for that¡­ I think the only thing that will finish her completely is a large scale assault with a team of people set to kill her while we hold the bulk of her army at bay while they do¡­ Leon would have made a great leader for this attack¡­ It takes less time then usual to gather all of my generals¡­ Perhaps because of the importance of this one¡­ It seems that every single one of my generals has shown up. All besides Leon who is incapacitated¡­ This war has shown me how naive I have been¡­ Thinking that I could save the lives of everyone¡­ Even my enemies¡­ This fight will only end with a show of force. I start the meeting. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°First of all. We need to kill Gold. She is far too dangerous to ignore. We must kill her so that is the main discussion of today is the team that will be going to kill her while the main force attacks the enemies to hold their attention.¡± Trice steps forwards speaking. ¡°We can''t allow you to go Kite.¡± ¡°W-why is that?¡± Her response honestly confuses me. Of course I should go, I''m the leader. Trice continues to speak. ¡°Because you are the leader of this army. Every time there is a dangerous mission you can''t throw yourself into harms way just to try and save your generals. They know what they are getting themselves into and if you go, more men will die on the outside. Gold will also drink your mana to strengthen herself¡­ Making her harder to defeat.¡± ¡°¡­Fine¡­ All of your points are valid, it is just...¡± ¡°Just what? You want to avenge Leon? Of course you do. We all do¡­ You can''t always put yourself in the most dangerous role every time. Sometimes you have to lead your army from the safest spot¡­ I¡­ I wish I could lead but you¡­ You are just better at seeing the big picture then I am.¡± I reluctantly agree to Trice''s logic¡­ I have a few volunteers, all of the expected of course. Zergnar and Green volunteer but I can''t let them¡­ Nami will be leading the mission, she is suited for the mission and I give her lead on the assault force going against Gold. It will be another stealth mission but this time with a bigger group. I let her pick out 10 of her best ninjas, taking all of my stealth troops as well. Zergnar and Green are too important to send on this mission. Both seem upset but understand once I explain they are needed elsewhere. Zergnar will be dropping more explosives¡­ His group is almost untouchable. Striking a flying target is far to difficult¡­ Having aerial troops is almost like cheating¡­ If we had enough time, we could whittle their numbers down indefinitely with no repercussions. Green will need to be making and strengthening walls to cut off enemy troops or block cannon fire¡­ She is the strongest elementalist and will need to stay on the battlefield because of this. ¡°So the assault force we are going to use against Gold is Nami, Lance, Nargzar, Sock, Methodis, Fast and Fayeth. Methodis is the only mix healer we have, so against Gold, he will be the most helpful if all of his mana is stolen.¡± I know that¡­ Sending more people into the base could result in their deaths¡­ All of them are willing to take the risk at this point¡­ Everyone already was willing but¡­ I wasn''t willing to put them in dangerous roles. Trice is right¡­ I am more suited to lead then anyone else because of my ability to think¡­ I still would rather put myself in danger then any of my men¡­ ¡°Gobber will once again be leading the bulk force. We will attempt to narrow the area they can attack us from with elemental walls and hope they come out of turret range. If they don''t, we''ll slowly move forwards as we create more walls. Once we get close enough to the main building, we''ll attempt to seal the windows where the mana cannons are with control nature. From there, we will kill whoever attacks us while trying to draw their attention away from the assault group¡­ Once again we are trying to limit the amount of casualties on both sides here but we will kill the pirates that attack us. The main goal is the death of Gold, with her dead, the pirates should stop fighting.¡± Fayeth speaks up. ¡°Perhaps having several wells of numbing poison around to dip weapons and arrowheads will help minimize the casualties.¡± ¡°That is¡­ A brilliant idea.¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ My village used to do something similar with regular poison...¡± It looks like she is slightly embarrassed by my praise. As if she didn''t expect it. ¡°Finally¡­ The last thing with this mission that is top priority for everyone. Please¡­ Stay alive¡­ If it will cost your mission to flee but will save you from death¡­ No one will question you.¡± I overlook my generals one last time¡­ Embedding their living faces in my head¡­ This could be the last time I see some of them alive¡­ I want to remember them¡­ It is very late¡­ We give everyone their time to rest besides Zergnar who will continue his aerial assault to weaken the enemies. He will only get a few hours of rest tonight¡­ I am putting a lot of pressure on him for this mission but he can handle it. I knock on Leaf''s door¡­ This could be the last time¡­ The last chance¡­ She allows me to enter¡­ She sounds close to the door as she speaks. I open it and she slams into me kissing me hard, almost knocking me over¡­ What is this? Is she thinking the same thing as I am¡­ I kiss her as passionately in return as we move towards the bed¡­ I taste wine on her lips¡­ She had gotten slightly drunk, most likely to calm her nerves¡­ I pull away from her and start taking my cloths off¡­ She continues to watch and doesn''t say anything¡­ I strip completely naked as she watches. She says. ¡°C-c-can you t-t-turn around p-please?¡± I do¡­ I hear her ruffling with her cloths then the sound of something hitting the bed. When I turn around she is completely hidden under the covers besides her head¡­ I think¡­ She is ashamed of her body¡­ I hope I can remove that feeling in her¡­ She is so beautiful it doesn''t make sense to me. I crawl into the covers and start kissing her again. That night we make love. Chapter 140 Broken wings The next morning I wake up and I am honestly happy¡­ Truly happy for the first time in a long time¡­ All of the pressure of being the leader seems to disappear when I''m with Leaf¡­ I smile and look at her¡­ Last night must have been rough on her because she didn''t move at all like she normally does in her sleep. I get up and get dressed. With so much to plan for the battle today. I''ll need all the time I can get before the fight. I let Leaf sleep in. I would rather her not get upset because of me waking her. I am up before everyone except the guards on night watch¡­ Leon is one of the few people normally up this early¡­ The fortress seems like a ghost town¡­ A husk of itself in the morning¡­ As if it isn''t inhabited by over 1000 people. The few people I see walking the hallways greet me as I make the last minute preparations. Filling as many containers with my poison as I can. Inspecting the gear for weaknesses while cleaning some of it¡­ Checking the weapons for dents and chips that will be fixed before the fight. Troll would normally take first watch in the morning but is sleeping at the moment. He will be fighting so Rock has taken his shift. Rock doesn''t sleep so he can do this. The three towering monsters in my army are going to play a huge part in the intimidation factor of this fight. Even being completely outnumbered like this will make the enemies falter at the sight of them. They are also the few creatures that can pierce the thick walls of the main pirate building. Dozens of explosive and acid bombs barely pierced through the walls¡­ Meaning that the base is a strategic strong point that is the only reason we haven''t won this war already. I empty out my void bags. The weight of hundreds of pounds has been lifted from me¡­ Looking back¡­ I forgot to give Swift the items he had purchased. Altogether, I remove about 600 pounds of weight from myself including Swifts items¡­ I start filling the void bracers on my arms and legs with all the items I might need for this battle. Dozens of potions, scrolls arrows and bolts for Gear''s crossbow. I equip Gear and fill him with all of my mana. He should be activated for a day or two with that amount. If it wasn''t so difficult to use Gear¡­ I would like to make them for my other generals as well. The biggest thing is it takes fighting in a certain style to work. Unless you actively work in a certain way he will only get in your way. Like if I swing a sword, it might connect with him on accident or any of his arms to ruin my swings¡­ It takes someone who understands tactics and those who understand complicated mechanical intricacies to operate a Gear. Only Trice can operate one of these¡­ Maybe Kora but she doesn''t fight¡­ Perhaps going for a more simplistic design would be better off as more people could use them. Everyone is awake now. The sounds of people walking down deserted hallways is now blotted out by the sound of people talking¡­ Everyone seems more energetic than normal. Perhaps psyching themselves up for the fight. It is already getting close to the time we attack... The feeling of being prepared is slowly fading¡­ I start to get nervous as I go through the portals to the boats, what if I''m not prepared for today. Then I look around at all of my generals on the boats¡­ None of them have that look, it is a look of determination in each of their eyes. One of the looks as those of leaders¡­ My men are looking to me for guidance and I am worried¡­ I can''t allow myself to be nervous. I have to be a good example. I steel my emotions¡­ Today will be a day of steeled nerves, tomorrow will be a day of mourning. I can''t let a single death throw me off. Everyone will be relying on me and if I do. More people will die because of that. All of the generals start going through the portals to the ships. All of them are now docked on the southern shore of the island. Far out of reach of the mana cannons, the pirates must know we are coming. Only around 100 pirates had surrendered from yesterday¡­ I wish it was more¡­ Bringing the total pirates we''re going to have to face to approximately 3900¡­ This is without including the casualties we inflicted in our bombing run as well. With no concrete proof that anyone had died in the attack, it would be best to assume that no one did and work accordingly on the projected numbers of that. 3900 is still a lot, more than most could hope to defeat¡­ I''m hoping we won''t have to kill all of them. We exit, the next hour is spent waiting for the entire force to make it through the portals. Our numbers are approximately 950 now¡­ Compared to the casualties and deserters of the pirates, we are faring far better numbers wise. Losing around 60 men to their 1100¡­ When you put the two numbers beside each other you can clearly see a victor but it doesn''t feel like that. Each of those 60 men who have died feel like a needle pricking into me while the 1100 mean absolutely nothing to me. Some of the pirates have come outside¡­ They are slowly getting into position for what I assume is an attack but some drop their weapons and make a run for it. Their own mana cannons firing on them as they flee¡­ What is happening? Gold must have put a new rule against deserters because of the high numbers of them. Another 100 pirates make it¡­ 10 are killed by their own cannon fire¡­ What an awful way to lead an army¡­ We tie them up for now and I send a few men to ask for some provisions to be made as the men look to be starved almost to death. For now they will have to remain heavily tied up. If any attempt to break loose, they will be killed as to not free the other captured pirates and open our backs up to a sneak attack. Last minute preparations are done¡­ None of the remaining pirates make an attempt at getting to us¡­ Either because of the fear of the attacks from the mana cannons or the resolve that if they are captured by us, they might become food or the ghouls that Gold has been creating. We start to move up, slowly but surely moving forwards wall by wall. Taking our time and moving forwards as we place more barriers. Just as we are about to reach the limits, I hear a few call outs from my sides. Jumping into the air to see the battlefield and what the calls were talking about. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. As if on cue, several hundred pirates come down from the destroyed second floor¡­ Slowly as more trickle out, I try to do a quick count¡­ Judging by the density of the groups¡­ I would guess at least 1000 of the pirates are now visible. More continue to pour out of every opening as they have been called to attack¡­ I can almost feel the fear in these people¡­ The fear of losing¡­ The fear of dying¡­ They are more than determined to stay alive now. Starved to a feral ferocity¡­ The men all look like this will be their last stand¡­ They''ll fight until the fall over from exhaustion and hunger by the end of today. But they will fight none the less. The mob we had fought against the first night raid is no more. They all break into ranks¡­ It is odd to see pirates form ranks but they do. All standing side by side. Giant rows have been formed. Leaders calling out orders but no sign of the lich or her blood knight¡­ They will most likely not participate in this battle¡­ Most generals don''t, instead giving orders from the comfort of their own room¡­ I feel Gold has preparations in place for an attempt at her life because of this. Not wanting to exit this trap she had laid¡­ I am very nervous because of this and fear for the lives of my generals. Zergnar''s aerial troops make another pass, it appears he is using his own improvised ammo for this mission... He flies overhead and his troops unload buckets of shit covered rocks onto the enemies¡­ Some panic, some are pelted by the feces and rocks dropped from hundreds of feet up¡­ Some stand their emotionless. Almost defiantly not looking up at the attack as to show no signs of fear¡­ Almost as if they have the resolve to take a rock to the head just to not drop their guard against the troops pushing forwards. Even with so many outside, more continue to come¡­ Even with so many shown¡­ I still have the feeling that the bulk of their numbers is still hasn''t been revealed yet¡­ Hidden inside that building or somewhere else waiting for the fight to start. This will be a quick attack, depending on who takes the advantage it will be over before anyone even realizes it. Gold must have been making plans for this day since the first attack¡­ I am not sure what to expect¡­ What could she have in her head. That is what scares me the most. Even though we will be fighting the final battle, she feels safe enough not showing herself that she will win this fight¡­ It almost feels unnatural. Like I''ve been playing into her hands from the beginning. Every attempt I''ve made at swaying the situation into my advantage, she''s parried and counterattacked against¡­ Is this just another parry? I can''t¡­ I can''t think like that. I need to be more determined. Nothing bad will happen in this fight. We finally push passed the threshold where we are in range of cannon fire before they begin. Walls have been made but barely hold against the constant barrage of the cannon fire. I feel like they''ve been slowly, stealthily moving more cannons to this side while we had prepared as the cannon fire is far thicker than it was any other day. They are also using different types of ammunition. Some still firing rocks, but others firing body parts and small rocks to cover larger areas¡­ I think about the body parts for a second and start to panic. ¡°Don''t let any of the liquid from the corpses touch you! They could be infected with that same liquid that transforms you into ghouls!¡± The wall I am leaning against is getting pelted. Dirt falls on top of me in huge chunks but it is better then rocks or body parts. We continue pushing forwards, some of my men act as if they are on fire and I quickly realize that they have been infected. I yell out again. ¡°If anyone has a burning feeling head back to the main base now! You might still be able to get treated with your flesh being cut off and healed before you turn!¡± This sends a look of fear through some of my men. At least the ones I still have eye contact with. Another two to three walls made as we move forwards. Staggering the walls as we move forwards, the army can''t hide behind a single wall. I finally see Zergnar''s troops moving into the drop off position. The stealth assault group will be going into their base by using acid to open a hole into the middle of the building from the second floor. Men call for aid. I hear the screams of my comrades all around me as some get struck with rocks shattering or are covered in the bodily liquid of a diseased corpse. Leaf notices how desperate the situation is... She had remained at my side this entire time but now speaks. ¡°We need healers to be able to find the injured quickly. Can you do anything to increase my speed or the speed of other healers so we can try to heal the wounded?¡± I think for a second¡­ I can give her the levitate spell¡­ Thinking harder I can also give her my shadow wings. It takes her a second to get accustomed to the wings but she does. Even in the middle of this battlefield she still has a smile on her face. She flaps her wings at full strength testing it and flies up just as cannon range just as they go off¡­ I start to get nervous, why is she flying into danger!? STOP! I call out to her. ¡°GET BACK DOWN HERE!¡± It is already too late, she is struck with cannon fire! The newly acquired wings are shredded in an instant. She falls back down 20 feet right in front of me. I cry out at what just happened. ¡°LEAF!!!¡± Chapter 141 The leader goes AWOL I rush over to her. The second she hits the ground her head pops up. It startles me how fast she springs back up. She is completely unharmed¡­ WHA- HOW!? She looks down at herself and checks her body for injuries¡­ I see none and she doesn''t look to be injured either¡­ Once again I wonder HOW! She pulls something out of her back pocket¡­ The sacrifice doll I gave her for protection is torn to pieces. Thank god! Thank the gods! I look more at the doll¡­ The battle noises around me seem to be drowned out by this item¡­ The injures that now cover it. Stuffing seeps from almost every spot on the doll. It is missing an arm¡­ Half it''s face is blown off¡­ The feeling of fear when she had been struck followed by happiness when she was fine¡­ Slowly turns to anger at what they have just done to Leaf. For them to hurt MY LEAF! I clench my teeth so hard that the void tooth shatters the one above it. Clenching my fists so hard that I can feel the metal portion rubbing against Aegis start to bleed. MY LEAF! THEY DARE HURT MY LEAF! I start to see red. I start to pull all of the stored stats and resources in Aegis. I hear him call out. ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING! THAT IS DANGEROUS!¡± I don''t care! I''m too angry to care for my own safety. I know how to win this fight. I need to kill Gold! The anger finally gets the best of me as I black out.
Wrath trait activated
Leaf''s point of view I had just gotten the wings and for one second¡­ I had forgotten where I was. All I could think of at the time was how much I wanted to fly... Flying high enough to be shot down by the cannons once. I had thought I was going to die. Immense pain all over my body. For a split second it feels as if my arm has been torn off. I go to cry out in pain but it also feels like my lungs have been punctured¡­ I fall to the ground and feel every single ounce of this pain¡­ The pain of dying¡­ But I don''t. The second I hit the ground the shock of the pain wears off. I instinctively lean forwards and shock everyone around me who had just witnessed me get struck with a rock fired from a cannon. I start checking myself. How did I survive this? I feel something in my back pocket almost fall apart¡­ Pulling it out I see the doll that Kite had given me¡­ This is the savior of my life. I look up at him and the expression of fear starts to change to happiness¡­ It looks as if he is about to cry¡­ Then he focuses on the doll he gave me¡­ I can see the look in his eyes change again. Shift into something different. I can hear Aegis cry out now. ¡°What are you doing! That is dangerous!¡± He turns to face me¡­ That isn''t Kite anymore¡­ He speaks. ¡°Forgive Kite for what I''m about to do.¡± With the strength I''ve never seen Kite ever show. The person¡­ The thing that is Kite right now launches himself into the air. Quickly turning into a dragon, he flies towards the building slamming into it. I hear cannon fire proceed this, then hear the sound of men in pain cry out again¡­ I''m not sure what just happened¡­ But I still need to help everyone¡­ We need more healers, the ones we have are already too spread out¡­ I just wish I could be in more then one place at a time¡­ I think quickly¡­ Then create 10 clones of myself with conjure greater familiar. Adding in almost every last bit of fatigue points I have to make them bigger, stronger and better versions of themselves. I fall down weakened from the process. My clones rush off in all directions to heal the injured. Kite is gone¡­ Without a leader this army might fall apart. Even in my weakened state I start yelling out orders to people before a notice pops up.
Would you like to learn Sage? Warning! You will lose several other classes by doing so.
Green''s point of view I hear a loud nose. One as loud as the mana cannons except coming from a close by wall. I look back and notice Kite is now visibly in the air. He changes into his dragon form and quickly and dodges several rocks fired from the mana cannons. He flies quick, quicker then I''ve ever seen anything move at the building. Slamming into it with enough force to smash through a foot thick concrete wall. What the fuck is he doing? The battlefield is quiet for the first time since we''ve started¡­ Everyone is onlooking as the dragon that came out of no where and crashed into the building¡­ I make the call while they are distracted, I call out to my troops. ¡°CHARGE!¡± Pirate cannoneer''s point of view I''m glad I have this mission. Sit in a long hallway facing out on the battlefield and fire cannons at the enemies as they get closer. This will be the least likely spot we will die. Even if the enemy beats us, we will most likely surrender before they ever get into this room. With that safety, I feel almost at ease that I am not on the battl-. CRASH! On the opposite side of the room, something just slammed through a foot of concrete. HOW!? WHAT!? I look over. I can''t see all the way across the room. It is a very narrow room. I start hearing the screams of people. Of my friends being cut down from the other side. ¡°AHHH!¡± ¡°NO NO NO NO! GAH!¡± ¡°STOP PL-.¡± ¡°MERC- PFFSH.¡± I can see what it is now. A man rushes towards us. His sword is gigantic, twice the size of himself. Far too unwieldy to use with one hand. But he is. Driving the end of the sword through one of the men and throwing him at the next. Dragging the giant sword along the ground to finish off the pirate now downed by his own ally. Swinging it at the next and cutting him in half along with leaving a giant gash in the wall at his swing. I pull out my bow, my hands visibly shaking as I fire and he catches the arrow mid air without any hesitation in his movements. I am cut in half a second later. I am dead. Gobber''s point of view What is she doing!? Green rushes forwards with her men, out of position as Kite slams into a building. I expect there to be some sort of repercussion from the mana cannons¡­ Seconds after waiting with no response, I make a similar call. ¡°CHARGE BUT STAY IN FORMATION!¡± We push in behind the few elementalists at about half the speed. Green throws herself into the air with a rock creation formed underneath her and shoots herself all the way over the pirates. Landing on the second story, she starts closing the few cannon holes. It was still reckless. I see one of the pirates who was too afraid to jump down attempt to sneak up behind her. I had my bow out and launch an arrow catching him as he holds his weapon mid air about to strike Green. He falls off the second floor. Green continues to seal the holes up almost not noticing the man¡­ Fucking shit, I''m going to need to protect her ass until she is finished¡­ This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Nami''s point of view We''ve managed to sneak into the base but they are heavily prepared. Entering the room there are hundreds of pirates waiting for us. Kite had given us the exact spot that Gold''s room was. Of course she wouldn''t still be there. We are the only ones allowed to use lethal force as of right now. Everyone else is to use poisoned weapons to lower the amount of casualties on the pirates side. I get it, the pirates are being used but at the same time... The pirates are the ones who stole the children from my village... I can''t forgive them even for a second, even though they were just following the orders of a madwoman. We spend 10 minutes fighting them all. Outnumbered 5 to 1, we still manage to defeat them fairly easily as more men continue to rush into the room. With an explosion, both sides stop fighting for a few seconds¡­ I wonder what that was¡­ It was loud enough to be heard in the middle of the main building. It almost felt as if something had struck the building. We continue to fight. After a few more minutes of non stop fighting, one of the men rushes in and says. ¡°Just hold them back! We have bigger problems! A monster is running wild through the base and killing everything it comes across! The backup we were expecting has been annihilated!¡± What monster is it I think to myself. Trice''s point of view What is Kite doing? He just slammed into the side of a building and started the real fight off. I start to hear Leaf give orders¡­ At least we still have a competent leader¡­ I would have rather not had to take charge so I breath a sigh of relief when I hear her. My group of archers starts launching poison covered arrows at the sidelines of pirates. Each one struck falls to the ground, almost paralyzed in place. As if on cue, more pirates come rushing out from the sides of main building. Hiding in the shadows and cover of some kind. The numbers now swell to double¡­ 2000 pirates are now on the battlefield and more continue to rush out. Leaf calls for smaller forces to stop them from joining with the main forces. The new awakened class I had gotten earlier is going to come in handy. I just wish we had more time, I tried asking Kite for more help but it always felt like the wrong time to ask. He is too busy and I hate asking him for help. I start ordering my troops to start firing on the back lines of the pirates the lizard men''s group is contesting. Strong''s point of view The main forces are contesting the bulk of the pirates. My small group of 50 lizard men are here to hold back the rushing pirates. We are easily outnumbered by 5 if not 10 to 1 on the side we are blocking. My men all form an impenetrable wall. The first wave of pirates slam against us and we push them back. Another wave come behind them and help push and we still push them back. A third wave begins to push against the second wave. We are about to get pushed back but a wave of arrows is launched into all the pirates behind them. As if they hadn''t expected it, their formation starts to weaken. Enough for us to continue holding them back. More arrows continue to assist us. I''ll have to give that little girl leading them some praise for her timely assistance after this battle. Epieoth''s point of view We continue to hold the side of building back with our men. Leaf ordered the demon tribe to block this side and that is what we are doing. We don''t have to clash with the enemies. Instead, my men pull out our spears and hold them back from approaching by spearing through the few who get close. Wave after wave crashing into the spears and Dying or getting poisoned. Bodies are piling up as the pirates in the back push the pirates in front forwards into the death trap. No sense of camaraderie is given as each men is only looking to save his own life. Some men try to circle around but an alternate route is blocked with a wall created by Green. She goes nuts and slams into the ground, causing a shock wave almost. The ground ripples towards the enemies and knocks them all down. We take this opportunity to move forwards and stab some of the close by ones who were knocked down. She yells out to us. ¡°You demon folk better respect us elementalists now!¡± She launches herself into the air again, landing into the main battlefield and causing another shock wave for the main force to capitalize on. Arrius''s point of view Me and Gold sit in a room waiting for the ambushing party to enter¡­ I still don''t understand everything but Gold says if we sit in this room until the fighting is done, we''ll be okay. Hearing the sounds of battle makes me wonder why I am not out there fighting though. We don''t have many good pirates left in this group. An assassin had managed to kill the bulk of them. I get tired of waiting and ask a question. ¡°Why do we have to sit in here? We could be out there doing something.¡± ¡°Patience my husband. This fight will be over before you even realize it. The pirates are only the distraction for the main course. No matter how superior the opponents are, they will not be able to beat my army¡­ I guess it is time to unleash the real enemies.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, do you remember how I have been slowly changing our men into ghouls? I just ordered the ghouls to enter the battlefield. No matter how strong the enemies are, they will not be able to fight evenly against this enemy. With the pirate troops distracting them, the ghouls will go ballistic against them. Seeing as it only takes a single scratch to start the changing process to a ghoul. It will only be a matter of time before they are all defeated.¡± ¡°I still don''t understand the plan though.¡± ¡°It is simple you fool! We wait inside until the troops kill each other. The ghouls will convert the enemies into more ghouls. Anyone who dies isn''t worthy of being in my army. After all the enemies are converted into ghouls, my ghouls with turn on the remaining humans converting them. There is no cure to being infected, so it will only be a matter of time until both armies are under my rule¡­ From there, the war between the two continents will be starting soon. If we can get the ghouls there, we can convert even more humans into ghouls. It will end with me ruling the nation of ghouls with you by my side as my death knight. Or you can rush out their and die with all of my other failures of subordinates.¡± ¡­I think I just realized how crazy Gold has become¡­ It is far too late to back down now though. Chapter 142 Pushing the battle forwards Leon''s point of view I am woken up from sleeping from a voice. It says. ¡°No is the time now is when we attack. All of my beautiful ghouls, go forth and kill!¡± What kind of idiot wants me to-. Fuck I''m hungry. Hungrier then I have ever been. I''m so hungry it woke me up from my dead sleep. I try to lean forwards as I open my eyes but I am being held down by something. I open my eyes and look down. I''m currently stuck to a table in what appears to be the medical bay. I look around and only see a single person¡­ Only a female gnoll is left inside the room. I call out to her. ¡°Hey. Can you let me free? I''m starving right now.¡± She looks a little frightened by my sudden speech, looking over at me she says under her breath. ¡°She said they were¡­ But I didn''t think they would be that black.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Your eyes. They are pitch black¡­ I''m just glad you aren''t going crazy and thrashing around. That would have been a problem.¡± ¡°Why would I be thrashing about?¡± ¡°Well¡­ You''re a ghoul now¡­ The only ones we''ve seen are feral ones being controlled by the lich.¡± ¡°Ah that would explain who was talking to me¡­ Any chance I can get let free so I can go grab some food? I''m seriously starving right now.¡± ¡°Well¡­ They told me not to let you go¡­ Unless you seemed normal¡­ I guess it should be fine¡­ Just don''t try anything.¡± ¡°Alright, if you want you can come watch me destroy like 10 fish if you want. Like I said, I''m starving. Hungry enough to eat a horse or so they say.¡± ¡°I guess this is what my job has devolved down to...¡± We exit and head to the cafeteria¡­ The smell of the cooked food makes me sick to my stomach though¡­ But I am still hungry. The hunger is driving me crazy... What do I eat though... Hungry! Eat! Food! Where? Find food! Tough''s point of view I am leading the lizard men with my brother Strong. We both stand side by side pushing the pirates back. Slamming into them with my giant shield, forcing men to fall over each other as they are some lying on the ground from the numbing arrows that have struck them. As I think we have this battle won¡­ Out from the side pops more enemies¡­ These ones are different though. They are the ghouls we were told about! I start to panic, if what they said was true about the few that attacked the elementalists... We''re in trouble. Zergnar''s point of view I make another pass over the building, dropping as many shit rocks as I can down. The few nights before we had brought through a mountain of stones, so it is just taking rocks from one location and dropping them onto enemies. I''ve been doing this for hours now and it is still funny to see men try to avoid being struck by the rocks. Not sure which they are more afraid of, the rock or the shit I laugh to myself. I see some of the ghouls and instinctively go for them. Their numbers added to the battle might exceed 1000¡­ Combined with the other pirates, we now see the bulk of their force. Around 500-600 pirates are dead or paralyzed. Meaning there are still plenty of targets for my aerial troops to pick off. We unload all of our rocks onto the exiting ghouls¡­ They don''t flinch at all as they are hit. They rush into danger without any concern and almost deftly avoid the rocks. We only managed to hit around 100 of them and even still, maybe killed 5-10 of them¡­ This is going to be far more difficult then the pirates we''ve been assaulting. Swift''s point of view The ghouls are now right behind the pirates. They start crawling, jumping and slamming their way through them to get to us. No concern about their allies safety. Dozen''s of arrows are continually fired by our support at them but almost nothing is hitting them. Even firing directly into the bulk, they still manage to avoid most of it. The ghouls are just about ready to start tearing into us as Green lands right in front of the lizard men troops. Slamming down with enough force to shake the ground in front of her and destabilize them. At this point, the arrows being fired start connecting. We seize this opportunity to kill a few of the closer ones but their numbers have doubled the amount of threat we have on this side. I hear Leaf scream out over the communicators Kite had made for us. ¡°WE NEED TO FALL BACK! EVERYONE FALL BACK AND REGROUP! We''ll put some walls up and block a single area until we can get a handle on these ghouls. If we fight them separated like this we will lose and I doubt the pirates even understand what is going on. They might not even help the ghouls!¡± Green starts putting walls between us in the enemy. We start to fall back¡­ Tough and Strong stay where they are. Killing the few ghouls that jump over the walls made as they slowly trickle through. Steadfast, they are going to attempt to buy us some time to retreat. I yell back at them. ¡°DON''T BE FOOLS! This will be your deaths if you stay and fight!¡± Together they respond. "Yea but if we retreat then our backs will be open to attack." 10 of the lizard men who were starting to retreat turn back around to help defend¡­ GAH! What fools! What idiots! What morons! I yell back at the troops. ¡°EVERYONE ELSE RETREAT!¡± I rush forwards to stay right behind the front line they''ve now made. I''ll keep them alive until it is too much to deal with. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Epieoth''s point of view The ghouls just don''t care. Throwing themselves onto our spears just to make them harder to use. Pushing all the way to our hands if they can as they attempt to scratch and claw at us. We are slowly getting pushed back as more and more of us lose our weapons. Shit! We had the call to fallback and that seems like the best option but at this point many of us will die running away. I call out. ¡°Everyone who doesn''t have a spear retreat! We need too fall back but if we all do, we''ll be wiped out as we run! Anyone who stays will die but you will save your comrades! Who is going to st-.¡± Before I can finish this off a control nature wall comes up to block the ghouls off. It only takes seconds for some to vault over but they are far more easily dispatched then before. It is Brick, he has come to aid us¡­ This is the second time a elementalist has come to the aid of us demon folk. I call out now¡­ I need to think of my people not just my own honor. ¡°Retreat while he is buying us time.¡± I run with my own men as I look back. Brick continues to makes walls they need to scale to get to us¡­ A few jump over in between making them but he rips them apart bare handed¡­ I can see both his hands have started to rot away from the process of being turned into a ghoul¡­ I''m sorry Brick. I''M SO SORRY! I continue to run with blurry vision as I''m about to cry at his sacrifice. Gobber''s point of view We''ve killed or paralyzed hundreds of the pirates we''ve gone against. Our forces just overwhelm them in power. We were a similar size at the beginning and now they have been reduced to less than half of their numbers. Men have started to retreat back into the building and more try to get up to the second floor. This mission isn''t to kill them all, it is the beat them in the war. Cowards are more than welcome to flee from the fight. I turn around and start seeing the men blocking the sides start retreating. What has happened? Why are they retreating? I hear leaf screaming in my head. Screaming so loud she is almost blowing out her vocal cords. ¡°RETREAT GOBBER! RETREAT RETREAT RETREAT!¡± Retreat¡­ Why? Why would we retreat? I don''t understand¡­ Leaf wouldn''t¡­ Mislead me though¡­ I must have not heard her until now and she might know more then me. I call for my troops retreat as I see why we are retreating. Hundreds of ghouls start popping out of both sides. Where did all these ghouls come from¡­ I start doing the math¡­ Gold just killed like 25% of her troops for this attack¡­ We barely make it behind the walls that the elementalists have been creating to get us closer to the enemies. Green comes rushing back towards us with the lizard men following behind her. I see Epieoth and his men running from the opposite direction towards us. They start running passed us and I hear Green yell. ¡°Some of the idiots decided to stay! I''ve also been bitten so someone chop my arm off.¡± ...She said it so matter of fact¡­ Like oh by the way, cut my arm off so I can keep fighting... I start cutting the skin around the infected area. The bite happened to her shoulder blade so after cutting out a good portion I let Leaf cast regenerate on it¡­ She still has her arm¡­ At least for now, while I''m treating her I look over in the direction she came from. I can see Swift running slowly away from a now chasing pack of ghouls. Running behind him is another one of his brothers¡­ I can''t tell which one it is. Brick''s point of view I can''t anymore¡­ I have bites all over my body and I can barely move¡­ I''m not going to escape¡­ I look over my battlefield again¡­ 50 ghouls lay dead on the ground¡­ If only¡­ I had a better weapon¡­ If only¡­ I tried harder to learn instead of being so traditionalist¡­ If only¡­ I could have bought more time. I cough up blood. I continue to slowly lose control of my body¡­ This process is very painful, everything around the bite marks burns like it is on fire. I can feel whatever has turned them into the monsters turning me as well¡­ I don''t want my comrades to have to fight me. I rush forwards slamming two ghouls through a freshly made wall. I¡­ I''m going to die here¡­ My death will not be in vain. I know this¡­ I just wish I could have made more of a difference¡­ My strength continues to fade¡­ One of the ghouls tries to come through the hole I just made slamming two ghouls against the wall. I pull him down onto the jagged edge of the rock. Using my body weight to impale him¡­ I lost the feeling in both my hands¡­ I can''t move either of my hands now. I had planned this to be a suicide mission in the end¡­ I knew it was going to happen, our armies were just too different in sizes. Someone has to die and if I could minimize the number of people that do by taking a more dangerous role. I had already decided I was going to¡­ I just wish¡­ I would have gone out in a better way then becoming a ghoul that is going to fight against his allies¡­ NO! I can''t do that! Another one tries to come through the same hole and I headbutt him back through it. Kite gave me these gauntlets¡­ But I haven''t used them yet¡­ They are still loaded with rocks I could have fired while staying at range¡­ I should have done that but decided not to. I thank Kite for giving me these gauntlets none the less. I can''t move my arms so I slam against the building trying to force one of my hands under my chin. It is in place¡­ The last thing I can think is¡­ Did my sacrifice even matter? If I retreated with them, would it have cost anyone¡¯s life? Did I save any elementalists by doing this? I add a tiny amount of mana to the gauntlets and feel them start to work. Rocks fly into my head¡­ If I wasn''t so weakened I might have been able to survive it. I fall over instantly after the attack happens. I am dead. Chapter 143 Final confrontation Gold''s point of view We just wait in this hidden room until the fighting dies down. It should be over by the end of today. The remaining army will have retreated and I doubt they will make another attempt at killing us after such a heavy loss. No matter how prepared they are. A single scratch, a drop of blood from an infected body can turn them against their allies. This fight is my victory no doubt. My blood knight had asked a series of stupid questions¡­ It gives me the feeling that he just doesn''t understand what I am trying to do¡­ Perhaps I should kill him sooner than I planned to¡­ I''ll do it after the fighting is over¡­ Waiting is rather boring though. If I could yawn from boredom as a lich, I would be doing so often. I look over the room again. Inside this specially prepared room is 100 corpses I plan on controlling if anyone finds it and tries to enter. There are also barrels upon barrels of blood for the human to use as well. He might still be able to help me if anyone enters¡­ As incompetent as he is. The process for turning him from a blood knight into a death knight is a long and drawn out one. I think about it as we wait until the fighting has died down. First, I will have to kill him. Taking special care to not injure him too badly as his body will no longer be able to heal wounds. Poisoning would be the preferred method of death. I will then carefully cut his heart out of his chest and replace it with a blood crystal he had already prepared in advance. This will give him life even after death and increased powers at the loss of his morality, the entire process shouldn''t take more then a days worth of hard work. It is worth it as well because death knights are very strong beings. Able to command the undead, it gives him similar enhancements to his blood knight skills just as lich does with necromancy. He would be a huge help to my cause of becoming ruler of the world. I should also put some of my diseased meat in him beforehand, so I can manipulate him mentally. The room is sealed off. No one should be able to tell that there is even a room here. One of the reasons I have made the main building so confusing and maze like is because it would be very hard to tell where the doors are to a certain rooms. Several hidden rooms like this one are scattered throughout the building. This just happens to be the biggest one, so that is why we are using it¡­ Thinking now, it would have been smarter to bring a few books with me¡­ I''m dreadfully bored by this process of waiting¡­ I found that my love for books has diminished since I''ve become a lich¡­ Perhaps it is because there isn''t much left for me to learn. It would be a hassle to read a book and not learn anything from it. I hear some of my humans rushing around outside this room. Then I hear panic¡­ Then I hear screams¡­ Then I hear nothing¡­ Silence fills the entire room as the outside is no longer loud¡­ Enough time passes for me to think that whoever made the ruckus is gone¡­ That is when the wall is destroyed in a single attack. Who is it? A smile forms across my face as I see one of the humans I still love has shown himself. Or one would if I had a face to smile with. The red headed man has brought himself to me to be captured so I can drink his mana¡­ He feels¡­ Different somehow. Blood covers his entire body as if someone dumped several barrels of blood onto him. He must have gone through dozens of my men to get here. None the less, I start the process of drinking his ma-. GODS WHAT IS THIS!? If his mana tasted amazing before, it is tenfold better right now. I cant'' get enough of it. I slurp up as much as I can before he finally speaks. ¡°Go ahead, drink as much as you can. It will be your last meal. I''ve brought you some blood for your man to use. Go ahead, I''ll allow you to make the first move.¡± I go to start raising the dead, my husband runs over and starts tipping barrels upon barrels of the blood over¡­ Wait a second¡­ Why is he making a shield out of them? He looks far more afraid for his life then he should¡­ What is wrong with this situation¡­ That shield is easily the biggest shield I''ve ever seen him make. One of half that size could stop a boulder shot from a cannon. What an absolute waste of blood. I go to yell out to not kill this person because of his delicious mana. I will capture him and drink from him until he dies of old age. The man doesn''t give me a chance to say anything. Cutting through the 5 corpses I raised like they were made out of paper. He moves so quickly it is hard to keep track of him. Flying into the shield at a speed almost unfathomable of a human to move at, he cuts through it! In a single instant he has my blood knight dead. He was wearing full plate armor but was still bisected by the attack. The man pushes over the top half so it topples to the ground. His legs still standing their as if they hadn''t realized the top half is now missing. I start to feel something¡­ I feel something I haven''t felt since becoming a lich¡­ I feel fear. He begins to speak again. ¡°I only have 3 minutes left until I can''t play with you anymore¡­ I would have liked to torture you for at least a few hours but this is all I can do right now. Now, let''s get back to business¡­ I said you can make the first attack. You should throw everything you can muster at me. Raise all of these corpses as you have 3 minutes to last before I disappear.¡± Panicking, I listen to him. Even as strong as he is, it will still take him at least 3 minutes to destroy all these corpses. The corpses slowly rise¡­ I expect him to rush around the room the moment they all start moving but he stands still for a few seconds¡­ He is waiting for something. He speaks again. ¡°I said attack me¡­ If you are wasting my time like this, I might as well finish this up then.¡± Almost too quickly, the man extends his sword to the size of three people standing on each others shoulders. An impractically large sword like that would be impossible to pick up, let alone use as a weapon. He throws this weapon and cuts 10 of my corpses in half as it flies through them. I expect it to hit the wall but as if it is being guided a gust of wind forms around it and moves it around. Cutting the hundred corpses I had prepared in a matter of seconds¡­ The feeling of fear has now turned to terror and dread. This is not a human. It cannot be a human. The man¡­ No the thing speaks again. ¡°All you had to do was not hit Leaf¡­ You could have taken his arms¡­ His legs¡­ All of his intelligence. The only thing he would feel is sadness. You could have killed dozens¡­ No, hundreds of his men and he still wouldn''t have been this mad. You gave me enough time to find and kill you and for that I thank you¡­ I still have 2 minutes left to play with you before my time runs out.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. His neutral face now forms a smile. I can''t! This can''t! Why does it have to end here? NO! It will not end here! I can still try something. All of his mana!? I had drunk a huge portion of mana. I have to rely on this. I need to do something amazing to live through this. I have to think quickly¡­ The parts of human still on the ground¡­ That is it! As I think that thought, the human parts almost crush together. The room slowly loses every sight of corpses¡­ Now instead a flesh monster is being formed. It is too big, it bursts through the roof of the building. I don''t care! It continues to grow. The flesh monster is now a dozen feet tall. More corpses! Bigger! Stronger! I can no longer see the top portion of this thing. With this, I can hold out of the last minute. The man had only stood there watching it all unfold. This is my last ditch effort and should buy me just enoug-. A fire bursts from the man. I''ve never seen a fire this intense. I''m easily 10 feet away from him, hiding in the corner of this room. The fire bursts through the concrete roof, so hot it burns everything it touches¡­ I''ve only heard stories of how hot fully grown dragons breath can get¡­ This is something on a similar scale to that. The giant monster I had made is just gone¡­ A few feet of it''s meat legs are the only thing that is left of it¡­ How!? He turns towards me. PLEASE! PLEASE NO! He speaks almost laughing now. ¡°I still have a minute to play with you.¡± ¡°NOOO!!!!¡± Leaf''s point of view We are pushing back the waves of the ghouls now. Some attempt to jump the walls we''ve created but the bulk are rushing at the only opening that they can see. The opening is still fairly big and the ghouls are relentless, even if you think they are dead, they still attack. Dozens of men have been bitten and fall back as more take their place. Hundreds of ghouls are still alive¡­ None of the pirates know what to do. They only look on at our fight as the ghouls rush at us. Wave by wave the crash against our troops. It looks like they are checking their downed comrades¡­ Noticing that they are most likely alive. Some of them have realized that they are on the wrong side now¡­ They have been serving a lich, a monster from the beginning. All of that propaganda has paid off. We continuously lose more and more men to the attacks. A single injury can result in one of our men turning¡­ If they get bitten in the wrong spot they are doomed to turn without us being able to stop it. Getting bit on the arm or leg is fine but¡­ Some people have been bitten in the chest near the heart and neck. Some men just can''t be saved¡­ Everyone has been brave in the face of their mortality¡­ Rushing out to face them or killing themselves¡­ I don''t want to think any of us would be able to kill our own men if it came to it. 22 people have died this way. Hundreds have been injured in the process of defending. Hundreds of the ghouls have been killed¡­ This is a losing battle if it keeps up. As more and more people get injured and need to be treated, the odds that our healers will get overworked and not be able to save everyone increases. Even with my extra familiars healing and treating the wounded, we still might start having men change to ghouls in our back lines¡­ As I think this I hear a odd sound. The ground shakes as I look behind and see what is making that noise. Someone is piloting the black turtle and having it walk onto land to help fight. The black turtle slowly moves forwards, many of our own men would have been crushed if it wasn''t so loud. Cannon fire opens up on the back line of the ghouls now as the turtle moves forwards. Who is piloting it? Whoever it is, they just saved dozens if not our entire armies lives by doing so. The ghouls start behaving oddly¡­ Slowly but surely they become less coordinated in their attacks¡­ It is as if the person leading them is under heavy mental strain right now. As I think that, a crashing of noise comes from the main building. I look at it¡­ It is barely noticeable as the second floor that was recently added is blocking most of my vision¡­ But I see something pink and red popping out of the building. Within seconds I realize it is a giant monster forming out of the building. The monster continues to swell in size. Pushing through the shoddy roof of the second floor¡­ It is now completely visible to everyone. Everyone besides those defending against the ghouls stare at it in awe. The creature is easily 30 feet tall¡­ I''m not sure what it is though¡­ From this distance it just looks like a pink fleshy monster¡­ SHIT! Was this thing summoned to fight against Kite? Even he wouldn''t be able to defeat it by himself. I call out over the slime connection and towards the black turtle. I also have a telepathic link with Purple to Kite''s other pets. ¡°We need to help fight the mon-.¡± BOOM! In an instant, the entirety of the monster is engulfed in fire peaking upwards of 40 feet¡­ The flames so intense everything in a 10 foot radius is melted. Parts of the cloth roofing has been caught on fire as far away as 40 feet. The attack is so devastating by the end of it the monster is gone¡­ The ghouls all stop in their movements after this¡­ Sitting their as if waiting for orders that just aren''t coming. Around a minute of the quiet the ghouls start moving again¡­ With no sense of teamwork, all of them scatter in different directions. Most heading back towards the pirates who start to try and fend them off. In an attempt to save as many lives as possible, I call for the army to assist in the process of killing all of the ghouls. This is the end of the conflict¡­ With no leaders, seeing the ghouls attack them and us coming to their aid¡­ The pirates have no reason to continue to fight against us. I don''t exactly understand what has transpired in that building¡­ I just know for a fact that the fire had come from Kite¡­ The fire was too strong though. Their would be no way possible for a normal human¡­ No, even Kite shouldn''t be able to do attacks of that scale¡­ In a matter of seconds, a giant 20,000 pound monster was turned into ash¡­ No person¡­ That is on the scale of a demigod in power¡­ I start to worry if he is okay after attacking with such a large scaled attack¡­ 10 minutes elapse before I see someone exit the building. Chapter 144 Conclusion Aegis'' point of view I still don''t understand what has happened¡­ I called out to Kite several times but the only response I had gotten wasn''t from him¡­ As if poking into my brain as it spoke¡­ I heard something far darker than Kite speak. It said. ¡°Kite isn''t here right now. If you leave your name I can take a message and have him get back to you.¡± ...He¡­ This thing has killed dozens¡­ No, at least a hundred pirates searching for Gold¡­ This thing has sucked up all of my stored resources. Even being indestructible¡­ I feel something I''ve never felt as I help this man kill all of these people in cold blood. I feel fear¡­ I feel regret¡­ I feel sick¡­ Three feelings I''ve never felt before in my lifetime I''ve felt because of this¡­ Thing. ¡°I can hear you as well. Aegis, you have no reason to be afraid. I see you as a friend of Kite''s, so you have nothing to worry about.¡± I can feel that feeling again. The fear only gets stronger by the silence¡­ Because my connection with Kite is so strong I could read his body language and feelings¡­ What this person is going to do is¡­ Even though she is so evil¡­ I''m starting to feel sorry for Gold. He kills more then we stop in the middle of a hallway. He says into my head. ¡°This¡­ Hmm, there shouldn''t be a wall here. There is a giant room on the other side. Lets get rid of this wall.¡± With one deft stroke he cleaves an opening in the concrete wall. The moment he does¡­ I realize that he already knew where Gold was¡­ That he was just running around killing people for no reason. I hear him laugh through my telepathy. ¡°I guess I''ve been found out. Don''t tell Kite about the mess I made¡­ He might not let me out again if you do.¡± I look at the blood knight in the room¡­ He has noticed¡­ He has noticed the look in Kite''s eyes¡­ The one of blood lust. The panicked man starts tipping over as many blood barrels as he can to make a defensive shield to stop Kite¡­ I already know it wont be enough¡­ Even if he had enough blood to fill this room, it wouldn''t be enough. All I hear through the telepathic link is the sound of him laughing¡­ The look on his face just doesn''t match. It is one of no emotion. Why is he doing this? ¡°You''ll see when I smile at Gold. She''ll understand why in a second, why I didn''t enter the room smiling even though I am so happy I get to kill her. Because I was saving my smile for her.¡± He plays with her. Lets her have the feeling of a chance¡­ The chance of winning, finally killing the blood knight she starts to look worried. The monster re-kills all the corpses in the room, he smiles¡­ Smiles should not look like this. I can now see that even the lich is terrified of him. She musters the last bit of power she can to try and stall him. No attempt at killing him anymore, all of her powers are thrown into a single creature¡­ Kite blows it away with a single attack. He speaks out loud now¡­ The voice is similar to the one I heard in my head¡­ I wish it was Kite''s voice, please let Kite take back over. He says. ¡°I still have a minute to play with you.¡± He rushes at her¡­ I''m not 100% sure on the time he keeps mentioning¡­ But I think it is when the stat boost he ripped from me will wear off¡­ Speaking of ripping, the first thing he does is rip one of her hands off completely. He actually looks sad at what he has just done and speaks again. ¡°Aww, I only wanted to rip off a few fingers. Damn your weak body! How am I supposed to have fun with my toys if they break so easily!?¡± The skeletal body is now shaking. Making a rattling noise as the magic holding her body together starts to falter. He grabs her remaining hand, more easily this time and proceeds to rip every finger off her hand one by one. She cries out in pain¡­ I''m not even sure she can feel pain as a lich but something terrifying is happening. Bone by bone he pulls her apart. He speaks again. ¡°You know where you went wrong? You hurt Leaf¡­ If you could have just avoided that. You could have possibly gotten out of this alive. At the very least a new pet of Kite''s. I''m not sure but¡­ Because you hurt Kite. Your true enemy has shown himself. One that will not allow you to do as you wish. And that is why you will die right now.¡± He stops being delicate with her. Reaching into her body with both hands as he shovels out the bones in her chest. Pushing and breaking them as he rips the top portion apart from her bottom half. He speaks again. ¡°If I wasn''t so disgusted by you, I would fucking eat you alive. Let you live the last few hours in my stomach¡­ I don''t have that time either so you''ll just have to die¡­ DAMN IT! DAMN IT DAMN IT! I really wanted to play with you more but it seems I''m out of time.¡± In one quick motion he rips the phylactery off her neck and shatters it between his fingers¡­ Seconds after doing so she collapses into a pile of bones¡­ Seconds after that, Kite''s body falls over as well¡­ Nothing¡­ I don''t feel anything now¡­ I-is he dead?¡­ No, I feel Kite faintly¡­ I can''t just leave him hear but all of the stats I''ve stored in myself were just stolen from me¡­ I guess I''ll have to eat a portion of the metal stored inside myself to restore some mana¡­ I''ll use Kite as a puppet again. Damn it Kite! Stop putting me in these situations! Kite''s point of view I wake up more sore then I ever have been. It feels like an elephant has sat on me and crushed all the bones in my body. I open my eyes and see what I''ve been using as a pillow is Leaf''s lap. She is sleeping right above me as I lay on her¡­ Judging by the roof¡­ We are in a tent near the battlefield¡­ I''m not sure if we have won but¡­ I don''t remember what happened at all. I go to move but I can''t, my body is in so much pain just moving hurts me all over¡­ Except my right arm. Forcing myself to look, I see Aegis has been removed from me¡­ My entire arm is bandaged but¡­ It is still their¡­ It doesn''t feel like it is though¡­ Like I''ve lost all of the feeling to my right arm¡­ My movement was enough to wake Leaf up. She looks down at me and starts to cry. Her tears drip down onto my face as a look of relief and happiness comes over hers. She speaks. ¡°I thought I was going to lose you. Just after we¡­¡± She goes to hit me but manages to stop herself¡­ Her clenched fist changes into an open one as she palms the side of my face gently and kisses me. She must have stopped herself from striking me because of the condition I''m in. I force myself into a kneeling position. Leaf has to help me into a sitting position¡­ She starts to explain what has happened¡­ How she had been struck with a boulder¡­ I can vaguely remember that but everything after is just not a part of my memories. She explains how we had managed to do well against the pirates until the ghouls had shown up. We were pushed back and¡­ Some of my men had died, she wont go over the casualties with me no matter how much I ask¡­ That isn''t good. She explains from there that the ghouls started acting strange, a giant pink monster appeared out of the main building and was burned alive¡­ Seconds after that, the ghouls went crazy and tried attacking the pirates. Leaf and the rest of the army helped defeat them and the pirates have all been calm if not a little scared by everything that has happened¡­ She said that Aegis had seen everything but didn''t want to tell anyone besides me what had happened¡­ ¡°Where is Aegis?¡± ¡°He¡­ Didn''t want to be on your arm any longer than he had too¡­ I guess something you had done scared him tremendously¡­ Kite¡­ You said something to me when I was struck. You said forgive Kite for what I''m about to do¡­ Who, what was talking at that time?¡± ¡°I¡­ I''m not sure myself¡­ I can''t remember much after you had been hit¡­ I just remember being scared, happy you were safe¡­ I looked at the doll¡­ All the cuts and damage that would have happened to you!¡± Shit¡­ I can remember slightly more¡­ I think a trait activated in me when I saw Leaf get struck¡­ Wrath activated¡­ I need to check my stats¡­ I''ve most likely gained many new skills and levels as well while I was unconscious¡­ Right now I need to see how everyone is doing. I go to stand up and nearly fall over but Leaf helps me to my feet. We go through the tent flap and I can now see that it is already dark. Men still rush around fixing things. A huge amount of fish has been brought through the portal and has been made into a stew of some kind for the pirates¡­ They must have been starving¡­ I''m glad we could save them before they all starved to death. I look around¡­ None of my generals are here¡­ I need to speak with someone¡­ What has happened? I see Lance running passed who looks in my direction and stops in his tracks. He yells out. ¡°Ah, good to see you''re awake¡­ We all thought it would be days before you would wake up.¡± ¡°I should really be sleeping my entire body aches... I can''t move without Leaf''s help.¡± He looks at my hand¡­ Because of the bandages, I haven''t gotten to see the extent of the damage¡­ It couldn''t be healed with regenerate¡­ So it is a fairly bad wound¡­ Beyond muscle fatigue from constant work like the rest of my body¡­ I can''t feel it, or move it¡­ It is as if my hand isn''t even their¡­ I ask. ¡°Where is Aegis? What has happened?¡± ¡°Shortly after the ghouls went berserk and started attacking everyone, you came walking out¡­ It wasn''t you though, it was Aegis pretending to be you. After a short speech stating their leader was dead, anyone who would attempt to fight would be killed mercilessly, the fighting stopped. We have their surrender right now and are feeding them so they don''t fall over dead. The corpses were counted on both sides¡­¡± He starts to lose his work tired face for one of sadness¡­ Looking down he continues. ¡°We lost 65 men in battle. 2 griffon riders were struck down during the constant raiding from them. The kobolds had no where to go, since they were split into the groups, their coordination wasn''t as good as if they were a different group¡­ Because of this, we lost 10 more kobolds to constant attacks¡­ They need a leader or they will continue to have no place as a set of troops. One of them took several kobolds from the battle and brought one of the black turtles to the battlefield¡­ If it wasn''t for him, the casualties would have been much higher. The bulk of the deaths were from the ghouls though¡­ The main forces and the two side wings for holding back the enemies suffered the biggest casualties¡­ Of those, Tough and Brick are now dead...¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ...I expected some of my troops to die¡­ If I''m thinking honestly¡­ The casualties of my army are smaller than I thought they would be¡­ I bring this up, there has to be a reason we fared so well against them. He answers that question. ¡°Well¡­ Including everyone, I would say the main reason is because of Green''s bouncing around the battlefield constantly engaging each enemy. She has a very strong attack that could actually throw the ghouls off¡­ She was in bad shape because of this though. She lost both her arms and a leg to them being amputated from ghoul attacks. Methodis had to drag her off the battlefield to keep her alive. Gobber also made a very good leader of the main forces... Then Leaf making calls to retreat to fight the ghouls on a unified front saved many of our troops too.¡± I can feel Leaf grab me a little tighter as she was being praised. I almost laugh at how little Green can change¡­ I can''t laugh right now though, so many of my men are dead because of this¡­ Tough was a stalwart protector, even until the end¡­ Brick the same¡­ Both of their sacrifices will not go unnoticed or unrewarded¡­ I''ve been thinking of making a memorial to those who have died during this war¡­ The three generals who sacrificed their lives to save many more of my men will not go unrewarded. I ask if there is anything else he would like to mention about the war. ¡°Y-yea¡­ The losses from the pirates were far higher than us. Even without trying to kill them, we still killed quite a few in the process. Not only that but¡­ Those ghouls just didn''t appear out of thin air¡­ After doing a head count. Their are only 2650 pirates left alive¡­ Around 1000 were turned into ghouls which we had to kill¡­ A large portion was also killed by Gold herself to feed the ghouls and most likely use to protect herself¡­ With the loss of almost half of their men¡­ The pirates already know they are beyond defeated¡­ Most are very cooperative¡­ Some not so much but none have openly tried to attack any of our men yet¡­ Without a leader, I don''t expect them to continue to behave like this...¡± He is right. They are behaving right now because they are scared¡­ They aren''t going to be scared forever¡­ Without a leader, someone might try to become a leader¡­ If the wrong person becomes the leader, this war will continue. Before I can finish that thought, a giant monster flies over my head. What the hell is that? The monster is a giant, I can''t tell what it is in this darkness¡­ I should still be able to see it though! It must have camouflage that makes it harder to see in the dark. It''s huge! I go to take a battle stance but am too sore to move. Leaf must have noticed my fumbling and whispered into my ear. ¡°That is Darkclaw.¡± ...WHAT!? He slowly approaches us¡­ He is easily 2¡­ No, 3 times the size her was before. A normal sized dragon now, taking up the size of a house. He takes his human form and approaches us. ¡°Ah! It is good to see master is awake.¡± ¡°Wow Darkclaw! You got big.¡± ¡°Heh, yea.¡± We stop talking, I am too tired to hold a conversation right now... I wonder if my other pets have also changed¡­ I should look at my stats before I go to bed. I talk for a few more minutes with everyone¡­ I''m not sure why my body had told me to wake up because I am beyond tired still. I head back to bed with Leaf¡­ I realize how unfair those beds in the castle are now compared to the few blankets thrown down inside a tent¡­
Trait Wrath now dormant
Hero 76 to 78
Champion 75 to 76
Bandit 57 to 60
Pirate 51 to 64
Illusionist 57 to 58
Summoner 58 to 59
White mage 67 to 69
Blood knight 1 to 15
Master of Learning 44 to 56
Level 10 Blood knight skill Vampire strikes- attacks that draw the blood of enemies can be used to restore lost health (combines with Drink blood to make Blood tap)
Class learned Necromancer- passive skill gained Blood magic- Can use health as a resource for casting magic, passive stat increase charisma Level 1 skill Reanimate dead- Turn a corpse into a controllable puppet Level 10 skill Mana leech- Slowly absorb the mana of an enemy
Secret Necromancer skill Speak with the dead- Can communicate with the corpse of a creature and ask it questions
Title learned Tactician- Able to think farther ahead, able to devise more elaborate battle plans
Title learned Commander- Able to more easily lead larger amounts of troops
Job learned Strategist- Skillfully manipulate the troops on the battlefield to your advantage, able to make more politically sound decisions
Job learned Topographer- Knowledge of land for the creation of maps and strategic placement of troops on the battlefield
Achievement gained War veteran- Have completed a war in your favor, potential bonuses for future achievements
Achievement upgraded War veteran--> War leader- Have commanded an army in war to your favor, small stat boost to all men under your leadership
Achievement upgraded War leader--> War hero- Single handedly save thousands of lives during a war, stat boost to all men under your leadership
Achievement gained Vino- Cover yourself in the blood of your enemies, passively drink the blood through your skin granting a very small health regen bonus
Secret Druid skill Lich form- shape shift form to that of a lich (upgrades necromancer skills)
Druid skill created Transform small creature- Because of your proficiency with shape shifting into creatures, you can now shape shift into any small creature
Blue mage passive skill Weapon of war- Gain movement speed, attack speed and resource regen during huge scale battles
Stats increased by at least 100 each
Unknown skills have been gained but blocked by Wrath becoming dormant again
That is all I had noticed changed¡­ Something odd sticks out to me¡­ I''ve noticed it before but, the charisma stat is very undefined as a stat¡­ I''m not even sure what it does¡­ I should really try to figure out more about it¡­ I know that isn''t all I had gained¡­ I will have to go speak with each pet as they may have evolved¡­ Because I was unconscious, I didn''t get the notification of it¡­ I''m just so tired right now¡­ Even on this uncomfortable bed I snuggle up closely to Leaf and fall asleep quickly. Chapter 145 Greater god again That night I have another dream¡­ He is standing in front of me again¡­ Shikki stands before me¡­ I know who it is though, it is the Greater god. He begins to smile a creepy smile as he normally does then begins to talk. ¡°Welcome back! Ahh, good job Kite. You managed to skate by with only 3 of your generals dying. This is one of the better paths you could have went down¡­ I mean, if you were a little more brutal when you first met Gold and killed her quickly, you could have gotten by with only a single general¡­ Maybe next time I guess.¡± ¡°Come on man, I tried my best. I already blame myself enough as it is. I don''t need some god who could will the solution into existence to blame me to¡­ So why am I here? There has to be a reason, you wouldn''t bring me here unless you wanted to tell me something¡­ Or wanted me to do something¡­ Or you wanted to gloat about¡­ Did you really bring me here to gloat about the deaths I could have prevented!?¡± ¡°Hah, no. That would be boring, it is because you''ve noticed something¡­ I thought I would give you a job since you''re not busy anymore. You see, about 30,000 years ago I reworked the stat system that is in place right now¡­ The thing is, I made it to charisma then got bored and left it as it was¡­ So charisma is running off the broken system that it was originally based on¡­ While I could have fixed it at any point, I would have rather pawned the work off on someone else¡­ All of my gods would have chosen a boring way to take the stat though¡­ That is where you come into place. I kind of want to see what you will do with charisma... I give you full reign to redesign charisma and when you are finished I''ll review it and put it into place.¡± ¡°Can''t you just do your job man? You ruined so many people''s lives by not changing charisma. Why would you just stop at the last stat¡­ It is almost like you enjoy the misery you bring into this world.¡± His smile starts to change as his face changes as well. From Shikki he changes into Tough, he has a serious expression on his face as he yells at me, slightly agitated. ¡°Don''t take my laziness and complacency for ill will. If I could just flip a switch and everything is fixed I would. This world takes a metric shit ton of effort to work. I have to hold this shit together with home made glue that is also made of shit. This isn''t the first world I''ve created or destroyed. It is the first one in a long time to amuse me though, mostly because of how hard you struggle to remain righteous even though being slightly more evil would save you so much hassle. It''s like you enjoy doing work, so that is why I am pawning some of my work off onto you. Go crazy, I give you full creative licensing for redesigning the charisma stat¡­ Just don''t make it too strong or too weak or I will have to replace it.¡± I sigh at him. Why would he do this to me? I guess it is a good thing¡­ I can fix one of the problems of this world. Redesigning charisma will make several classes far better than they currently are¡­ I''ll have to really put some thought into the redesign¡­ I ask him. ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°Yep. Goodbye.¡± I''m kicked out of my dream and wake up¡­ My body is still sore all over, at least I can walk by myself today. I wake up and the sun hasn''t risen yet¡­ Something I can catch dawn but I''m still too busy to take the day off and watch it¡­ Maybe I''ll wake Leaf up one day and we can watch it together¡­ I still need to do some after war things before I can finally calm down and relax for a year until the next war starts¡­ It feels like because of my beliefs that all races should be treated fairly¡­ There will always be a war for me to fight¡­ First, I need to make alterations to the charisma stat¡­ It seems that going with something different will help in the long run over something normal. The main thing is I want balance¡­ Zeke''s life has been so bad because of the way charisma is set up right now¡­ Does the Greater god allow me to make changes to the classes with charisma as well? We''ll just have to see as I make the changes. Second, the pirates need a leader. I would rather put one in charge that they will listen to and avoid fighting us when the time of war comes¡­ I''ll really have to think about this though. I also need to check with to see how everyone''s stats have improved through the war. I expect Darkclaw isn''t the only of my pets to have changed in this war. Third, We need to have a celebration for our army¡­ This will also be a day of remembering those who lost their lives during this war¡­ I should have really said this one first. It is the one I should get out of the way first¡­ I''m honestly looking forwards to this¡­ While we have the celebration it might be a good idea to find a new leader for the kobolds as well. I''ll start telling people about the celebration today and we will hold it tomorrow. I want to have a few things in place before the celebration begins¡­ I''ve learned so much recently but because of the war, I haven''t been able to experiment. I start enchanting some different sized containers with unending water source¡­ This will be one of my experiments. Each is filled with different liquids. After a few hours of enchanting by myself, the enchanting crew shows up and starts helping. Out of all the containers I want to enchant set-up on the enchanting table, I have 8 buckets. Each is being enchanted with unending water source but are filled with beer. Another 8 buckets filled with chocolate. Then 8 glasses filled with beer, then 8 filled with chocolate¡­ I still can''t use my hand yet¡­ I left the bandages on since yesterday¡­ I don''t want to look at whatever my arm has become yet¡­ Aegis is no where to be found since yesterday... He''ll show up once he''s had some time to think though. I think right now, it is best to give him his space. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The enchanting process for the chocolate is far harder. Having to keep a constant temperature on it to keep the chocolate in a liquid form. I have several small fires burning against the metal bottom of the buckets to keep it in liquid form¡­ The main experiment I am trying here, is to see weather the size of the container effects the amount produced. The second reason is to see if a liquid has been placed in the container, does it duplicate the liquid? As I focus on this, my pets slowly begin to visit me. Several of my generals as well¡­ Each pet looks differently and my generals all tell me what they''ve gained from the battle. The pets who changed the most were the ones tied to elements¡­ Blue, Purple, Pokodo and Red. Each had changed to be far more suited for that element. Blue was now almost see through. He had become a true water elemental. It seems he still retained his ability to control females and in all honestly¡­ His new look makes him look far more unique, honestly even more attractive than what he was. He has grown again¡­ Being only slightly smaller than an average human¡­ In comparison to when he was an imp, he has gained around 3 feet in height since becoming my pet. Purple has a similar green see-through tint as the sylph. I guess she was helping Kline on the battlefield, she could produce magical notes that made everybody''s fatigue lift when they heard it¡­ I''ll need to speak with Kline eventually to get the full story on her capabilities. I guess in the future, she will be even more of a help to our army so I am happy with that. Purple still retained his bat form through the transformation. Pokodo¡­ Looks far differently¡­ Her fur is no longer fur but instead white granite. Her size has almost doubled¡­ If I was still 7-8 years old, I would be able to ride her like a mount. She comes up to about my knees in height from sitting down. She could let the children ride her if she wanted¡­ She also changed the most if you ask me¡­ I doubt she is as weak and frail as she was before¡­ She also can burrow through the ground now to travel¡­ As fast if not faster than she could run at full sprint on the surface. Red looks fairly similar¡­ At least her body, her face now shows the signs of how powerful she really is. She could pass as human before, with the marks on her face, the several sparks of fire sparking off of her hair and the giant fangs she had grown¡­ It will be much harder to pass her off as a human. She changed into a 9 tailed fox and has grown even more in this form. If she was the size of a fox before. She is the size of a griffon now. 2 or 3 people could ride on her if she allowed them. While these 4 changed the most¡­ My other pets also changed¡­. Darkclaw is now a giant in comparison. He is truly a dragon now, I haven''t seen the devastation he can do¡­ I''m guess it is on the scale of 3-4 times as massive. I doubt we can be compared anymore. I''ll need to get a few feathers from him to upgrade my generals armor. 4 feathers would be enough to make a chest piece out of. Sock has grown again¡­ If he was slightly bigger than the average human, he is now the size of that bugbear who came in. About the same height as me just far more bulky¡­ The alterations I''m going to have to make to his gear are going to be drastic enough for me to need to make a new set of gear from scratch¡­ Looking over all the changes too my pets¡­ I start to think about Morpheus, will he even return to our base? The generals who approached me¡­ Most is just levels and stats but Trice was different. She said she had an awakened class since awhile ago but wanted to wait until the fighting was over to bother me with it¡­ I wonder what it is, she says that it is called rainbow mage and that she will teach it to me in the next few days¡­ That is good to know¡­ Leaf comes by and kisses me as I work. We act more like an old married couple than 2 people in a new relationship. If I wasn''t so sore, I would be far more playful with her¡­ She talks about how she gained a new awakened class during the war. That makes 2 new awakened classes I can learn. Leaf continues to look at the unmoving arm at my side. It makes me question what happened to it. It should be able to move if it was just broken or sore. I start to undo the bandages but Leaf stops me. She has a worried look on her face... Is it really that bad? I leave the enchanting crew to finish their work¡­ I hope it works out, a few beer and chocolate fountains would be amazing to have for the party tomorrow. I go around and tell everyone about celebration. It feels almost unreal, should we even celebrate this victory? It feels like the wrong thing to do¡­ We need to grieve and celebrate though¡­ I head back to the pirates island and see them now reconstructing the buildings that were torn down in this war. A huge amount of food is being given out, with how starved they have been it is to be expected. I see someone bossing around the pirates like it is his job to¡­ It is Darkclaw. ¡°Come on lads! Do you want to sleep outside another night? Fix those buildings and you can sleep in a nice comfortable bed with a roof over your head! Eat your fill of food, no one will judge you for what you eat today! You need all that energy for work!¡± He turns and notices me¡­ He goes to speak but he must have noticed I was looking at him weird. I ask him a question. ¡°Darkclaw, how would you feel about leading the pirates?¡± Chapter 146 Party preparations ¡°What are you on about?¡± ¡°Well, I''m just saying. It seems like they respect you already. They listen to your orders, Greed has experience with leading the pirates already¡­ It would suit you to become their leader.¡± ¡°I don''t think the men will follow me, I''m an outsider.¡± ¡°You''re also a fucking dragon. What are they going to do? Say, oh we already have a leader. What better leader than a dragon?¡± ¡°I guess you''re right¡­ I can lead them.¡± He starts calling them all together to listen. ¡°LISTEN UP YOU LOT! As you are without a leader now! I have taken it upon myself to lead you sorry saps! From this day onward, you can call me captain! Anyone who wants to take my position is more than welcome to try but remember.¡± He was in his human form. Shape shifting into a giant dragon scares any thought of rebellion out of everyone. He continues to speak. ¡°NOW! I am not like Gold! For one, I won''t let my men die under my rule! I will also have better pay! Speaking of which, she didn''t store her gold on this island! Has anyone seen her go off in a direction by herself or with a smaller group!?¡± A pirate steps forwards¡­ I recognize him, it is Defus! He yells out. ¡°Yea, I helped her row to an island before! She told me it was for hiding something important but to forget about it once we left¡­ I forgot to forget though!¡± The crowd bursts out laughing at his statement¡­ Somehow¡­ That last line is the exact definition of how I imagine Defus. We still have so much do to. We need to start rebuilding the fleet of ships. We will leave the ships we still have for them to use for now¡­ Each of our ships are equal to about 3-5 of their ships in power. The black swords and turtle are the exceptions though. Loaded with firepower and defenses. Each of those ships could possibly take down 10 of the enemy ships by themselves¡­ I''ll start the process of expanding my fleet soon enough, with several ideas and plans taken from Greed. Greed riles them up more. ¡°Alright you lot! We''ll go find her treasure, getting back to what being a pirate is about! This time, we''ll split the pot down the middle with everyone! Each of you should get your piece!¡± Cheers ring out. He knows how to speak their language¡­ The language of gold. I know I made the right decision by making him the leader¡­ Speaking of which¡­ I need to go speak with the kobolds. Firstly, to ask them to come to our party. Secondly, to find out who the leader was during the last battle of the war against the pirates. I also reconnected all of the portals to a single hub in our main base. The process of going through portals to get to the ships, to get back to the base or another location was too hectic. With simplifying the process. I can shave off a few minutes every trip I take somewhere. Entering the kobolds village¡­ It just feels different¡­ Almost like a war has been raging here as well. Some of the kobolds see me and start yelling out. ¡°Master.¡± ¡°It is master. Master is here.¡± ¡°Master! Look, it is master! He will know who to pick!¡± I see what they kobolds have been doing since Shikki has died¡­ Holding a bloody match to find the next leader of the kobolds. Several of them are missing arms or have heavy wounds all over them¡­ Why did they not tell me about this process? I gather them all together and start treating the wounded. I call out, asking for someone to explain what is going on. Several of them answer the question by speaking one after another. ¡°Ahh, this is trial by combat. The next leader will be chosen through battle¡­¡± ¡°Yea, yea! That is how we have always done this! With how much stronger master has made us, we needed to switch the method to fighting with weapons since magic was too strong.¡± ¡°We will find our leader, then business will go back to the same. We will continue to serve you master but we need a leader who isn''t you to function.¡± ...What do I do¡­ I can''t look down on their ritual, the leader should be the one everyone views as the leader. I still need to ask, to see who the leader of the- before I can finish my thoughts a kobold comes rushing over and hits another across the face with a club¡­ The rest of the kobolds get back to their fighting. I guess this is just how they do it. The fighting has been going on since the day Shikki died. I guess the conclusion of the leader being picked will be happening soon. I tell them about the party tomorrow, it seems they are too caught up in this battle to care about honoring the dead. I head back to the fortress after telling them it is mandatory¡­ Coming through the portal, I head to visit Leon. After speaking with the group I found out that Leon is alive and okay¡­ At least as okay as you can be as a ghoul. I start walking towards the medical bay and as I get to the hallway the doors burst open. A female gnoll comes rushing out. Screaming now. ¡°Your sick! Gah, what is wrong with Leon!¡± She is holding her mouth as she rushes past me¡­ What is wrong with Leon? Did he attack her? I start to run towards the doors more panicked now. Entering the room, I am hit with the pure smell of blood¡­ HE DIDN''T! I look at him, his mouth and some of his chest is covered in blood from biting into something living! I look beside him at what he has killed¡­ A pig is going into death twitches as his throat was just bitten out by Leon. He looks up at me as he takes another bite out of the freshly killed pig. He talks as he bites down on the pig. ¡°Ah Kite. Took you long enough to come by. Sorry I couldn''t be on the battlefield yesterday. Preoccupied with being turned into a ghoul and all that.¡± ¡°Yea no big deal. Just get bet¡­ Uh, never mind¡­ I guess this is on me¡­ Your ghoulification was different than everyone else who was changed¡­ I''m not even sure I can change you back¡­ You might be a ghoul from now on.¡± ¡°I guess that isn''t so bad.¡± He rips more flesh from the pig and continues talking. ¡°I could be dead... I could have been turned into a ghoul and then fought against you. I''m glad I didn''t though, could you imagine the damage I would have done to the army if she could have controlled me¡­¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I will find a way to cure you Leon¡­ I will¡­ I promise.¡± ¡°Just make sure you keep some animals around for me to eat¡­ I don''t want to know what happens if I run out of food.¡± ¡°I''ll have the chefs keep some raw meat around for you to eat.¡± ¡°Oh! Make sure that it is full of blood. Blood is like my seasoning.¡± ¡°A...Alright¡­ Get bet-¡­ Just come talk to me once your allowed out of here¡­ Also, there is a celebration tomorrow for us winning the war. We will also be honoring the dead.¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll be there¡­ Kite just know¡­ My becoming a ghoul¡­ It isn''t your fault, don''t blame yourself¡­ I dropped my guard¡­ It won''t happen again. No, it won''t ever happen again...¡± He looks at the scar on his arm made from the process of trying to cure his ghoulification¡­ It only worked so well¡­ He is different than a normal ghoul¡­ Not only did he retain his cognitive thinking, the process of changing into a ghoul wasn''t nearly as hard on his body. He has scars yes but¡­ Most of his skin is still in tact, as a normal ghoul has huge portions of flesh and skin missing. If a normal ghoul had 50-60% of their body changed, Leon has 10-20%. I''ve decided to start the process of making a memorial for those fallen. I shape and pull the mountain near the fortress¡­ We don''t have the ability to name all of those fallen in combat¡­ So I''ve just decided to make something that is beautiful to commemorate this day of remembering those who have fallen¡­ It will give those who have lost a loved one somewhere to grieve¡­ The design I decide to go for is just a simple cross¡­ I don''t have much expertise with shaping stone with control nature into anything to intricate¡­ I''ll also leave one on the island for the pirates as they have lost men as well¡­ The good portion of the pirates left aren''t fighters¡­ Around 1000 of them are the families of the fighters¡­ Families broken up by death from this war¡­ Everyone has suffered loss, I just hope none of the pirates hold a grudge against me for leading the army to fight against them... The time it takes to make the pirate one is far longer. I take one of the heaviest stones I can carry and put it in a void bag. The lack of a hand to carry anything... Shape things and just the usefulness of having 2 working hands is made very apparent through this process... I will eventually have to look at my hand and that scares me... To know that I might never be able to use my hand for some reason. Their memorial stone comes out slightly less beautiful than ours did¡­ I had more materials to work with for ours¡­ I really need to practice controlling my spells better¡­ Control nature is very difficult to shape with¡­ I know that if I practice, I will be able to do it better though. The more I practice, the more intricate I can make my stonework look¡­ I could also sculpt into the stone work with a little manipulation¡­ I do just that, carving into the memorials a phrase stating that they are. Each says ¡°In memory of those who have fallen in battle.¡± The day is almost over already¡­ So little was done¡­ Most of which wasn''t even done by me but by my men. It seems like all I have done is prepare for tomorrow. I still¡­ It feels like something is missing¡­ I''ve been thinking of an idea for awhile now¡­ Something like a giant chocolate bar that all of my men could eat¡­ I go to check on the chocolate buckets and glasses¡­ The worst news has come from the test¡­ The chocolate is not flowing¡­ The ones filled with beer seem to be producing excess beer from them¡­ If I put them all in an area and have the excess siphon off into more containers. I''ll have an endless supply of beer from now on¡­ This should work with every type of liquid. It seems to only work with materials that are in a constant state of liquid¡­ Because the chocolate is normally a solid it doesn''t seem to work with the enchanted buckets¡­ This sort of ruins my plans¡­ What am I going to do with this chocolate then? I''ll need to find another way to easily produce solid materials like this. If I just serve chocolate¡­ Not nearly everyone will be able to have all of it¡­ If I add some of the sugar we had gotten from raiding the pirates the first day to bread¡­ Then spread the liquid chocolate over it¡­ It might become far sweater and go further than just serving the chocolate by itself¡­ I will still have to make several hundred loaves of bread just to serve my men¡­ Making a giant loaf of bread might work better than making several smaller ones¡­ It would take a giant oven to cook it all at once¡­ Even if I can''t complete it tonight, it would still help to have for later so I start making it. After a few hours I finish making the giant oven, with it being made outside near the blacksmith. We can use a wood fire to heat it from underneath. It will be far easier to ventilate than the inside of a building as well. I make a pan to cook the bread on as well¡­ It is a comically large scaled oven and pan. I get the ingredients to make this sugar bread, then start the process of cooking it¡­ I expect the outside to burn slightly from the sheer size of the bread, it will have to in order to cook all the way through. After about an hour I check the giant bread¡­ The outside is slightly burnt as expected¡­ Even so, the sugar makes even the burnt part tasty. I cover it in a thin layer of the chocolate (Mixing in a portion of water to dilute it and make it go further as an ingredient) and serve it to my men. They eat it voraciously and enjoy it¡­ I guess it was a success and proceed to make a dozen more of these giant loaves of bread for tomorrow. Using up almost all the remaining sugar and chocolate we had gotten from the process of making them¡­ I will need to find an alternate method to replicate those materials later as they are scarce in this part of the world. I head back to my room and Leaf is sitting in bed reading a book. I had brought a piece of the sugar bread for her to try out. I know that she likes chocolate from the months she spent inside the tree when I said in it for the year. She greedily eats it as the thought of using chocolate to make something else taste better had never crossed her mind. We try to have sex but I am still too sore, she has to do all the work that night and I don''t get to use any of my fancy moves I''ve learned from my passed lives. Chapter 147 Day of remembrance speech I wake up the next day and go to rub my face¡­ I forgot that I can''t use my hand¡­ I''m going to have the replace the bandages today anyways¡­ I might as well see what is wrong with my hand. I start doing the wrappings around my hand¡­ Some puss has soaked through the wrappings, making it slightly wet in the locations it was touching the bed. Everything seems fine until I get to halfway down my bicep muscle. The veins that would be pumping the blood are black tinted¡­ The further down I go, the worse it gets¡­ Until I get to the elbow¡­ From my elbow down¡­ My entire arm is covered in a blackish color¡­ Several places on my arm has ripped skin and blood/puss leaks from them. The skin has taken a much harder feeling as I touch it. Also the same density as rock, I drag my hand across my other hand and feel nothing¡­ I pinch some skin between my fingers, enough to feel the pain if I could and still nothing. I try to move my fingers¡­ Nothing. I try to move my elbow¡­ Nothing¡­ I try to move my entire arm¡­ Nothing¡­ No! Move! FUCKING MOVE YOU STUPID ARM! It twitches as I put in a tremendous amount of effort to move it¡­ I breath a sigh of relief¡­ At least I might be able to move my arm with enough training¡­ My arm is still a mess though¡­ Perhaps it would be best to just chop it off¡­ I have to discuss this with Aegis¡­ I hope he shows himself to me today. I did see him yesterday but he must have noticed and ran away¡­ Well, crawled away¡­ It is almost like he is afraid of me. I get up and clean my arm. I can feel something when I drag the water soaked rag across my arm¡­ I can feel the warmth of it. So I can still feel temperature changes at least. I cast some focused healing on it with no effect towards repairing it¡­ It is as if my arm absorbs the mana of the spell instead of the effect¡­ What would happen if I used all of my mana into a single healing or regeneration spell¡­ I try it-. FUCK! OUCH! DAMN! Every piece of my arm that is showing pain has just activated again. FUCK! For a second¡­ When the pain went through my hand¡­ I thought I could move it¡­ If only for a moment but that might have just been wishful thinking. I should really talk to Hilda junior about this¡­ I laugh in my head that I am going to get medical advice from a little girl. The truly messed up part is that she is the strongest healer inside my army¡­ I look forwards to seeing what each of Gobber''s children grow into but¡­ Hilda junior has definitely caught my eye over the other ones so far¡­ The way she talks¡­ I think she might be a demigod of the god of life¡­ That is truly terrifying but also helpful. If any of us utter the wrong thing, this little girl might be able to wipe us off the face of the world¡­ I''m once again not positive this is the case though. I would expect the demigod of life could just wish any wound the be cured. Hilda junior has to put in a lot of effort to fix things. I start baking some more sugar bread for the celebration. I only let them sample one roll last night but it was able to feed around 50 people¡­ I made a dozen rolls yesterday so 600 people can be fed with the rolls today¡­ That is far under what I should have¡­ Portioning it to the size of a few bites per person might be the only way everyone will get to try it. Even above that, the chocolate covered parts only make up maybe 5-10 pieces of the sugar bread¡­ Whatever, it is just something extra so that today is more special than other days. I spend the next few hours preparing for this celebration. Finishing up a few more loaves of the giant sugar bread. Using the remaining sugar and chocolate in the process. Besides a single cup of sugar and a bar of chocolate¡­ I am going to have to hide these from Darkclaw, as I know what will happen if he finds out I have them. Everyone starts to wake up, the pirates slowly trickle into the main building. They are led outside where I will be giving a quick speech for the people to start the celebration. They look on in wonder by all the interesting things they are seeing. Perhaps also shocked by the portals¡­ Darkclaw comes through and he is already celebrating with several dozen pirates as he comes through the portal. Laughing and cheering he stops and takes in a big whiff from his nose then abandons them to rush towards the cafeteria¡­ He brings out an entire roll, chewing it as the size is bigger than even himself. He rips off a piece for each of his generals and they all start consuming it as well. I see the surprise on their faces as they do. Darkclaw stops to talk with me for a few seconds, only enough to show that he is still with me. Still my follower even though he is ruling the pirates. Nami and about 20 of her ninja followers have decided to move to the fortress. They are in the process of becoming more accustomed to their new surroundings. Nami moved because she is my general now, the other 20 ninjas felt too strongly a dept towards me and also volunteered to serve under me. She pats her children on the head and they run off to play as she stops to speak with me for a few minutes. While not a huge amount of ninjas have moved here, it is always nice to have a stealth troop for sneak attacks and assassination/spy missions. They speak of the hot springs more than normal, enjoying them thoroughly. I''ll have to go back and make hot springs for all my outposts such as the lizard men and murine folk villages. I spot Aegis and he must have also spotted me¡­ He attempts to run but stops halfway from running away. He turns and walks towards me using his fingers as feet. Perhaps building him an automaton body would also help him move around. He looks slightly bigger than he was previously. If he was a gauntlet that covered close to the elbow. He is now an arm guard that covers slightly passed the elbow. ¡°So¡­ Who won the fight for your body?¡± ¡°I did Aegis¡­ We need to speak about my arm¡­ And what happened during that fight¡­ I can''t seem to remember anything after Leaf was struck¡­ What did I do?¡± ¡°You¡­ I''m not sure where to begin¡­ First, you killed anyone who came in your way¡­ Not even sparing those who begged for their lives. You went out of your way to cause harm to other people¡­ If you do that again¡­ I''m not sure I can serve you.¡± ¡°I understand¡­ I still can''t make any promises¡­ I''m not sure I can control this trait anymore then I could my other ones. Only time will tell. So¡­ Do you have any idea what is wrong with my hand?¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I unravel the wrappings on my hand and reveal the blackened skin on my arm¡­ The puss I cleaned off earlier has already returned¡­ It is like my arm is dead or something. ¡°I do have a theory¡­ I''ve just never seen or heard of anything happening like this¡­ With summoners, they can conjure food that people can eat made of mana. You can become sick if you eat it too often¡­ What has happened to your arm is the most extreme version of that. I think you''ve developed an extreme case of mana poisoning.¡± ¡°Is there any way to fix it?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Normally you would just have to wait and stop consuming conjured food if you got mana poisoning¡­ For you, I''m not sure that would work¡­ You need to find a way to remove the mana from your system.¡± ¡°Do you think chopping my arm off would remove the effect?¡± ¡°Perhaps¡­ You might be able to use your arm as a power source as well¡­ You sort of turned your arm into a rechargeable mana canister¡­ I''m not sure how that is possible¡­ But you might be able to set off anything that requires mana by just touching it with your hand.¡± ¡°Well¡­ The thing is¡­ I can''t even move my hand.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ That wouldn''t be a problem if you were wearing me¡­ But I just don''t feel comfortable with you wearing me just yet.¡± ¡°I understand¡­ And I agree¡­ For now¡­ Can you protect Leaf¡­ Just you being around her, guiding her I would feel safer.¡± I can sort of feel almost a smile form into my head as Aegis says. ¡°There is the Kite I know.¡± He scurries away. More and more generals continue to come out. I watch as each comes out of the cafeteria with the bread, enjoying it greatly. It makes me happy that my experiment with food has succeeded. Each greeting me before heading outside. The pattering of peoples feet slowly dies down as more and more head outside¡­ I do as well. Our fortress wasn''t meant to hold this amount of people. Even outside the clamoring of everyone is hard to watch. Several hundred pirates needing to head into the forest as the spaces to stand on the road or near the tents set-up just isn''t enough. I walk up to the guard tower and the noise of talking slowly quiets down as I wait until silence. I look over the crowd. I can see several hundred of them eating away at the sugar bread I had prepared. Some of them eating a skewer of meat or other type of food that can be eaten with just hands. I see the looks on everyone''s faces. Some of questioning concern at why I had brought everyone together. Others look on in slight fear seeing what I had done on the battlefield. Others look on in amazement over the new and wonderful things they''ve seen in the past few days. I finally begin my speech as the last of the talking quiets down. ¡°Greetings! Some of you may not know who I am! I am Kite, the current leader of the army you had just faced! Today will be a celebration of the peace we''ve agreed upon, as well as a day of remembrance for those who have lost their lives in battle!¡± I am shouting almost as loud as I can to reach the crowd of thousands of people. I hear someone yell out now. ¡°You''ve only lost a small fraction of your army! What right do you have to say we should remember the fallen! What right do you have to tell us how we should feel!?" I hear a few sort of grunts and hollers in agreement from the rest of the crowd¡­ Perhaps doing this wasn''t such a good idea¡­ My hand is still unwrapped. I raise up my destroyed hand, the crowd becomes silent again as they wait for me to speak about this hand. ¡°WE HAVE ALL SACRIFICED! Some of us more than others! While you were outside fighting my men, I was inside fighting against the lich by myself! The cost of that fight was the destruction of my hand! It was the loss of my men and the loss of my future men that I was fighting for! I sacrificed an arm to fight evenly with this lich who you all assumed was a human! Sacrifices must be made when you do not wish to kill your enemy! Sacrifices must be made in order to save people from themselves. From following someone who would sooner turn them into ghouls, then have them as friends or soldiers.¡± I lower my hand. The sounds of the crowd have become completely silent. None of them had known the full story. What had happened during that fight is now lost, only Aegis knows exactly what had happened. I press on, pushing the speech forwards after that interruption. ¡°Now! I understand we have all lost someone close to us in the past few days! That is why we are here! We are here to remember their sacrifices, to honor the dead while celebrating our life! I have set-up memorial stones over there and on the pirate island to the south! If you wish to give your prayer to the dead and hope their soul passes on smoothly, you can do so. Now with that out of the way!¡± I have several people bring out several bags worth of gold. Because Gold had taken the opportunity to hide her valuables from everyone, they must all be short on money. They look on confused at the huge amount of gold in front of them. Almost 100 gold is being displayed here now. I start the remaining portion of my speech. ¡°NOW! We are going to be celebrating with a few competitions to test everyone in different fields! You can join more than one competition as they will be done one after another. Each testing different things, combat potential, magical power, even artistic prowess will be decided by competition today! This will let you get to know and understand your new companions better! It will also give you the chance at earning some extra money through betting! Now! With that, let the first competition of unarmed combat begin!¡± Chapter 148 Needed competition The first competition is the one most people will want to participate in. The unarmed fighting competition. The rules are simple. Knock the opponent off their feet and you win. If you knock them unconscious, you also win. The number of participants exceed 500 people. To reduce the time it will take. I broke them into battle royals. 20 people fight and the last man standing is the victor. Some of the losers will have a chance to make it into the final 32 again if they want. It goes without saying that most of my generals make it into the final 32. I also see a few unfamiliar faces as expected¡­ Gobber, Green, Leon, Lance, Sock, Nami and myself are the top contenders for winning. Epieoth, Strong, Fast, Nargzar, Zergnar, and Defus I sort of expected to make it into the top 32 as well¡­ There are also some generals I didn''t think would get this far. Fayeth, Red, Methodis, Leaf and Hilda were the surprise making it to the top 32. I look at the remaining, some have made it here by luck¡­ Most of the pirates in the top 32 just were pit against no one else besides other pirates. I see a few mixed that do look strong though. The biggest one that sticks out is the only kobold who had made it into the top 32¡­ Of course he sticks out, he is about 1 foot taller than the average 4 foot tall kobolds. Far more muscular than the average kobold¡­ He honestly looks out of place¡­ Perhaps through the constant warfare for the next leader, this one has evolved a different path than becoming a mage like the rest of the kobolds. Before we start the match up I ask for his name. ¡°It is Tikki master! Hello and thank you for speaking with me! I will do my best to honor your strength during this fight!¡± ...He seems stiff, like he isn''t used to being the center of attention, especially one with thousands of people watching. An elementalist is also in the top 32. 2 demon folk, 1 murine folk ninja and 10 pirates have made it. We start the matches, I get the fights with the pirates out of the way first and all of them are eliminated as expected. This was pretty much a free victory for anyone who was going against them. Tikki goes against the ninja who had entered. I expect there to have been more but I doubt many ninjas participated in the competition. The few that did might have also been unlucky enough to have been put against my generals. Tikki does surprisingly well, he is just outmatched in skill by the ninja. Someone who has been training in hand to hand fighting would beat someone with no training fairly easily¡­ I have a feeling that if he was placed against someone else, he would have done better. All of the other matches are over, some odd ones were the fight between Hilda and Red. Red held the advantage the bulk of the fight but had dropped her guard to almost mock Hilda and Hilda took the chance to trip her. Red was more shocked than anyone else. Sock''s fight with Gobber was immensely brutal. Ending with Gobber barely scraping out a victory. The fight was watched in complete silence and ended with huge screams and applause from the fans who had watched it. Lance beat out Zergnar fairly easily. As the old rival to him, it was good for Lance but at the same time good for Zergnar. I just hope he takes it as motivation to get stronger. My match was fairly easy, pitted against Epieoth I easily beat him but at the same time. The lack of my arm made it harder than expected. He kept leaning towards my right side as it made it harder to counter attack. Eventually just rushing at him and pushing him off his feet was my victory. Winning this might be impossible for me to do in my current condition. Down to 16 people. We''ve already had some amazing fights just in the first round of matches. From finishing the last round, I start the fight this next round against Hilda¡­ She was far easier to defeat than Epieoth, not dropping my guard and attacking her weak points. It was made clear that this is as far as Hilda could make it¡­ She hasn''t trained in months, she doesn''t have any unarmed experience¡­ I''m actually surprised she made it this far. I got some boos as I defeated her so easily compared to Epieoth¡­ That is just how the fight played out. The final 8¡­ Me, Gobber, Nami, Leon, Lance, Leaf, Green and Strong are remaining. I''m not sure how Leaf made it this far... My next opponent is Gobber. As if by some divine justice, I get to face the husband of the women I just defeated next¡­ This sort of feels like an end boss fight, like we should have been the final 2¡­ The odds don''t normally work out like that. Just as I expected Sock to make it into the final 8, he instead faced the same person I went against and got knocked out early. Mine and his is the first fight in the new bracket. We take sides¡­ The longest fight so far has been between Sock and Gobber¡­ Every other fight was over in a few seconds, not lasting more than a minute or 2. Sock managed to hold out against Gobber for 15 minutes, not being knocked down, he was the first to be knocked unconscious¡­ Still standing at the end of the fight. 15 minutes might not seem like a lot of time but imagine how many punches are thrown every single minute by 2 professionals like those 2¡­ It was a sight to behold and I hope to at least put up a fight. Gobber doesn''t give me any time to formulate a strategy. He openly charges towards my weak side, taking full advantage of my weakened arm. Gobber isn''t a moron, he knows that not exploiting a weakness like that would only be a sign of not taking me seriously as an opponent¡­ That is what makes this fight so much more difficult, if I had both hands I might stand a chance¡­ He charges in and I drop down and try to sweep his legs out, the only way I see myself winning is by taking this fight to defensive kicks and sweeps in an attempt to unbalance him. He jumps my sweeping leg and almost knocks me off my feet with a single strike. Targeting the side with no defenses he punches my right shoulder. I spin around and use the momentum to throw another leg sweep that he easily dodges, followed up by a counter attack towards my now exposed back. This isn''t fair! Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. I jump away. He continues to charge at me, not even for a second letting me catch my breath. I can''t use magic, so every hit I take is a chunk of permanent health lost until the end of the fight. I can''t use any skill based attacks¡­ If that was the case I might have been able to compete with him¡­ He slowly throws jabs¡­ He understands that throwing a haymaker would only give me a chance to counter¡­ He is slowly whittling me down from my weak side and there is nothing I can do about it! I start to get angry. How can he continue to take advantage of my weakness and not feel anything! I hear a voice in my head. ¡°Use lich form.¡± What will that do? If I change form here, all of the pirates I had just gained as allies might no longer want to serve under me. I wouldn''t risk thousands of troops to win a single fight. That is preposterous¡­ I would use a sneaky magic like control wind or blood to cheat if anything¡­ Gobber must have noticed my distraction and took advantage of it. His fist slams into my face, it is the first strike I received from him to my face. The urge to cheat continues to rise in me. NO! I am better than that! It is the voice in my head that is influencing me. I refuse, I''ll forfeit before I cheat. I hear the voice inside my head again. ¡°THEN USE LICH FORM YOU FUCKING MORON!¡± NO! What will that do!? Why would I!? You make no sense!¡­ I start to feel my body slowly working against me. Gobber notices my odd movements and jumps back. I think he expected me to use some crazy attack to fight against him¡­ My body, it wants me to use lich form no matter the cost. Why? Hearing the sound of the voice starting to chant now. ¡°win¡­beat him...Win! BEAT HIM! WIN!! BEAT HIM!! WIN!!!¡± Why would I do that? No! NO!! FUCK YOU BODY! I Wont do it! ¡°I forfeit.¡± The look on the crowds face goes from excitement to shock¡­ Some have the look of confusion on them¡­ Gobber also looks at me confused, he doesn''t understand why I had given up. He couldn''t fathom me surrendering to anyone¡­ I do anyways. I state again that I am giving up. The look of shock now changes to one of booing once again. Booing me off the stage. I know I would have been humiliated¡­ I know I would have been but¡­ I can''t, my mind is just so full of hate right now it takes most of my focus to not go crazy. Blood starts to trickle out of my nose and Gobber is the only one who has noticed it. ¡°Thank you for the fight master.¡± He bows and the crowd only gets louder. Almost everyone in unison is now booing me as I try to make it somewhere else to calm down. I hear Gobber now behind me. ¡°SHUT UP YOU FOOLS! Do you realize how much Kite sacrificed to save you dumb fucks!? He was as strong if not stronger than me a few days ago. You pieces of shit aren''t worth the cost he has paid. You don''t even realize how lucky you are we fought against you with him as the leader, anyone else would have killed all of you without mercy!¡± The crowd starts to die down now¡­ I barely make it into the fortress before I fall over. My entire body is shaking now, I was that close to doing something I would have never taken back. The blood pumping in my head starts to fade as I take in deep breaths. I have to talk to myself. ¡°LISTEN HERE YOU FUCKING STUPID ASSHOLE! I WILL NEVER GO ALONG WITH HURTING MY FRIENDS! I WILL KILL MYSELF BEFORE I DO THAT!¡± ...I wait for a response¡­ Nothing. Why did he want me to use my lich form? I''m honestly not even sure I will ever use anything I gained from Gold¡­ It just feels¡­ Dirty, like the skills gained from her are tainted with the blood of my allies. I start to calm down finally. Wiping the blood off my upper lip a wash my face before I head back towards the battle to watch the remaining fights¡­ Gobber notices me and comes approaching me. He whispers. ¡°What was that about?¡± ¡°I got a new trait that makes me want to fight at full power¡­ It took everything I had to hold back and not going crazy in that fight¡­ I swear that if I didn''t forfeit¡­ I don''t know what I would do¡­ How far I would go to win...¡± ¡°Heh, it honestly sounds like you''re becoming more of a leader. Someone who isn''t afraid of doing what he has to in order to win¡­ That isn''t exactly a bad thing. You just need to learn to control it, I don''t think that attitude towards a practice match is a good thing though.¡± ¡°This voice¡­ I''ve always been able to fight the urges the other traits put on me but this one¡­ I can''t, my entire body wanted to fight you. I was ready to kill you, to kill my best friend over a stupid practice match¡­ I''m ashamed of myself¡­ I am ashamed of the things I''m willing to do to win right now...¡± ¡°Well then¡­ Just don''t fight.¡± In all honesty¡­ Gobber''s simple mind might have just thought of the best way to avoid Wrath activating again. Chapter 149 Day of celebration continued ¡°Well¡­ I guess since you''ve calmed down. You can watch the next fight. You missed the fight between Green and Strong then another one between Nami and Leaf¡­ Green against strong was... Very one sided. The fight against Nami and Leaf wasn''t as one sided as I thought it would be¡­ No offense.¡± ¡°Yea¡­ No problem¡­ Leaf did better than I thought she would¡­ Sorry for beating up Hilda.¡± He let out a little chuckle before speaking again. ¡°She knew what she was getting into when she joined the competition. I think she would have been more mad if you didn''t take your fight with her seriously.¡± Once again, another fight I wouldn''t have expected until the final 4. Leon and Lance are fighting. The victor of this will most likely be the end contestant against Gobber. It is as heated as I thought it would be. Both taking the fight to the sky, jumping off the ground and slamming into each other. Kicks, punches, and grapples into throws that are landed because if they aren''t, the fight would end. Gobber''s and Sock''s match was the best until this point. The slow drawn out fighting style of Gobber and Sock in comparison to the full on assault style of these two. Leon just can''t keep up, at least without activating his skills. He has the same look in his eyes that I did¡­ No¡­ His is different, instead of being afraid of his ferocity, he embraces it. Letting out a feral roar as he smiles and rushes towards Lance. The fight ends anticlimactically with Lance tripping Leon just as he lands from an aerial attack. Lance helps him up¡­ Leon smiling at his amazing fight. Breathing heavily as the two of them give a small hug to one another. They are the closest thing to family each of them have. Both being from the same group that ran dungeons for years. I still don''t understand how Leon could control his ferocity¡­ I mean he is part ghoul, why the fuck can''t I handle myself¡­ The crowd bursts into cheers and hoots at the fight just transpired. The fight was very entertaining the most so far. With that, the final 4 have been picked. Gobber, Green, Lance and Nami are the strongest generals when it comes to unarmed combat. The fights are going to be very entertaining to watch. First up is Nami against Gobber. I don''t know what to say but it isn''t as one sided as I thought it would be. Most of these fights I could say that about. Nami managed to hold out for a long time but Gobber slowly but surely beat her. Gobber didn''t hold back on any of his attacks. Neither did Nami. Without her skills to fall back on though, Gobber has just gained too much from this war. He is too strong now compared to when they trained together. Green and Lance however¡­ I can''t express how enjoyable the fight was. Green is just so much stronger then she was only a few days ago. Just her fighting style is amazing to watch. Taking blows to get into the best position to attack with hay makers¡­ Lance had a year of training under his belt with his new awakened class and fighting style though¡­ The match was still very close. If Green had 2-3 more weeks worth of training inside the time tree, she might have been able to pull a victory out¡­ Now for the final match. Lance and Gobber stand opposite of each other¡­ Thousands of people watch surrounding them, some having crouched down so more can see the fight. Others climb the trees to get a better vantage point¡­ It is dead quiet at the anticipation¡­ Even I don''t know who is going to come out on top. Gobber''s adaptability or Lance''s spring loaded punches and kicks. They stare each other down. Finally the silence is broken with someone coughing. They use it as a cue to start the match. Lance flying in with a fake out kick that was actually a jump to see which way Gobber would dodge. The second Gobber jumped to the left, Lance corrected his trajectory and connected with him hard with a kick to Gobber''s arms now protecting his stomach. Gobber throws his hands up, forcing Lance into a back flip. Before Lance can land Gobber has already moved into a good position to attack him. Lance slaps his hands together so hard it startles Gobber and moves Lance back if only a few inches out of Gobbers reach as he swings. Lance still has to lean back heavily to avoid being struck. Gobber steps forwards only slightly and roundhouse kicks towards Lance. Lance ducks under and puts both hands on the ground and kicks upwards at Gobber, connecting with his hand that came in to protect his chin just in time. Gobber is thrown back now and also does a back flip. Both still in the air, Lance takes advantage of his aerial training to continue the fight. He grabs Gobber''s leg and it ruined Gobber''s balance. Mid air Lance pulled Gobber into him so he could continue the uppercut with his fist now. Slamming into him hard, anyone else would have been knocked unconscious or at the very least been thrown off-balance enough to not be able to land it. Gobber managed to land on his feet somehow. The crowd that has been quiet until this point are now cheering like crazy by the spectacle they are watching. Gobber only smiles and spits a little blood out of his mouth as he raises one hand in front of him and places the other behind his back. This is the stance he takes with his weapon when he is serious. He had taken it against me during the time we fought against the raid bosses. That is how much of a threat Lance is to Gobber. He has taken his best stance. Lance also takes his stance. The one that he had built up and made his own. Both fists raised in front of him as he heavily leans forwards waiting for the perfect chance to spring forwards with his super speed punch. The crowd cheering stops as they realize neither has moved for a few seconds¡­ Waiting for the other one to make a move so they could capitalize on any mistake they made in the process¡­ Each has slowly started moving towards the other. Cautious step after step. Both realize that this next attack might be the last one. The silence is finally broken as Lance jumps towards Gobber and Gobber rushes towards Lance. Even I''m amazed by their speed. Lance was fast before but now he is almost as fast as Leon using his special skill. He almost appears as a blur, i can only keep up by using his dragoon helmet as a focal point in his image. It looks like the tip of a knife being fired from one of my knife cannons. Gobber isn''t moving as fast but he is still moving at the speed that no one else would be able to keep up with. Except for me. Lance had shot himself off the ground while Gobber continued to run, that might be the difference in who wins. Gobber moves slightly to the side, as much as he can while still running as fast as he can. It is barely enough, or it would have been if Lance didn''t adjust his body mid air as well. Both of Lance''s feet catch Gobber as Gobber punches Lance. The collision is strong enough to break one of Lance''s legs and Gobber''s arm. It sends Lance spinning through the air while Gobber is knocked to the ground. Both land on the ground but Gobber did first¡­ It is Lance''s victory. The crowd cheers harder than they have up until this point by the fight. Both are in bad shape, if this was a fight to the death, Gobber would have been in much better shape. Having only broken his arm while Lance had broken his leg. Making him far easier to beat at that point. But it wasn''t a fight to the death. Gobber stands up and I can see how badly hurt he is. He entire arm sort of swings like a pendulum by the motion of him standing up. Lance goes to stand up but it takes him longer. Sort of balancing precariously on one leg, the fight is over¡­ You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The healers for the match come rushing in as not everyone understands who won. With no judge needed up until this point, it has come down to house rules. I step forwards and declare Lance the winner. Raising his hand I hear the sounds of cheering again as some others are angry that they bet on the wrong person. None of them make too big a deal out of it as they have just watched the most entertaining fight they had ever seen in their entire lives. With that, the first competition is finally over. The next competition will be mages next. Far less enter, especially the pirates. I will eventually teach them all new classes but until then, they are by far the weakest part of my army. This competition will be fighting, there wont be a competition for healing but they have the hardest if not most important job during large scale battles. I really respect healers in that sense but having a healing competition is sort of counter productive to how healers actually are. If everyone else had one goal during war it would be to take lives¡­ A healers job is solely the opposite of that. Their job is to save as many lives as possible¡­ That is why they are so important¡­ Perhaps training up a special group of healers would be for the best¡­ I would like to participate in this competition to redeem myself to my new pirate allies¡­ I don''t know if I would be able to hold myself back though¡­ So I avoid it, instead judging the competition if a close call like what happened in the last match happens. Quickly enough it is whittled down to the final 4 mages. Leaf, Red, Green and Blue are the final 4. Trice didn''t enter even though I asked her to in order to see her new awakened class. She doesn''t believe in fighting for fun like this. Some other mages entered like a few kobolds but they were all eliminated. I made it a rule that Blue just can''t charm the girls to win, resulting in a more fair competition. The first match is Red against Blue¡­ Red doesn''t fuck around at all this time. She doesn''t hold any punches back, which is bad because she uses something that can permanently injure someone. As Blue''s and Red''s magic slams against each other, steam is created making it far harder to tell what is happening. It ends with Red winning by a small margin. Blue had used a large portion of his mana and felt he wouldn''t be able to win, so he forfeited. He got some boo''s but I understand where he is coming from. No reason to risk permanent injury if he were to run out of mana during a spell clash. Next up is Green against Leaf¡­ They go to pair off and now Green is getting hoots and hollers from the pirates who had grown to like her during the first competition. She only laughs and says. ¡°Hey! You remember this ass was the one that kicked all your asses during the war! If I wanted a weak, piss ant husband ,I''ll come and talk to you pirates! Until then don''t bother me!¡± A few laughs come out as some do recognize her from the battlefield. I had almost forgot that just a few days ago we were in a life and death struggle against these men. Green and Leaf both start simultaneously. What happened to Leaf!? When did Leaf become so strong? Not only is she holding her own against Green... Leaf is pushing her back. Forming several familiars to assist in attacking Green, continuing to move around like all the other mages in the guild. All the mages in my army can move and cast effectively, making them far harder to defeat. Leaf even used different types of familiars, like a shield familiar to block attacks and a small archer familiar to fire arrows from her shoulder at the power of a regular archer. She summoned a giant warrior and then enlarged it to three times its normal size. The single strike it made against Green was enough to deal significant damage. Both block and dodge, jumping and attacking. They take their fight to close range as well as casting. Throwing punches and kicks, Leaf''s familiars are around the same skill if not more skilled at fighting as her. She had summoned a group of familiars that looks fairly similar to her dungeon group to fight against Green. Even with bending the elements around her to aid in her fighting. Green eventually runs out of mana. She attempts to continue the fight but Leaf runs away as her familiars continue to pelt Green with attacks¡­ It might seem cowardly but Green out surpasses Leaf in fighting ability. Hit and run tactics was the only way for her to win and Leaf wasn''t afraid of doing so to win. With her final breath before being knocked unconscious by a barrage of attacks, Green yells out. ¡°FUCK! When did little Leaf become so strong!?¡± Under her breath, I doubt anyone else could here her say it. ¡°She''s as strong as big Leaf now...¡± ¡­ I had been calling her Green for so long I honestly forgot her real name was Leaf¡­ Two Leaf''s fighting against each other. The victor being my Leaf¡­ The next fight takes place an hour later. The match is decided far more quickly then her fight with Green. Leaf wins the event, her and Green''s fight was by far the most entertaining but it was a good show of how much stronger the mages in my army have gotten. Leaf bashfully accepts the reward as a crowd of pirates all cheer her on. I have no doubt she just won herself some admirers from that victory. Red looks sad she didn''t win¡­ She made it so far though. All these good melee mages in my army. Green, Leaf and Red all made it into the top 32 in unarmed combat as well as the top 4 mages. She has no reason to be upset with that kind of skill¡­ She quickly gets over it as she lures a few pirates away to¡­ Remove some of her pent up aggression¡­ We get to the final competition¡­ The one I am most excited for personally. The contest of art. Chapter 150 End of celebration The crowd starts to disperse as less people are interested in the art portion of this competition. Several hundred return to their island while some head towards Shienta with a chaperon. I had brought word to my uncle that we had defeated the pirates and forced them to join us but that might not stop the people from attacking them if they show up by themselves. The crowd has dropped to about half for this¡­ I have several of my men bring out the materials for this competition. I''m going to award everyone who enters but this is just to see if we don''t have any artists in our group. Several blocks of stone are brought out with chisels. We have some clay for making pottery. A few canvases for drawing pictures as well as the paint they will use to make them. About a dozen people enter¡­ Some are clearly just entering to try and earn money. We all get to work on something. I have entered myself and plan on using my control earth to sculpt something to enter into the contest. Each gets to work, I see one of the pirates that entered just covering one of the canvases with paint¡­ He is done in only a few minutes and it looks better than I expected it too. What I assumed would end up looking like a mess looks very interesting in the end¡­ From what I can see from this angle at least. The main reason I wanted to have this competition was to hire them as artists afterwords to decorate the fortress and other bases. Seeing the drab walls lightened with colors would help make everything look more special... More unique. Anything to lighten the mood in these narrow corridors would help. I start working on shaving off parts of the stone to shape it. Working on shaping it is far easier than I thought it would be. I shape the face, deciding to make a statue of myself. I was going to make one of Leaf but my artistic skill isn''t good enough to capture her beauty yet¡­ Perhaps after a few years of practice I will be able to create the perfect duplicate of her. That way her beauty will be forever remembered and shown even after we pass away. People will admire her and look to her beauty for inspiration. Looking at my competition¡­ There is surprisingly a lot of talent here. One of the demon folk is making a pot with some of the clay brought for this competition. One of the gnolls is stitching together several wolf pelts to make a wolf skinned rug. A kobold has brought bones and is making some type of idol... I think... I''m honestly surprised by the fact that they''ve brought their own materials. Perhaps while the other competitions were going on, they were preparing for this one. One of the elementalists is sculpting a similar statue to my own. It appears to be of a very attractive women¡­ As he chisels away more of the stone I start to see who he is trying to immortalize in stone. It is a statue of Green¡­ Finally... No murine folk have entered, which is a shame. I know for a fact that they have amazing artists who could very likely win the competition if they entered... To be expected of them though, only a few had entered the fighting competition, they will most likely not want to give away their artistic secrets. We are each done with far more time then I allotted for the competition¡­ Finishing in 15 minutes while I had given the time of 2 hours¡­ I look over each one, the competition is slightly different then the others. Each person will get compensated for their art. Even the few pirates who are here just for the chance at money will be paid slightly for their slight painting skill. I look closer at the ones that I expect to be the best¡­ The elementalists statue is far more sharp curves then mine, I shaved the corners off while he left them¡­ It honestly looks like it was done for a stylistic choice. In comparison, his is slightly better, better face creation and more beautiful then mine. I would much rather look at his statue over mine. The demon folks pottery is something I would expect anyone to be able to make with work¡­ Until you look closer at it. The small and intricate designs on it show the signs of a experienced potter. The lip has been tapered to make the water flow towards one spot when poured. Around the first curve is where the intricate design is. What looks to be a braided rope is actually the pot designed to look that way. The time it would take to make this would have been much longer if it was hardened, which is the next step to preserving this great art. The gnoll''s wolf skinned rug is also impressive. Several wolf pelts are stitched together so finely I can''t even tell where one pelt ends and the next begins. All I can think of is how nice it would look inside my room in the castle mimic. Or on the wall in the war tactics room we have meetings on the plans for battle. Next is the kobolds bone¡­ What is this? It just looks like a pile of bones to me. He grabs the string portion on each end and hangs it around his neck. Wearing it I can now see the beauty in it. The closer I look, the more elaborate I realize it is. It would take a very steady hand to make a hole the exact size needed for the necklace without splitting the bone. Several teeth also are used in the design. Each bone and tooth looks to be from a different creature. While it would serve no purpose, it is still fairly beautiful and I could imagine some of the troops wanting to wear these or have specially made ones of all the monsters they''ve defeated. Finally the single pirate who had made the painting with any skill¡­ From my viewpoint during the match, I couldn''t tell what he had painted but from a straight on perspective, I can now clearly see it¡­ A beautiful sunset, one I''ve seen before. It is the ocean facing north, away from the pirate base¡­ I had thought it was beautiful before but his painting almost seems to have captured to moment permanently in portrait¡­ It is truly beautiful to look at.
Artist learned- (sub category- sculpting, painting, crafting and design) know the very basics of art, can sometime make something truly beautiful if you are lucky
Title gained Art critic- can see the flaws in art even when no one else can, allows you to appreciate truly beautiful art more
The competition ended. I gave the painter first place, awarding him 3 gold. Everyone else were runner ups, earning 1 gold each. I would rather not place them as they were of the same level of skill. Which is none at all except that of their peoples culture. It would go against another race to rate one of the types of art higher then the rest¡­ The only exception to that was the painter. He clearly had more skill then everyone else and I have no doubt that is where I learned artist from. Just looking at his painting gives me inspiration to get better. I do just that, using another one of the blocks of stone, I carve a statue of Gobber this time. Far better then the last one I created, it puts my original stone statue to shame. The curvature is far less abrasive and I could even capture the dumb smile Gobber always has on his face. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Each of them is given another gold if they create more art for each of the bases. I doubt anyone besides myself will appreciate it because as there is no practical reason for art. It doesn''t make the bases safer, it doesn''t make people less likely to attack. If the art is valuable, it does the opposite. I think my love for art might be coming from some of Lust''s memories but I find myself being interested in it as well. Leaving behind a legacy of culture could be the only thing I''m remembered for. I continue making statues, paintings, pottery, jewelery and rugs the remainder of the day. Each is about the same level as the person who I was competing with, maybe slightly better or worse depending on the critic. Besides the pirate painter¡­ Nothing I make is even within the same league as his. The day is winding down already. Night is quickly approaching and most of the pirates have already returned home. Light is setting on our fortress¡­ I fly up, changing into dragon form for the first time since I lost my arm. I almost fall on my face and have to steady myself with my remaining arm. My final painting that day is the closest to the artists work. It is the sunset on top of the mountain our fortress is located in¡­ That night, we hold a farewell ceremony for those who have lost their lives during this war¡­ Almost everyone is in attendance and a line is formed to give one last prayer to those who have fallen to the memorial stone. I get to the front of the line¡­ I''m not sure what to pray to really¡­ I pray with my single hand raised as my other one remains limp at my side. ¡°Thank you for all of your sacrifices. I''m so sorry you had to lose your life during this war¡­ This war some of you might not have even wanted to participate in. I''m sorry and I thank you for your sacrifices¡­ I wish I knew all of your names. I wish we could have grown close or at least known each other. I am sorry I wasn''t a better leader, one that could have saved everyone from dying¡­ I thank Shikki, Brick and Tough for their sacrifices¡­ If they didn''t sacrifice themselves, the lives lost would have been much higher¡­ I''m sorry¡­ I''m so sorry I couldn''t save more of you¡­¡± I finish my prayer, I walk towards the fortress now and tears have started pouring down my face. Why do we have to fight each other. Why can''t we just all be happy with what we have. Why do we have to kill each other to try to make ourselves more happy. I need to get stronger, I need to be a sign of peace for everyone to follow¡­ I know that isn''t going to happen any time soon. But it is something to work towards in the future. I go to sleep that day thinking about the plans for the future. The first thing I should do is give someone leadership of the troops until the next war breaks out. I will be too busy experimenting and getting stronger to lead it myself. I still need to redesign the charisma based stat and learn new classes from everyone. Teaching the pirates and making more ships for them should also be a priority. They are my weakest troops right now but teaching them another class will boost the overall power of my army tremendously. Perhaps I should also start breaking off separate groups of each part of my army to form elite squads of each group. The only exception being the healers who will all be put through rigorous training. The more skilled a healer is the less likely people will die around them. With that, the celebration is over¡­ I wake up that night hearing the door creak open. If Leaf is an extremely heavy sleeper, I am the opposite. Even the sound of a door creaking open is enough to wake me. No one else has a key to this room and it is locked. No one should be able to enter, so I instinctively jump up and catch eyes with someone¡­ Someone I''ve never seen before¡­ The look of surprise on their face is the only features I can make out in the dark. The fog from my eyes quickly clears up as they run out of the doorway and I jump out of bed to chase after them. I barely catch a glimpse of them as they run through the hallway. It is a child sized person. I chase down the hallway and when I round the corner they are far closer. My speed is just too much for any person to beat. They are still faster than most. I catch up to them and grab the collar of their shirt and lift them up. I can now see them as they squirm around and start to yell. ¡°You lout, let me go!¡± The closer I look¡­ This is a little human girl, she is dressed in rags. Her matted hair shows signs of being unkempt. Like the person who was supposed to be keeping track of her hygiene hasn''t in the slightest. She doesn''t appear to have anything wrong with her¡­ I finally begin interrogating her. ¡°Why were you trying to sneak into my room?¡± ¡°Let me go you rapscallion. You killed my parents so I have come to claim your head!¡± I just now noticed that she has some type of weapon in her hand. I instinctively go to grab it but I had once again forgotten that I cant use my other hand. I feel a sharp pain in my side as she stabs into me¡­ It isn''t as bad as I thought it would be but I can feel a poison on it¡­ It isn''t a poison though¡­ The familiar toxin I had ingested before tries to course through me. She must have noticed I sleep naked because she panics and drops her weapon before screaming. "W-w-why are you naked you naive?" "I just sleep naked." She is more surprised by the fact that I can still move and speak after her attack. If I hadn''t started to become immune to this. I would have been in trouble. She could have continued to stab me until it was too late. I quickly wrap her up with my spider silk. She looks at me confused now. ¡°The toxin should have paralyzed you! How can you still move?¡± I''m too tired to deal with this right now. I''ll talk to her tomorrow... Hmm... She appears to be hungry so I set her down and pull out the chunk of the sugar bread I was saving for myself. Letting one of her hands free to eat it... She eyes it up, seeing if it is poisoned or not... Her hunger is too great for her to care. She starts eating it with uninhibited joy. I pick her up again by the spider silk rope and finally speak. ¡°Can we talk about this tomorrow? I''m very tired from today.¡± I lock her up in a jail cell before heading to sleep. Chapter 151 Tying up loose ends The next morning I wake up and head to get breakfast. Heading to the jail cells to talk to the would-be assassin while I eat. Entering the room I notice many scratch marks around the cell doors lock. It appears that her hands were too small to loop around the door and pick the lock¡­ If she would have woken me up again or caused problems¡­ It is actually good to learn, two people have attempted to break out of the cells. Perhaps changing the locking mechanisms will be a part of what I do in the future. I have guards but they were most likely asleep during her escape attempt. She is sleeping. Getting a better look at her with candle light striking her. I guess she is about 7 or 8 years old. Around the age I was when I started my adventure. I wake her up, we eat breakfast in silence. She doesn''t doubt my food this time. Instead just enjoying it, nothing fancy just some meat and bread with a bit of the drippings spread over it. She finally starts to talk after eating. ¡°I don''t understand you. One minute you kill dozens of pirates. No emotion on your face and then the next you treat a captive to a nice breakfast. You must be a fool to assume this is enough to win me over.¡± ¡°No, I just want to hear your story before I make any decisions. Torturing you would be the fastest way but I have a soft spot for children.¡± She stares at me unwavering. The thought of torture must have crossed her mind¡­ She is still young¡­ That steely determination is mostly reserved for adults¡­ She must have been through a lot in her lifetime already to be undeterred by what I just said. ¡°Well, moving on¡­ What is your name and where are you from?¡± She scoffs at me. ¡°Like you don''t know you clown.¡± ¡°I don''t, that is why I am asking.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ It doesn''t look like you are lying¡­ We''ve met before¡­ You were cutting a group of pirates meant to protect me apart then leaning down and rubbing my head¡­ My hair is still covered in the blood of my comrades. You asked where Gold was and after I collapsed from the shock of all the deaths you just left. I was so horrified by the situation I didn''t know what to do, so I just waited¡­ I waited until I knew you were gone, then I started gathering information.¡± This little girl seems more like a robot than a human being¡­ Like how I was when I was a child. I''ll have to ask some leading questions to see if there is anything wrong with her. ¡°I asked for your name earlier, do you have one?¡± ¡°Pfft, only an imbecile would answer every question their tormentor would ask them.¡± ¡°If you wont give your name¡­ Why do you want to kill me?¡± ¡°To avenge my family and my patron Gold you slaughtered. She was grooming me to be her protegee and future assistant and royal envoy¡­ You killed my parents in your first attack against the island. She just threw me away after she changed¡­ No food for days¡­ Then you kill her, the person who had brought me from my predicament of normality. I was taught to walk properly, talk properly... She even had plans of who I was going to marry in the future all for the sake of her plan.¡± For some reason. She poured her heart out to me. After not giving me her name, she gave me so much other information¡­ Without even much prompting either. I think she is just upset, most of her life must have been preparing for this thing. This list of things that Gold had planned to happen already. With Gold''s death¡­ Now her life might feel meaningless. That brings me to my next question. ¡°So what are you going to do now? I mean your life has all been working towards a goal that is impossible for you to continue striving for.¡± ¡°...¡± She begins to cry. Oh shit, I forgot that she is still just a child. She''s only 7 years old, of course she would be upset easily like that. She cries for awhile. Noticing my concern she finally speaks. ¡°H-hah! I tricked you into sympathizing with me. I knew you would feel bad for me if I cried you cretin.¡± It was clearly a farce to try to protect herself from her own feelings. She calms down and speaks after she has finished crying. ¡°I¡­ I don''t know what to do now. I gave myself an objective to kill you. I don''t think I can. Maybe get stronger and then kill you¡­ That will take forever though¡­ I don''t know what to do.¡± She looks defeated. I don''t know what to tell her¡­ ¡°Well¡­ Your attempt on my life was a very good one. That toxin would have given you the chance to kill anyone else besides me.¡± ¡°Wait you know about the toxin I used!? How did you live through that?¡± ¡°I have resistance to most things. I''ll keep it vague since you want to kill me but I''m completely immune to poison so don''t try that.¡± What do I do? How do I take care of her¡­ Killing her almost seems like the right thing to do. I don''t know¡­ It would feel wrong to have a child as a prisoner. I''m about to let her out and send her out of the fortress as Trice comes barging into the room. ¡°You had an assassination attempt on your head and you couldn''t tell anyone about it!? I had to hear it from my informorman-¡­ Whose the little girl?¡± ¡°That would be my would-be assassin.¡± Trice just stares at her for a moment, the realization that she made a huge deal out of a child attempting to kill me is sinking in. She finally says. ¡°Look how filthy she is, you should have taken her to the hot springs before putting her in a prison cell. Do you not have any clean cloths either? I think I have something that will fit you.¡± Trice takes her away¡­ I still don''t even know the little girls name¡­ She tried to assassinate me, I''m not sure if I''m worried about it or not. I don''t think she will be a threat any time soon, so I just ignore it for now. Perhaps in the future if it becomes a problem, I will deal with it then. The day passes by without anything else exciting happening. It was the first peaceful day I''ve had since the war. One where I could just relax and let my body go through the motions again. The next day, I get to work on making Gobber the leader of the army. Giving him leadership will allow me to work on other things while the army remains in fighting condition for the upcoming war. He begins to rush people through the new obstacle course that is built. I told him to look for the best men of each troop and invite them to the elite squad. Special training will be done to increase their overall skill. The rest of the army can rely on the better trained in times of need. Next, I head to Trice. The little girl is now dressed in more boyish cloths then before. She was wearing a dress that was ripped and tattered, covered in mud and completely ruined. For someone who was being trained to be Gold''s assistant. She sure made a mess out of that dress quickly¡­ I think now, it was probably dirtied primarily the last few days. Hiding from me and doing research on where I slept¡­ She would make a surprisingly good assassin in the future if she can get over the fact that I killed her parents... Her name is Duchess, she dislikes me (obviously) and after talking with her. She has a fondness of sweet things. Trice had kept a few chocolate bars from her training in the time tree like myself and gave Duchess one. That is how she got most of the information out of her, through bribery. I spend about an hour trying to learn the awakened class from her while Duchess only questions what I can do. I''ll have to teach Trice in secret from Duchess from here on out so she doesn''t learn any classes by accident. Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to teach Duchess the classes she wants.
Would you like to learn Rainbow mage?
Warning! You will lose several other classes by doing so
Yea I already know this¡­ But I stop for a second¡­ Maybe learning so many awakened classes will harm me in the future. They are just so strong I doubt that will happen. I accept. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Awakened class Rainbow mage passive skill gained Rainbow charm- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them
Classes removed Blue mage, Red mage, Yellow mage, Warden, Scholar
Rainbow mage level 1 to 80
Level 1 Rainbow mage passive skill Weapon master- have an almost innate ability to use anything and everything as a weapon, increases the weapons effectiveness in your hands
Level 10 Rainbow mage skill Rainbow focus- apply a special imbuement to your weapon that will permanently strengthen it with three types of magic and anti magic(replaces infused anti magic runes)
Level 25 Rainbow mage skill Rainbow beam- Attack with a beam of energy (can be fired out as magic, strengthening an arrow or increasing the length of your sword strike)
Level 50 Rainbow mage skill Mimic- Steal an enemies or monsters ability temporarily to use as your own, can only have one mimic skill
I don''t understand this¡­ Why was warden and scholar picked¡­ I get scholar, it allows you to continue learning and getting stronger through consuming books¡­ Shouldn''t more classes of color be mixed into this combination? I don''t understand why warden was picked though¡­ I try to think, think of a reason why it would have been picked over other classes¡­ I can''t think of anything, nothing comes to mind. I ask Trice. ¡°I''m not sure myself¡­ I think I learned scholar as one of my favorite hobbies is reading, it might also be for the sake of learning from reading to increase my capabilities after I hit max level with the awakened class¡­ Warden is, I guess¡­ For Lance''s sake¡­ We''ve always been lacking on protection skills, even with our great healers. Preventing damage is a far better option then healing it. That my point of view anyways.¡± I guess it all makes sense¡­ That is just the type of person Trice is. The tactical kind, even with the short active time of the shields, she will still find use for them. Removing the classes she had before, she now has scout, spellthief and rainbow mage. Leaving a single class I can still teach her. I say goodbye to her as Trice begins to go over everything that Duchess knows. I meet up with Leaf to learn her new awakened class as well¡­ I''m slightly more excited for this one then Trice''s, just because I''ve seen what Leaf has done with it.
Would you like to learn Sage?
Warning! You will lose several other classes by doing so
I agree¡­ At the potential regret in the future I agree.
Awakened class Sage passive skill Sage''s knowledge- Retain all the skills you would gain from the component classes, also strengthening them
Classes removed White mage, Black mage, Illusionist, Warlock, Time mage
Sage level 1 to 82
Level 1 Sage skill Sage''s Aura- Increase the intelligence of all allies around you (doesn''t stack with intelligence ballad)
Level 10 Sage passive skill Sages power- as your mana decreases, your magic attack power increases
Level 25 Sage skill Combo magic- Cast along with another spell to triplicate it''s effect (10 minute cool down)
Level 50 Sage passive skill Expand magic- The more mana put into a spell, the larger it becomes
I don''t get it¡­ I understand why 3 of the 5 classes were picked. It feels like scholar should have been added to this awakened class as well¡­ Maybe you can''t have the same class as part of it? Why was warlock and illusionist picked though? I''m not sure¡­ I once again ask Leaf why these two classes per part of the classes chosen. ¡°I''m not sure¡­ I thought maybe a dexterity or strength base class would have been added.¡± ...Alright, that makes even less sense to me now. I know that Leaf is strong but it would be for the best if she focused on staying in the back of the group where it is the safest instead of going into melee range. Leaf needs to stay safe and it seems like I''m the only one who cares about this. If she asks me to teach her strength or dexterity based classes later¡­ I''ll have to turn her down. With all this stuff out of the way I can start working on changing the charisma stat¡­ It just sounds weird to me, I was given a purpose by god to fix a mistake he made¡­ It is just surreal. Everyone, in the entire world, for the past few centuries hasn''t been given this job. Other gods haven''t been given this job¡­ Why was I chosen? I still don''t understand it but I''ll do it anyways. The lives that will be bettered by this will be immense. Most people don''t even realize they have a broken class like Zeke. So I''ll start reworking it tomorrow. I spend the rest of the day just visiting everyone then go to sleep. Chapter 152 Making changes The next few weeks I start doing several things. Also helping the pirates refill their fleet of ships with new, improved ships. I teach them all an extra class. I have to teach them in pairs of around 100 as to not run myself out of fatigue points. I leveled my blood knight and necromancer to 25. I really want to make sure I don''t make any mistakes with the charisma stat. I''ve been primarily working on the plans for the redesigned charisma stat the past few weeks. The biggest problem with charisma is the effect it has. With only improving looks by some unknown, unspecified amount, it is hard to tell how useful it actually is. Changing the stat to be more helpful to everything would be for the best, especially for me. Most of the time the charisma based classes are secondary, only a few people would have 2 of them. So perhaps a buff to the other stats would be best. That seems too strong though, it would be very finicky to perfect the amount. Too little and it would just be better to go with another of the primary stat classes. Too much and it would make everyone who could choose their second class pick a charisma based one. I decide against that for now. The first thing I should do is group the classes that are charisma based or seem out of place in their current stat priority to charisma. Writing a list¡­ I pick out blood knight, bard, pirate, saboteur, warden, necromancer, and paladin. I try to find something that is similar for each class. Blood knight and necromancer are still low level so it is hard to judge off those. Each seems to be good for helping others, sort of like all the buff based classes. Just having charisma boost the effects of buffs would be boring¡­ I sort of expect the Greater god to be bored if I do that¡­ It has to be special, something that is just perfect for the classes. I''ve also been thinking of something else¡­ Each stat has a resource linked to it while charisma doesn''t. Coming up with a resource might help me decide on the final changes to the charisma stat. I design the resource. It will be called insight. Unlike other resources, this one will be used to supplement the other resources. Each class gives a set amount of insight of 3. You can use an insight to increase the potency of the spell. An example would be if you were to use a heal. You could strengthen it with insight. Doubling the effect with no extra cost besides the insight. Insight will be completely restored every hour. So I myself have 21 insight¡­ That seems sort of broken for my class¡­ The Greater god might see it as the same way¡­ Perhaps a different method of strengthening should be used instead. Perhaps something that changes the way everything works instead of just a few classes would be best for the charisma stat. Sort of like how dexterity also increases dodge¡­ I just can''t think of anything. 2 weeks have passed since the celebration. One day during a soak in the hot springs it finally hits me. Charisma should be able to reduce the cool downs of spells. So if a spell has a 10 minute cool down. Charisma might be able to shave off 10-20% of the time it would normally take. If charisma is shortening cool downs. I think it should also lengthen duration based spells, maybe by the same amount¡­ Warden''s shields just don''t last long enough, this might combat the problem with it. Because of these changes, I''ve decided to make insight work differently. Insight will be based on your charisma at a 1 to 1 ratio. So if you have 1500 charisma you also have 1500 insight. Each spell can be lengthened or shortened by 1 second for 10 insight. This allows you to lengthen a warden shield for over 2 minutes with all my insight. Approximately 150 seconds to be exact. If I use insight to shorten a cool down. The insight can only shorten it by up to half the cooldown. So if it is a 10 second cool down skill. It will still take 5 seconds to fully cool down even with the aid of 50 insight. I think that is too confusing for newcomers of the stat¡­ It is fine for me but I''m already good with using confusing systems. Stupid people would have difficulty managing their insight and another resource. This should be good for a secondary class but also helpful if both classes are charisma based¡­ I''ve decided to remove the insight portion, doubling the effect that charisma would have. So instead of 10-20% cool down reduction, it will be 20-40%. ...It''s still so boring though¡­ Changing inspiration back to being a few but special amount. Instead of 3, it will be 1 inspiration per class. To bypass the fact that some people might never use it. It will automatically boost the next skill used if they drop below 25% health. This way even people who didn''t understand it would still get the benefit from it. 7 insight isn''t much. It is still 7 moves I can strengthen to double their power¡­ It is still too strong. I reduce the amount boosted to 50%¡­ That seems like a fair amount. Doubling the power or length of a skill just seems too unfair in any aspect of it. 40% increased duration of the warden shields, then boosting the time 50% more would result in a shield that would last 15-20 seconds depending on the exact amount boosted. That is still better than what it was previously. The shields would be able to absorb multiple spells or attacks if they last that long. I still feel it is missing something¡­ Something special¡­ I rack my brain for a few days and just can''t think of anything that would make it special. It should be a unique and interesting stat that people wouldn''t mind having but not overpowered so they want it for that reason. I burn myself out, I can''t think of anything. I go to sleep late and wake up early to try and think of something. I must look like a mess because Leaf questions me. ¡°Hey, are you okay? You''ve been distracted more than usual lately.¡± ¡°I''ve been thinking of changes that might change the future of the world.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ I guess that will do it. You just can''t keep thinking of just that. If you take some time and put your thoughts you might have a breakthrough.¡± I guess that makes sense. I do other things as my head mulls over the idea of changes I can make. I play with the children of the fortress, there are child care people who watch them normally but they always could use extra help. After that I sit in on the elite squads training. They are running until they no longer can, some have already dropped out. Others puke from the intense training and continue running or drop out as well. This training is far too intense for most people to handle. The healers have the hardest time with this new training. All of them are forced into it, with their low fatigue points, most have already dropped out. They''ll keep doing it until they can handle running for a very long time. They will be taught unarmed combat, weapons training as well as jobs if they can. They will be more like the jacks of all trades who everyone will rely on in the army. If a healer dies he has failed his mission more than once. Healers need to be the strongest... The best of any army to help mitigate losses. I crawl into bed that night just enjoying a day off¡­ That single line I thought of. ¡°Jack of all trades¡± got me thinking. Most people only ever focus on a single stat, one of the major 4. Strength, intelligence, dexterity and stamina. Everything else will remain low because of this. Charisma should level out these stats. If charisma also boosted the lowest stat by a portion of itself, we would have far more diverse groups. Healers who put forth more effort than everyone else could rush into battle and fight evenly with everyone else. Dexterity based classes would also hit harder and be harder to kill. Mages would become less of a glass cannon class. Tanks would be faster, stronger and smarter to help backup the group¡­ It seems almost brokenly strong but it isn''t. It will only make the worst part of someone better. With everyone''s overall stats raising, you would also see many improvements to secondary stats like dodge, movement speed, fatigue points and other stats. The groups dynamic might completely change¡­ The hardest part comes now¡­ How do I balance it? If I make it too strong, most people would go for the charisma classes once again. Too weak and it wouldn''t be very noticeable¡­ I decide that every 5 charisma boosts the lowest stat by 1. So if someone had 1000 charisma they would have 200 extra stats in their weak ones. So if someone had low dexterity and intelligence. They would be faster and smarter than normal. This amount seems like the perfect amount for not being too strong. The charisma stat has a lot of built in utility. I''m very happy with the changes I decided upon. So every 1000 charisma you get, you will get 200 extra stats. 20% reduced cool downs and buff durations. Finally 1 inspiration point per charisma based class that will automatically activate at 25% health if not used and regenerates every hour. What I expected would take a day or two has taken weeks of work has boiled down to so little information¡­ I can understand why someone would give up on this¡­ I still haven''t even redesigned the classes yet¡­ I''m not sure if I''m allowed too¡­ We''ll just have to see, I''ll do it then the Greater god can choose weather or not he''ll accept their changes. I think that just as I go to sleep. I''m woken up by Leaf that night. ¡°Kite! Wake up! We''re under attack by hundreds of dragons! We need you to tame them all or we will all be dead!¡± I jump out of be panicked and open the door. There is nothing on the other side but fire! What happened!? Why are we under attack!? Leaf starts laughing hysterically at this¡­ It takes a few seconds to realize it is the Greater god messing with me. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK MAN!¡± ¡°HAHAHA, I''m just pissing with you. So I see you are finished with charisma. I''ve already made the changes to the classes, you inspired me to make the changes. You should look at them after you wake up. So¡­ Let''s talk about your payment...¡± Stolen novel; please report. He pulls out 2 chests again¡­ Damn it! Why does he always have to make things into a game like this. ¡°I don''t really need a reward, the classes being fixed is enough for me.¡± ¡°Bullshit! One of these boxes will help you far more in the future.¡± ¡°...I don''t want either¡­ I don''t want to be indebted to you more. You''ve already given me the time tree and castle mimic which I rely on completely¡­ Accepting the help of a god shouldn''t be fine for normal people to do.¡± He heavily sighs before continuing to speak. ¡°You''re so boring. You''re so predictable now¡­ When you were a child I wasn''t sure what you would do but now I can predict you so easily. Here...¡± He opens one box and the contents inside are a key. He uses the key to unlock the other box that reveals a sealed scroll case¡­ Now I''m intrigued¡­ He hands it to me and begins to speak with a very bored tone in his voice. ¡°Here you go, you can open this when you aren''t so boring. Until then, it will remained locked with no hope of opening¡­ I can''t wait until you can open it¡­ You''ll be fun to watch again.¡± He punches me and I wake up from the shock of it. My cheek still hurts from his punch¡­ What the shit man!? I go to check my stats before I hear a voice in my head. The voice must have been heard by Leaf because she also wakes up. ¡°ATTENTION! This is the Greater god speaking. Some new changes are coming with a new stat being introduced to help certain classes more. I realized it was unfair to people with certain classes that were weaker than other classes. So I spent an entire night making changes to the stat system. Those of you with any of these classes will notice a slight boost in performance from them. I''m going to allow anyone who isn''t max level to see the top level skills for today only. Memorize them as they might be helpful in the future. This is the Greater god signing out.¡± ¡­Of course he would take credit for everything. I check my classes and none have changed except the 7 listed. Charisma based classes
Blood knight- passive skill gained Bloody strength- attacks are strengthened with the assistance of blood (uses your own unless you''ve drawn the enemies blood), passive stat increase charisma Level 1 passive skill Blood strike- every single attack against an opponent that draws blood strengthens the next attack Level 10 skill Vampire strikes- attacks that draw the blood of enemies can be used to restore lost health (combines with Drink blood to make Blood tap) Level 25 skill Blood weapon- create a floating weapon out of blood that will assist you in fighting and will grow in size as it absorbs the blood of enemies Level 50 skill Desecrated ground- corrupt the area around you, while undead monsters are on this land they gain a boost to all stats (permanent unless consecrated) Level 100 skill Create blood crystal- can store the blood of enemies and be crushed to use for attacks or the restoration of insight if needed
Bard- passive skill gained is Insightful recovery- Regenerate all of your energy when an insight is used Level 1 skill Strength ballad- play a song that increases the strength of all allies that hear it Level 10 skill Intelligence ballad- play a song that increases the intelligence of allies that hear it Level 25 skill Dexterity ballad- play a song that increases the dexterity of allies that hear it Level 50 skill Stamina ballad- play a song that increases the stamina of allies that hear it Level 100 skill Inspiration- play a song that will boost the morale of allies that hear it (morale boost gives a small amount of regen) Combines into the awakened Champion class
Pirate- passive skill gained Treasure finding- can find more items and gold than normal, gives you a feeling when hidden gold is around, passive stat increase critical strike damage Level 1 passive skill Ship fighting- remove the penalties for fighting on ships, also gain a dexterity boost while fighting on boats Level 10 skill Plunder- attack an enemy with the attempt to disarm them and take weapons and armor from them (upgrades to Stealing strikes) Level 25 skill Persuade- use insight to gain a huge advantage in convincing someone through talking Level 50 passive skill Water combat- greatly improves your fighting capabilities in water Level 100 skill Pirates charisma- increases your charisma by a portion of your dexterity
Saboteur- passive skill Play dumb- harder for even experienced interrogators to read you, can easily act like a fool if necessary, passive stat increase dodge Level 1 skill Expose weakness- attempt to find the weak point in a person or object, bigger/better/stronger objects or people take longer to find the weak point of Level 10 skill Exploit weakness- attack the found weakness of an enemy, damage done and critical strike chance doubled Level 25 skill Subterfuge- use insight for a huge advantage in confusing an opponent, increasing the chances of them missing and you landing strikes Level 50 skill Wire tap- place a mark on an opponent that allows you to hear them even from long distances (constantly drains energy) Level 100 skill Sleep attack- attempt to kill a sleeping opponent, damage done and critical strike chance doubled (stacks with Exploit weakness)
Warden- passive skill Insight boost- Increases insight by 4 instead of 1 and your defensive spells length is tripled from using insight, passive stat increase to mana Level 1 skill Shield- casts a defensive shield that reduces physical damage Level 10 skill Shell- casts a defensive shell that reduces magic damage Level 25 skill Absorption shield- cast a shield that will absorb magic if cast at you and turn it into mana (much shorter duration than shell) Level 50 skill Magic link- link yourself with an ally, splitting damage they would take Level 100 skill Guardian angel- cast a permanent guardian angel on a single person, protecting them from a deadly attack once (only one guardian angel can be cast at a time) Combines into the awakened Rainbow mage class
Paladin- passive skill Charismatic- doubles the speed at which insight is restored (30 minutes for full restoration), passive stat increase to charisma Level 1 skill Mock- use insight to provoke the enemy into making a mistake (can make the target attack you if it fails) Level 10 skill Rallying cry- use insight to increase the regeneration of all nearby allies Level 25 skill Smite evil- attack that deals 8 times more damage to undead targets (combines with Weaken undead to make Turn undead) Level 50 skill Lay on hands- heals all health and negative effects of a single ally, need to be in contact with them (1 day cool down) Level 100 skill Consecrate ground- attempt to purify the area around you, while undead monsters are on this land they suffer heavy penalties to all stats (permanent improvement unless corrupted, if insight is used provides a buff to the paladin as well)
Necromancer- passive skill gained Blood magic- can use health as a resource for casting magic, passive stat increase charisma Level 1 skill Reanimate dead- turn a corpse into a controllable puppet Level 10 skill Mana leech- very slowly absorb the mana of an enemy Level 25 skill Promote undead- use insight to increase the rank of a single undead, boosting its stats permanently or until another undead is promoted Level 50 skill Bone armor- pull the bones out of nearby corpses that will deflect attacks and projectiles Level 100 passive skill Phylactery creation- Create a vessel to house your soul after death to become a lich, drawback includes the loss of your humanity over time
The changes to each class makes sense. The warden''s new passive seems a bit strong, I lose some mana for far more utility in that class. Tripling the active time of each shield would put it around 1 minute shields. So for one minute you could mitigate 25% of the physical damage or magical damage any one person would take¡­ Against strong enemies with the potential to kill in a single strike this seems to be godly. Although far less effective than healing against multiple enemies who are all slowly wearing down a multiple people¡­ It does seem slightly overpowered for someone like me with multiple insight. I now have 10 insight with the warden passive skill. With the reaction from Leaf¡­ I assume everyone knows about the changes now. Chapter 153 Enjoying the downtime I''ve been testing a few things and I plan on starting to write books for the future. Over the past month, we''ve finished making all the new pirate ships. Our fleet now consists of 10 of each type of ship. I''ve got the designs for a new ship in mind but unless we go to war with a naval enemy they are unnecessary. The black turtles are going to act as our frontal assault group once the war starts. If they are powered, they can act as transport for hundreds of troops as well as add to the strength of the fighting force later. The war is still going to happen eventually¡­ What I had accomplished against Gold might change the time it happens. It could be sooner or later depending on when they find out. Most of the elite squads of each group are finishing. The poor healers who have been put through the most rigorous training don''t even appear to be the same people. I had to break up a fist fight between 2 healers and 5 of the demon folk tribe where the healers were winning the fight. The changes towards the charisma based classes effected the healers the most¡­ Rounding out their stats and giving them special training made them a force to be reckoned with. After a month of killing fish to collect philosopher''s stone, I''m now satisfied with the amount. Moving all of the animals and automatons into the castle mimic. I have it submerged into the philosopher''s stones. With my being inside to see the effects¡­ It is as I predicted, it rains the philosopher''s stone¡­ But sort of like a diluted version of it. I think if I had enough, allowing each monster to drink one would have more of an effect. This is the best choice for strengthening all of my monster troops at once¡­ All of the automatons and even the time tree looked to have been strengthened. The insides of the castle mimic also expand to be about another 50 feet in each direction. Except for the castle mimic, I wouldn''t say they were strengthened the same amount as using a philosopher''s stone on each one though. I''ve also been thinking of making a new set of troops. A sort of tanky explosives troop. Cutting out about 50 tanks from the group. I pair them off with the porcupine monsters that the beast riders had tamed. They didn''t see any action in the war, so I''ve been thinking about what to do with them. Each person will be able to either wear the porcupine on their back or use them as a shield. The quills are very strong. At least strong enough to stop a sword being swung at someone. Then if things get too bad or they are outnumbered, they can make the porcupines release their quills at the enemy. This is at an increased radius of effect as the porcupines would normally shoot most of their payload into the air. Morpheus returned after a few more weeks. His return trip had taken him far longer then his trip to his home. With him, he brought several more changlings. I greet them all but they can''t understand me. Morpheus has to translate¡­ Morpheus told me to pretend I was a follower of the god of death¡­ After showing them my arm, they all believed me. Speaking of arm¡­ I did it, with supervision around I decided to use my lich form. During this process only my arm changed. Blue magic coursed through the cracks in the skin as I could use my arm at full power again, maybe even more powerful than before. Being in lich form makes me closer to Wrath though¡­ I can almost feel him pushing through when I go into partial lich form. He hasn''t spoken since he had tried to take over my body during the contest. Lance¡­ He and Trice both left, Trice taking Duchess with her. He is going to try and become a high ranking officer before the war starts to make a name for himself. Trice following because they are finally a couple. I hope the best for them and they will always be welcome back but¡­ It feels like my brother and sister are leaving me to find something better¡­ With him leaving a chain of events also happened. Around 50 of the demon folk left to try to find another tribe the could join in the north east. Epieoth stayed, most likely out of the feeling of debt. Losing 50 demon tribe folk is a heavy hit to our troops. Most of them being done with war, even some of the ones who remain at the fortress no longer plan to fight a war they don''t care about. The elementalists on the other hand¡­ As peaceful as they are, they want revenge against the country that betrayed them. Especially Green, I think she''ll play a big role in the upcoming war. Even some of my pets have left for now¡­ 4 of my pets left to speak with the elemental lords of this land. Red, Blue, Purple and Pokodo all left to find their elemental lords¡­ I hope they return safely, they will all be traveling through the central continent to meet their leaders. They will be strengthened by their leaders after declaring submission to them¡­ The rules that elemental rulers are slightly different than other monsters. Any elemental can challenge the leader to become the next elemental lord. It is too early¡­ Someday I hope they can become the pinnacle of their element. The leader of the kobolds was chosen. It was the big one who made it into the top 32 of the unarmed combatants¡­ I think his name was Tikki. He isn''t fit to be a leader as he is actually quite shy. I ask for the person who took leadership and led the group who brought the black turtle onto the battlefield to come speak with me. A much smaller, far weaker kobold comes forwards¡­ He has a look in his eye that shows the same brains as the previous leader. I make this kobold the adviser and his name was Tok. He just so happens to be a relative of Shikki. A grandson of Shikki''s brother or something. I also told them that I am not a god. If they make any sacrifices like they did before, I will no longer want them to be a part of my army. We''ve already lost enough people, losing more to sacrificial attacks would be too hard for my heart to handle. I found out that the children Nami is taking care of weren''t her children but her siblings¡­ I feel so stupid for not realizing it until now. It wasn''t important, it just made me feel stupid for not realizing sooner. The ninja''s have all started getting accustomed to their new life here. Several have started taking part in training and the few who have tested all passed the elite squad training with flying colors. Gargarz approached me one night and asked for a special automaton to be made for him. After hearing he wanted one that could protect him I offered him Tank (Gizmo¡¯s brother) but he didn''t want it¡­ He wanted something more feminine, I decided to make one for him but after hearing the specifications I couldn''t¡­ Many of thing things he wanted added are just above the technology we can pull off at the moment. I tried to introduce him to some girls instead but he was almost terrified to the point in not being able to speak¡­ I feel bad for him but their isn''t a quick fix to his situation¡­ I made some adjustments to my Gear again. Adding a stomach cannon that acts like an actual mana cannon. His feet can now drill into the ground for this set-up as if he doesn''t he is launched backwards several feet and he sometimes falls over. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I''ve been trying to redesign a smaller, more easily usable version of Gear for my other generals. These Minigear''s will attach directly to their arm. It will function as a third arm in that sense. Being outfitted with an extendible blade, it can fire up to 4 arrows before reloading and has a built in void bag to throw projectiles. I refuse to teach these hands anything and I keep them far away from myself after they are made. I don''t want any to become sentient¡­ A life like that where you are just worn and can''t do anything for yourself is no way to live. Speaking of which¡­ Leaf and Aegis are getting along well. I sometimes catch Leaf making faces as if she is having a private conversation like I used to. He is still fairly big and I had to custom tailor Leaf''s robes so he could fit more easily without catching and tugging on her clothing. They even developed a cool combination move that Leaf called ¡°rocket punch¡±. It is just Aegis firing himself off of Leaf with her help, she produces a mana arrow inside him and fires it to speed him up. The power isn''t very strong right now¡­ It could prove useful in certain situations though. I''ve started a subcommittee of all the smart generals to talk about future plans and problems arising in the army. Swift has asked for aid in gaining books for our library and perhaps expanding the portals to other regions of our continent more. I agree with him and we begin sending squads out to place more teleport scrolls in each town. I send one to my grandpa Grey''s house¡­ Once the envoy gets there I speak with Grey. After discussing everything that has happened since I was last there. When I get to the part with the awakened classes he looks surprised. Finally stating. ¡°That is surprising¡­ I''m not sure teaching you this will work but I do have a secret skill you might be able to learn¡­ I wanted you to get stronger before you attempted anything to do with this skill¡­ So I wanted to wait to teach it to you, so you didn''t get any stupid ideas.¡± He begins to explain the secret skill.
Secret Warrior passive skill Dragon slayer- Increased damage dealt to all dragonkin, decreased damage taken from dragonkin
...What a powerful skill. My grandfather was wrong, if he had taught me before I wouldn''t have used this skill even if I had the chance¡­ I''m not foolish enough to fight a dragon¡­ Darkclaw is now the size of a 100 year old dragon¡­ There are dragons that are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Some almost the size of mountains¡­ To fight against something that strong would take an army¡­ And there wouldn''t be anything to show for fighting them. Most of the old dragons are smart enough to stay away from civilizations. To avoid a senseless death they could avoid¡­ Some don''t have that fear though¡­ I doubt in my lifetime I wont use this skill though¡­ I have no doubt that it will happen. That I will be forced to fight one for the sake of my army. Dragons are attracted to treasure and I have plenty of it. I talk to him some more, teaching him the druid class to make growing plants easier. He was surprised by this, I offered him a spot at my fortress but he refused. His life as an adventurer is over, he just wants to grow crops peacefully now since that is his passion. It got me thinking of my passion¡­ The love of running a dungeon, the thrill of finding something new and interesting¡­ I''ve been so caught up in this war that I have been neglecting those two things. I need to get back to inventing and adventuring. I head back to the fortress that night with renewed love for those two things. The next few days more and more people continue to leave the army¡­ A group of lizard men left to go on an adventure to the south continent. More demon folk left to join the group that went to search for more demon tribes. They all had taken a portal scroll so I can visit and they can ask for help but I doubt I will see them unless they really need help. The numbers that left now equal around 100. Leon also decided to leave. Him leaving was hard on me... More and more of my generals are leaving for their own goals. He left to search for the cure to his ghoulification. Kline also left with him, I guess Silky wanted to see more of the world and it is a good opportunity for that. I feel a little better that a healer decided to travel with Leon but yet another one of my generals have left. I don''t know if they''ll return safely or not. I''ve sent a few of my troops to higher level raid dungeons. In a few weeks, we''ll be able to train more off of bosses again. At our current strength¡­ I would say we are at about tier 4 raids. They go up to tier 6 to my knowledge. Tier 6 raid dungeons would give you more than enough wealth for every participant to retire. Often times, tier 6 raid dungeons are done with army size groups that throw 15 members in at a time to challenge bosses. Many lose their lives in the process but if a single raid boss is managed to be killed the rewards could change the tides of a war. It''s been about 2 months since the end of the war now. The vikings managed to make it back to their home. My boats cut the time it had taken them by months. The skeppare I had made the deal with sent a viking through to tell me he is on his way to speak with the jarl and try to get a meeting for me. If I remember correctly, the jarl is in failing health and had sent his skeppare to lead his troops. There might be more than a single jarl and they will fight for my partnership if I let them¡­ I will have to make it clear that I serve no single jarl and that my weapons and supplies can be bought by anyone. With a portal rune at the vikings homeland. I can stock up on faraway supplies. The first step is looking for the white leaf I was told about during their last mission. Flying over the town as a small bird to not alert any of the vikings who had set-up a home here. I find about 2 dozen plants over the period of a few hours. Making sure to take extra special care of them, I plan on making a special room to grow these in so I don''t have to rely on getting a supply from the vikings. I also set-up a portal scroll somewhere in a different location then the portal rune. That way if they ever invade or become hostile, I can still make it back there if I need to. The next few days is setting up a room for the plants. I need to make sure one is male and another is female to start the process of reproducing so I can continue to grow them in the future. I doubt that all 2 dozen of the plants are the same sex. I make a few experimental ice bombs with two of the white leaf plants. Someone I wasn''t expecting to return so early has shown up through the portals¡­ It is the bugbear who I had captured previously, it looks like he is less than a days travel from his village¡­ We start the preparations for this battle again... I start to feel slightly excited but try to calm my nerves so Wrath doesn''t take over. For once, we''re going to have the advantage in this fight with a sneak attack and more numbers then them. Chapter 154 Signs of the next threat We wait until the next morning to strike. That night, we explainthe plans for the attack to my remaining generals and the bugbear. I remember that his name is Bugger after a few moments of awkwardness, the plan is that we will wait until he speaks with them. The plan is that they are going to invade anyways, so if he can get as many as possible outside of the village so there isn''t as much collateral damage to the bugbear''s. He will tell them that he has my corpse hidden somewhere close by and they have to leave the village as there order before. Hopefully some will continue the ruse and leave, at least to the outskirts then he will wheel me forwards¡­ I feel less prepared than I should for this¡­ It is because I am missing a largeportion of my army right now. With the lack of generals, many of the troops are rolled into other groups. It is far less coordinated than it was before. I doubt we will have many casualties. But more generals wouldn''t add to the amount of deaths, only remove from it. The next day comes¡­ We all prepare, slowly my army comes through the portal scrolls. Estimates of the army size are around 400¡­ We''re double their numbers, better equipped, more prepared for this fight than the enemy is¡­ I have no doubt this will be a one sided fight. The goal is to stop any from escaping, if they do we will be forced to chase them down and kill them. If any get away, they can warn the enemy of what we are doing¡­ I want this to be a backdoor for my troops once the war starts. Attacking them from three different angles. They will have to spend more effort on defending towns than they would if I didn''t plan for the future. I have learned my lesson¡­ If none choose to surrender¡­ They will have no quarter in this fight. I will kill all 400 troops if it comes down to it¡­ That sounds like Wrath speaking but¡­ I think it is me¡­ It is becoming harder and harder to tell. Bugger comes back from his discussion¡­ I can see the fear in his eyes¡­ I load myself onto the wagon that he starts to pull¡­ I''m in dragon form, my eyes are closed but I can still see somewhat with my sensory map. I can feel several hundred men on the outskirts of the village now¡­ We pass through the enemy base where the majority of the enemy troopsare¡­ The plan somewhat succeeded, asking beforehand, it seems like many are not wearing armor. Most likely to keep up the ruse that they aren''t going to kill every bugbear after they verify my corpse.I feel some fruit hit me, I almost instinctively react but managed to stop myself. We passby 2 guard posts, each as 2-3 guards in them. I feel an arrow sink into my leg¡­ I take it, no movement, no pain or wincing, I just take it. Then another arrow into my back, this one bounces off my scales. I hear one of the men say. ¡°So, how did you kill him?¡± ¡°I bought a poison with the money the village gave me. I pretended to get captured, then once it became nighttime I stealthily entered his chamber''s while he was sleeping. He didn''t even see the attack coming.¡± ¡°Alright, take the corpse to the middle of the village and we''ll call for the commander to come view it. If it is indeed to corpse of the dragon you will have won the freedom of your village.¡± Detect lies starts going off by what he just said... I already knew but this only confirmed my suspicion.He continues to wheel me towards the center of the village¡­ I can feel the life force of several people around me¡­ I can tell that some of the men who are stationed here are waiting in the houses to ambush the villagers once they know for sure that it isn''t a fake dragon. The leader comes walking out¡­ I hear him speak to Bugger. ¡°Ah, it seems that our little bugbear mercenary is back from his trip to the south. Me and my men had made a bet on weather you would come back alive or not... I guess I owe them some coin later. Now, let me see this creature.¡± He starts to get close¡­ The closer I get the more I feel like he is going to stab me once he gets close enough. I think this farce has gone on long enough. Without giving myself away, I stop the commanderdead in his tracks. I use control blood to stiffen his body up and clamp his mouth shut. Removing the air in the area he is in is difficult but I''ve been practicing spacial air manipulation the past few months. Soon enough the standing captain is no more than a corpse now. I puppet him closer to me and reanimate undead on him¡­ He is now a walking corpse. We wait now¡­ Wait for our troops to attack, the second I hear the sound of fighting I will know it is time tostrike. We wait¡­ And wait, and wait¡­ Where is the sound of fighting? It should have happ-. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The mana cannons we moved into range of the base go off. There it is, I go to jump up but before I do I give a little tap on the void satchel beside me. A dozen of my men come rushing out. Sock being the leader of this group, I fly close to one of the huts that is housing a number of the enemies. I crush a vial and add three scrolls to this attack. KILL, DESTROY! MAIM! FIGHT! Calm down! I need to calm down I think as I light the building on fire. Burning through the wood quick enough to kill everyone inside. I look at the battlefield now. Bugbear''s rush around, not understanding what is going on. Some rush for cover, I see a few ready to fight but without a knowledge on the newenemies. I doubt they will be willing to help us. The door to the other building with enemies in it flies open. I can see now fully armored men come rushing out. At least a dozen if not more are hiding inside. They had about 100 troops hiddeninside the village, I killed the other main building but more continue to flood into the middle of the village. Even more try getting into the village from their huts outside as my army pounds them with cannon fire. I can''t let them take hostages. I need to kill them before they try too. ¡°Let me take over. I promise I''ll kill them all!¡± ¡°No! I can''t, you are too dangerous.¡± ¡°Dangerous to who? I''m only dangerous to your enemies!¡± I can feel his anger building¡­ Then he stops, I feel something different. ¡°I just want to help you Kite, just¡­ Give me an arm, give me the dead arm to use. You can even watch me fight.¡± I¡­ Do I trust him?I give in¡­ I can''t trust him yet but if he can help me¡­ ¡°I swear, if you kill any bugbear''s I will cut my damn arm off!¡± ¡°Fine! We''ll do it your way!¡± I activate partial lich form¡­ A surge of extra powerpours into me. FUCKING AMAZING! This feeling is amazing! I hear in my head again. ¡°Well don''t just stand there, we have some people to protect.¡± I change back into human form, flying at the enemies as the come out of the building, WHAM! I slam into 4 as they exit with enough force to knock them off their feet. I go to reach for my heirloom sword but it is already gone. My other hand moves almost like it isn''t even part of my bodyand cleaves all 4 of their heads off. The two coming out see this, I can see fear in their faces now. They aren''t afraid for very long, my sword is thrown at them. SLAM! Cutting into the wood of the building as the two are cut to pieces, he pulls it back out with an air ball. I hear him speak. ¡°A fire breath inside should finish the rest off. Just hurry up, we''re going to have to defend the entrance to the village or men will start rushing in.¡± I quickly pull a single scroll out of my mouth. Looking into the entrance of the hutstill in human form, I cast a flame breath attack. I hear the sounds of people being burned alive this time. The burst wasn''t enough to instantly vaporize their bodies¡­ They died painfully¡­ Fuck, that is what I was trying to prevent. I hear his voice again. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°They knew what they were getting into when they had taken over this village. Each of these men deserve to die. Remember that you don''t have to put them down that cleanly if it will save your allies lives.¡± ¡°I¡­ We need to stay focused.¡± I take in a deep breath. This battle is almost over already. The few cannon fire shots were all keenly placed. Hundreds were killed before they even realized we were here. The wave of troops had struck the enemy so precisely that they couldn''t counter or even prepare. Most of their deaths were those attempting to put on armor or get into formation before being overrun¡­ If thebattle with the pirateswas one-sided in our favor¡­ I would call this themass slaughter of our enemies. The ones inside ready to fight and kill the villagers once the agreement was done all take a single look at Sock and attempt to run away¡­ They don''t make it very far before they get cut inhalf. In mere minutes the number of enemy occupants of this village went from 400 to somewhere under 50¡­ The strike was so precise it was almost surgical¡­ A clean, overwhelming victory for us. It happened so fast some of the bugbear''s still don''t understand what has happened¡­ Even I''m amazed at the speed in which we killed them¡­ 50 men all sit in a row tied up, I call out of them now. ¡°Of those who are living. Who is the highest ranking one of you.¡± ...No response¡­ Some of the men start crying now, audibly weeping at what has just happened. I see that some of the men have pissed themselves in the attack. Some so scared and denying the reality of what happened they might have gone insane. Others puking at the sight of gore, of their comrades being blown to pieces...Not a single one isn''t shaken up by what had just happened. No response¡­ Before I realize it, Wrath responds for me. ¡°I SAID WHO IS THE HIGHEST RANKING ONE IN THE LIVING!?¡± Some more of the men who hadn''t yet proceed to piss themselves¡­ Damn it Wrath, that isn''t how you ask. ¡°Sorry¡­ I meant, who is representing you. The ones who are still alive.¡± A sniveling man begins to speak. ¡°I¡­ I think I am¡­ You killed the commander¡­ All of his generals¡­ The leader of the archers¡­ And the leader of the frontal assault group¡­ I''m the support officer of the army. Please don''t kill us.¡± ¡°Alright, your men will be taken in as prisoners until this upcoming war is over. Until then¡­ Please don''t do anything to make me regret keeping you alive. I''m sorry for the show of force but it helps you realize what kind of situation you are in right now. If you try anything until the war is over you will not live to see tomorrow.¡± ...I felt that Wrath had controlled some of what I had said¡­ How? I''ve always had to give permission to the trait in order for them to speak. This trait is just different¡­ He can do whatever he wants if he fights against me hard enough¡­ If I let my anger get the best of me, he will win. Wrath speaks to me inside my head. ¡°That isn''t how it is Kite. I only want what is best for you. If a single one of those troops would have taken a hostage you would have just let him waltz out of the base just for them to kill the hostage as we chase them. Killing them quickly was the only way to stop it.¡± ¡°How¡­ How can you possibly know that?¡± ¡°I know that because that is what I would have done to survive. I would have killed this whole village if it guaranteed my safety¡­ If it meant Leaf''s safety¡­ I''d abandon your entire army to protect her.¡± ¡°¡­ I¡­ I know I should be upset with that¡­ I know I should tell you that isn''t the right thing to do¡­ But in all honesty¡­ I''d burn a thousand villages to the ground to protect her.¡± ¡°Then why didn''t you take the Greater god''s treasures?¡± ¡°He doesn''t care about Leaf, he never has, he only cares for me. I think¡­ If I picked one of those chests¡­ It just feels if I keep relying on him for favors they will come back to haunt me later¡­ Owing a favor to a god is far worse than anything he could have given me.¡± ¡°You really think he would take that much of a detour around screwing you over?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ I don''t think he has my interest at heart¡­ He wants me to be interesting to watch, something like that means he will try and lead me down paths of tragedy¡­ I think it is the same situation as the castle mimic and time tree¡­ In the end, that time tree could have ruined my life¡­ I could have gotten so caught up in getting stronger that I would just spend a huge portion of my life inside it¡­ I think he gave it to me as a test.¡± ¡°What a roundabout way to screw you over. I don''t know¡­ The time tree just seems too helpful to be anything but that¡­ I''ll leave the thinking to you but if I don''t agree with it, you''re going to hear from me.¡± ¡°Wait¡­ Who are you exactly?¡± ¡°You haven''t figured it out yet? Think back¡­ To all those times when you needed to be more ruthless than your mind would let you¡­ Olaf, the goblin king, the criminal that tried to steal Pokodo, the bandit king¡­ You suddenly became far better at killing at least for brief periods of time¡­ I am you, this trait is the one you removed from this body when Kindness had taken over. I couldn''t fight against you until recently. Until something happened to make you so mad I was reactivated completely.¡± Not a single death happened on our side or the bugbear''s. We had about a dozeninjured but it is far better than any deaths.
Hero 78 to 79
Archer 77 to 80
Master of learning 56 to 59
...I expected to gain more from that fight. There commander must have been a completely useless and inept leader to not have a single secret skill.Perhaps he had one I already have.What a letdown¡­ I hear Wrath speak in my head. ¡°You should take parts of their corpses to absorb later.¡± ¡°...I wont even dignify that with a response.¡± ¡°Why not? It isn''t like you''re going to become a cannibal, it''s a skill.¡± ¡°It just feels wrong. That is as close to being a cannibal you can get besides eating people.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ You need to stop putting limits on what you can do, we would be much stronger if you could break your own rules.¡± ¡°They are my rules for a reason, we need to be an example to everyone around us. If we start eating people it will obviously set a bad example.¡± The next few days we spend making sure that no more soldiers come to attack them while they move locations to my fortress. I''ll have to continue expanding the fortress¡­ We keep getting bigger, thankfully I was prepared this time but I expect that more will show up if I keep fighting. Bugger comes to speak with me¡­ He will become a general in the future and I need one of the bugbear''s to lead their own people¡­ Out of all the bugbears who moved tothe fortress. Most are non combatant''s, about 50 are trained for fighting. Some don''t have any classes¡­ I''ll spend the next few days teaching them. After that, I will just do things I enjoy or need to be done until the next war starts... I''ve known about this upcoming war for years... Compared to the fight with the pirates this is going to be far more messy... My army will only be a small force in a much larger group of men fighting soon. Enemyaghas'' point of view I am sitting in my forward tent near the border to the south. Our armies are slowly working its way here. Within the year, we will make our assault towards the capital. Best case scenario is we kill their king and place a figurehead to lead while our country holds the actual leadership. We will most likely push a peace agreement on them in our favor. The main reason we are going to war is because they had broken our other agreement where they pay tribute to our country. The king is a fool who will be crushed under the might of a stronger army. A man comes rushing in to my tent. ¡°Aghas! We''ve received word from the forces to the west! They haven''t heard back from the pirates in over a month. It seems they might be conspiring against us!¡± ¡°Thank you messenger. Here is a silver for your troubles. Make sure you take this message back to the sultan, you can take one of our horses to make it back more quickly!¡± ¡°S-sir, I am but a humble scout. I do not wish to burden you with-.¡± ¡°Get off it, take the horse and be on your way scout. This is a matter of importance and I expect you to be back within a month with news from the sultan. I''m giving you that horse to ensure your swift travels.¡± The scout scampers out of the room¡­ What are the pirates thinking? At a time like this they drop the contact¡­ That shifty pirate leader must be planning something¡­ I think she might be playing both sides now. I doubt we will get any help from her, at least not directly during the war¡­ This battle might be harder but I still think we can win this. We still outnumber them. I have no doubt the war will be starting sooner because the pirates have stopped responding. If there is no reason to coordinate attacks, there is no reason to wait. Bonus chapter 1 Swift''s point of view We have another meeting to discuss changes to the army. This 1 was to establish the future rules of the army. We went back and forth with plenty of rules. Most were the discussion of a dress code. Rules for infighting between members of the army. We talk of improvements that need to be addressed now and some that can be put on hold for a few months. The meeting is fairly calm and collected during most of it. Some shouting was done but nothing too serious. As for the rules put in place, they go as followed. 1: There is no dress code. It would be impossible to get lizard men to wear armor, same with some of the elementalists. The color of red will be added to any equipment people will wear to show they are part of Kite''s army. After discussing for a very long time (some pushing the color red very hard while Kite wanted a better color for blending in) People pushed it so hard that Kite conceded and the armies color was made red. 2: The rules for infighting in the army are as followed. Any fights will be settled with a fist fight. If any of the participants uses a weapon, they will be put in jail for 1 month. If they kill another member while using a weapon they will be put to death. If the fist fight becomes too violent, all participants will be thrown into jail for a single day to cool their heads off. Some pushed for stricter rules, others pushed for the rules to be looser. This was the middle ground for what people were pushing for. 3: The hierarchy was established. Going from Kite as the leader, generals next, captains chosen by the generals, sub captains to lead smaller groups, elite troops and regular troops. The rules each can give are varied between the ranks. A general will act as a leader to everyone in their group they are leading but still following the orders of Kite when he can give them. The generals are allowed to make their own decisions with their troops. The single rule being that they aren''t allowed to put their troops in unnecessary danger or try suicide missions. Discussing the changes that need to be done first. The biggest being the construction of gear for the pirates and bugbears. It will be a heavy task but they are the least geared, newest and weakest troops currently. Kite has been discussing his plans for gaining more troops before the war starts, so this might be put on hold until the full army has been gathered. Kite had put forth most of the ideas of improvements that could be made. The construction of giant automatons have been started. Having mobile turtles that can be used as transport, protection and a mobile cannon firing base would be a huge advantage in the war. The construction of 50 black turtles is under way as well as a few prototype mobile bases as well. We''ll have to see what Kite will come up with. The things Kite can do still amaze me. After the meeting, I break off from the group and decide to take the day off. I''ve been very stressed out lately... I need to take my mind off things that have happened... I still need to learn how money works. I head through the portal to the murine folk village. I work my way into the village from the hub house that was given to Kite to store a portal scroll in. I greet some of the guards watching over the house before exiting and trying to buy some things. Each general gets compensated, I need to learn the value of these little different colored circles. I check the shops, this village has become sort of a tourist destination now. Many people visiting and enjoying the company of the murine folk. Buying items while selling others, I walk up to a murine folk woman who is currently cooking food out in the open. I order one of whatever she is making and go to pay before she stops me and says I over payed by a lot. I thank her honesty, I had over payed by 20 times the normal amount. Pulling out 5 copper to pay for the meal, she said she would give me a discount if I ate there more frequently. I may take her up on that offer later. I leave before asking for her name, I have to remember to ask her next time we meet. I buy a few more things, sort of getting an idea of what the value of these little circles are worth now. I feel satisfied over what I''ve done today. I head back through the portal to the fortress, stopping by the cafeteria for a second to grab a slice of raw meat before heading home. Today was a good day I think as I take the portal back to the lizard man village. The first day I''ve had to relax in a very long time. I spend a few minutes in my hut adjusting a few things and dropping off the things I''ve purchased before I head outside again. I walk towards the cave at the back of the village, pulling out a torch that is needed to transverse the cave with sight. It is getting late, later than I would like to be. It has been almost a day since I''ve been here, I continue working my way through the cave. The feeling of peace and rest I had today slowly dissipating. Getting to the main room in the cave, some light seeps through as cracks in the mountain open the room up. Not much as it is far past noon, enough to passively light the room. There he is, sitting in the room in the same position I left him last time. My brother Tough is sitting their motionless as I enter the room. Sitting in the dark¡­ Until he smells the bloody meat I carry in. I throw it onto the floor as he rushes over, I speak to him. ¡°I''m back brother, still no news on a cure yet. If Leon hear''s anything, he''ll come back and we can fix you¡­ I''m sorry. I''m so sorry I couldn''t save you.¡± Tears begin to roll down my face as I stroke the hair on my brothers head as he mindlessly eats the raw meat I brought him. It''s been months, MONTHS! Since he has been changed. I still weep every single time I come to feed him. I managed to catch him on the battlefield before anyone else could get to him. Quickly sneaking him to this cave so he wouldn''t be slain by anyone else. He doesn''t attack me, a small part of me wishes that it is because he knows I''m his brother¡­ I''m not sure if that is the case though. All I can do right now is keep him fed and hope for a cure. I cry, I cry so hard that my snot and dribble fall onto him as I grab him tightly. This will be the death of my second brother in less than a year. I can''t handle that, we must find a way to fix him. Leon must find a way. It has been months of this already, feeding him before I go to sleep¡­ I hope he stays in that cave and doesn''t become a problem¡­ I can''t help but hope for a cure¡­ I need to put my faith in Leon¡­ If he can''t find a cure, I would fall into despair that I don''t think I could get out of. Red''s point of view The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. It has been about a month since I''ve left the fortress to meet with the fire elemental lord. I will need to swear allegiance to the leader in order to gain the power of the fire element to call upon. I got a notice to do this once I evolved, some of master''s other pets did as well. My elemental lord is the closest, so I wont be gone for very long. The closer I get, the hotter it becomes. Days continue to pass as the temperature continues to rise, finally leading into a realm of fire. The lush green grass is changes to a far more dried out color. After walking for a few hours, even the grass can''t live in this heat. I continue through it. The land almost seems to be infected with this heat, this must be the elemental lords doing. It has been a single day since entering this heat domain. It is like the line between the elemental plain of fire and this world are waning and the fire domain is seeping in. I''m sweating so much I have disrobed and continued on my journey naked. Carrying my provisions in the void bag Kite had given me. I still have a portal scroll I can use to get back to the base if needed. If I run out of water, I will have to head back before I have fully changed. Once I''m done here, master said to hide the portal scroll close by but far enough away and hidden that no one would notice its location. Changing into my 9 tailed fox form helps with the heat a little bit¡­ My body isn''t designed to handle this heat though. I''m meant to throw the fire at people, not take it myself. I start to fantasize about having a nice soak in the hot springs like normal. Lust and me have a few conversations to pass the time. We have a very similar world view I''ve been inside her memories when master tamed me. I frustratingly make it to where I can feel I should head. I feel I have a slight connection with the fire element right now and that by doing this, that connection will grow. Another day of pain and suffering of travel over, I finally make it to a giant hut. Entering, the feeling of heat hits me with a renewed intensity. The scent of smoke fills my lungs as I push through several layers of drapery hanging from the ceiling. It takes a minute to push through the fine silks and fabrics hanging to get to the center of the room. This is where the elemental lord is. I have a good look around the room. Several people are all inside this room, servants catering to a single person. Running around doing things for the person sitting in the middle. I look at him now, he is surrounded by several scantily clad women. The women are all kinds of different monsters. One that seems to be a pure fire elemental, another snake looking women. Many weird monsters I''ve never seen before. I look at what the man is doing with them. In one hand is a giant pipe. The other is circled around several of the women and is moving back and forth between several sets of their breasts. The man is by far the most distinguished out of them all. About twice the size of a normal human, he looks almost like a giant. I know he isn''t a giant though, he is something far more powerful. He is a fire genie, an efreet. A slight tinge of fear goes through me as I realize he could crush me so easily that I should be afraid. His skin is dyed a dark red color that reminds me of master''s hair, wearing only pants, his chest has rippling muscles showing. He takes in a deep breath from his pipe and blows the smoke towards me before finally speaking. ¡°Who may I ask has entered my domain?¡± ¡°My name is Red, I''ve recently become a fire elemental creature and have come to show my submission and ask for you to open my elemental path until I can become strong enough to challenge you.¡± His emotionless face curls into a smile at what I just said before he speaks next. ¡°It has been a long time since anyone has stated they are going to attempt to challenge me in the future. You must truly believe in your power to do something that silly.¡± ¡°I know I am not strong enough to fight evenly with you right now¡­ I will be one day¡­ I will get stronger.¡± ¡°HAHAHAHA! You have some moxie on you! And you are also very sexy. Why not become my eleventh wife instead of trying to kill me!? The more members of my harem the better, you will have whatever you desire if you do so. You will go without any want in the world if you become my wife.¡± He takes in another deep inhale of his pipe as I hear Lust chime up in the back of my head. ¡°You don''t have to marry him but you should try to have sex with him¡­ I''m just wandering how a fire efreet is in bed¡­ With how big he is, I bet he has a giant d-.¡± I cut her off. ¡°I''m sorry but I can''t take you up on that offer. I have a master already, I don''t need a husband.¡± The smile seems to fade from his face. ¡°Ah¡­ That is a shame, for a monster as strong as you to be tamed¡­ Your master might be even more interesting than you if he could tame you... May I ask who your master is?¡± ¡°You wouldn''t know him by name. He is the leader of an army numbering in the thousands. He has just beaten the pirates at odds 5 to 1 against us. We absolutely crushed them. I have evolved 3 times within months of him taming me. He will be the reason for your death. My master Kite will come to defeat you eventually.¡± I say this as smugly as I can. The fire genie is not displeased by this. I thought he would be angry, I thought he might have even attacked me¡­ He only looks at me excited. A toothy smile covers his face as he speaks again. ¡°It has been hundreds of years since I''ve been challenged to a future duel. Do you not understand my power? Armies travel around my realm as to avoid my punishment. Kingdoms have challenged me and fallen to my power. You think a single human is strong enough to defeat not only a efreet, but the strongest efreet in existance!? You are foolish! You are foolish beyond compare! And that is why I like you! Come, drink, be merry as I open up the elemental channel inside you!¡± The wording scares me a little¡­ I start to think back on what Lust had said, what would the sex with a fire genie be like? I''m sure I have enough time to spare to stay here for awhile and get to the bottom of that question¡­ As long as his wives don''t get upset by me answering my question. Bonus chapter 2 Leaf''s point of view Kite is a good boyfriend, I still see the looks some of the other girls give him... Green treats him better than most other men¡­ I think it is mostly from respect but¡­ There could be some other feelings behind it¡­ Neko made her feelings for Kite very clear¡­ She is so much smaller than a normal woman¡­ I''m still the most worried about her, the ones who show their feelings openly are the ones you need to worry about¡­ I also heard rumors that Kite PROPOSED to Nami¡­ I sometimes see it in others as well¡­ The same look I give to Kite¡­ And that makes me afraid¡­ I think Kite might be cheating on me. No matter what day it is, he always wakes up before me. Sometimes I lie in bed at night and he gets out and leaves¡­ I don''t know what to do about it though¡­ He is a great boyfriend¡­ I shouldn''t doubt him but the thoughts still linger in my head¡­ I asked him¡­ Of course he said no¡­ Of course I should believe him¡­ I need to know what he is doing every day at the very least. Why he wakes up so early and leaves during the night. The next morning Kite wakes me up by kissing me. I angrily hit him as he does so¡­ I''m not a morning person, I get that from my mother. It is one thing I wish I could change about myself. We start his daily process of a morning jog. I can tell he is taking a shorter route because of me. I urge him to take his actual course but after he outruns me completely, we decide on his other route he picked for me. I ask him about his normal routine. In the morning, he runs to Shienta and back 5 times in 1 hour¡­ The distance would take a normal person all day to do. It will still be another hour before people start waking up. Kite says he is normally preparing food, inspecting and fixing gear, making sure we have enough supplies or preparing for something else if it is planned for that day. Today, we help start breakfast for everyone, soon the chefs will wake up to finish preparing the meals. I didn''t realize how much food it takes to run an army this size. He pulled out a few hundred fish, all were gutted and cleaned already, Kite also helps with that sometimes. The amount of food is incredible, him being able to manage so many things. Cooking dozens of dishes¡­ Preparing separate meals for each race of troops. More meat for the gnolls, less for the kobolds and no meat for the elementalists as it is against their teachings (except Green). Even making a single different meal for Leon. He starts messing with food, even when it comes to cooking, he still loves to experiment. He has me taste it¡­ It is truly terrible! I spit it out before saying. ¡°Gah! What is this!?¡± ¡°I''m trying to find an alternate source for chocolate¡­ Everything I try turns out as bad as this so far.¡± He proceeds to eat the disgusting food. No hesitation, something must be wrong with him. I ask him why he is eating the toxic food. ¡°I''m trying to find any hint I could go off to make it taste more like chocolate. It sucks¡­ It hurts to eat but I need to. It is a reminder of mistakes, what I can do fix it and I hate wasting food as well.¡± That is admirable. Even relying on mistakes to push his idea''s forwards. I sort of forgot what we were doing until people start trickling in for breakfast. We ate some more food, Kite hadn''t eaten much recently so he a huge meal himself. Then we started doing some things I''ve seen Kite normally doing around while I was training or speaking with some of the animals in the stables. I have taken a liking to Zergnar''s black griffon. I sometimes ride him around, doing a few laps around the fortress to stretch his wings¡­ Or that is the excuse I use to fly through the sky. I don''t really do much around here when their isn''t a battle to prepare for... It makes me miss doing dungeons, that was one of the best experiences I''ve had in my life... Once this fighting stops, at least for awhile... I would like to go adventuring with Kite... Just the 2 of us, maybe his pets for protection. I never realized how much Kite actually does. Our pace of doing things is insanely fast. First we head to watch and guide the few members who have just now started their training regimen. Kite gives a few pointers to his men, most have started practice with throwing knives now. That is the normal troops, Kite says the biggest thing the bulk of the army was missing was any ranged capabilities. Most will stick primarily to swords and other melee weapons, but ranged practice wont hurt the adaptability of the army. Or that is what he says. Meanwhile the elite troops are focusing a singular intense training in 1 direction, the warriors are having intense battles and lifting weights to build up their muscles. Thieves and ninjas are sprint training with mixed fighting as well. The white mages are different though, it has been over a month since I''ve seen them¡­ None of the healers resemble who they were. They all look like veterans of war now. I most likely seen a few of them but assumed they were part of the main assault group... The weak and feeble healers before are now fighting on par with the other elite groups. Instead of helping these troops with explaining things, Kite has brought me here to show off how much stronger the troops have become. It has only been months but the improvements of everyone are obvious. While we''re still outside, we head pass an area that is blocked off so only a few people can see inside. I ask him what that''s about. ¡°Ah, that''s a secret to everyone. When it''s finished, it will amaze and inspire everyone and I''m trying to keep it a secret¡­ If you really want to see it, I''ll show you though.¡± I say no for now and we move on. The next hour is spent with Kite visiting the various job areas around the fortress. Each person greeting him, they have a short conversation I try to follow but can''t. Kite says something and they look at him amazed. Like he just explained a crucial step in a process they were struggling with. I see him explain a few things to the newer apprentices of each job. Guiding the new gnoll tailors and the demon kin blacksmith. Finally stopping in the mines to speak with Kora. Kite has started turning the mines into more troop housing. We could double in size and still accommodate everyone easily enough. Kora shows him a map of potential ore locations, pointing each out to Kite as he gets closer to check and mark off weather it is worth digging. He uses his control earth to weaken the area''s that will be dug out. Making sure that a nature mage is around the restrengthen the area once it is dug out to avoid collapse. Kite had taken some time to practice with creating new gear as well. We entered a room filled with experimental weapons and armor. A few sets of new weapons and armor are being made for his generals that will be completed soon. Each being made with legendary or higher enchants¡­ Kite''s enchanting group has grown to the point where most of the regular rare gear can be upgraded. But it is better to just make new suits with new materials Kite said. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He charged his arm with power for just this process¡­ Needing both his hands to test some new device he was tinkering with the past few weeks. Not wanting to rely on it too much might be a problem later on¡­ I hope he realizes it before I have to tell him. An explosion happens and Kite had me standing far enough away that I wasn''t hit by anything. Debris scatter and Kite has miraculously avoided any damage from the explosion that happened right in front of him as well. I was scared until he said it was a normal everyday occurrence¡­ I start to feel relieved for a second until I realize he deals with explosions like this one on a daily basis. At no point in the day has Kite had a break from people bringing problems to him. There was a collapse in the mines earlier that someone came and told him about. Thankfully no one died but 3 people were injured. Kite takes me to the medical bay to see if there isn''t anything he can do to help. All 3 are fine and resting in bed but Kite still comforts them for a few minutes. Breaking off a few pieces of his last remaining chocolate bar and giving it to them for comfort. 1 of the gnolls who handles the buying and selling of produces came by to work out what Kite wanted to sell next. Kite gave him some tips on how to get more people to buy products and sent the merchant on his way. Most of the money we make is from this merchant but each battle we win or new unique thing Kite has created also bumps up the amount of money the army makes. With Kite just recently starting the payment of his troops. He still has an entire year of back pay he plans on giving everyone. Finally wrapping up the rest of the sunlight by checking on the pirates and seeing if they needed anything while also checking on a few other side projects of his. We enter a freezing cold room and I see plants being grown in here. Some have died though¡­ I ask him what exactly is this room. ¡°I''m growing plants that we can use to make freeze bombs. For monsters like dragons, they will be a tremendous asset. If I can make enough, it would be good to arm a few archers with several freeze arrows as well¡­ The process for keeping them alive is quite difficult though. They freeze any water that they come in contact with. So some of the plants have died from dehydration¡­ Trying to recreate the environment they came from. I found that they absorb snow through the leaves of the plant¡­ Which is an odd process¡­ Snow is just water frozen differently than ice so I can''t quite figure out why the plant absorbs this type of water while changing plain water to ice¡­¡± I didn''t notice that most of the fortress was fitted with plants until I seen his herb growing rooms. He had another one for growing alchemy ingredients set up right beside it. After asking him, I found that he was the 1 who added the plants and they serve the purpose of keeping the fortress cave oxygenated¡­ Otherwise people would be dying from the lack of it¡­ I hadn''t realized how much work goes into this base. Without it, we would have eventually used up more air than was entering the cave and some of us might have died. Kite seen a problem that no one else saw and dealt with it before it was a problem. We head back to his room. He said since today was a slow day, he would write a few more parts of the books he''s writing¡­ Today was a slow day! I have more fatigue than a normal person and I''m getting close to falling over from exhaustion. Yet Kite does this every day. We head back to his room¡­ Even though he lets all his pets sleep in here, it is surprisingly clean. He''s started living with me but he most likely keeps his own room clean. On the only desk in the room is books scattered over his desk. With a small pile of books on both sides of the desk¡­ I read a few covers of each book while he updates some of the ones he is working on. ¡°Eternal forge enchants and the heating techniques and the process of using monsters as a heat source. Instructions on cold forging cold iron.¡± ¡°Rare alchemy recipes and the process of making alchemy pills. The adaptation of alchemy pills and potions, how to use both together, more effectively.¡± ¡°Blue mage tailoring, using spider silk and poison to create heavy thread silk. Process stitching to cover weaker areas with stronger material.¡± "The combination of enchanting and deconstruction. How to be a better enchanter. Making an enchanting table to help speed up the process of enchanting." ¡°Advanced boss monster tactics for tier 3, 4 and 5 dungeons.¡± ¡°Feeding an army. Cultivation techniques to help grow crops bigger and faster.¡± ¡°Weapons creation, new and unique spins on basic weapons and armor.¡± ¡°Kite style unarmed fighting. Use surprise and unorthodox fighting tactics to throw your enemy off guard.¡± ¡°The creation of art. Tips and tricks to making art more beautiful on a technical level. The 5 qualities to judge art by.¡± I only read a few pages of each book¡­ These books are on the category of master¡­ Each taking a new spin on a subject or explaining new processes that will redefine the way a job is looked at. With at least a dozen books created already, he is working on a dozen more books all at the same time. Writing down ideas and notes he thinks of during the day. Jumping from book to book and using his finished books as resource material or updating the finished books. I ask him why, why does he write books in his free time? ¡°The biggest problem with this world is lack of information. I just figure things out more quickly than most people would. Me not writing books seems¡­ Almost evil if I really think about it¡­ I think saving the information for myself instead of sharing it would be a huge mistake. Information that could save lives, make everyone in the worlds lives easier¡­ The information can help guide people towards a better future. I still have so much work to do¡­ So much more to learn, I feel like a novice and these books will be changed hundreds of times in my life as I learn more¡­ This is all I can do for now.¡± This is the Kite I know and love¡­ No matter how much he thinks he knows, he is still striving for more. The feelings of him cheating on me start to dissipate¡­ He honestly wouldn''t have time to¡­ I giggle and kiss him on the forehead before heading to bed. I need to keep getting stronger and smarter myself. I want Kite to be able to rely on me¡­ I go to sleep with a big smile on my face that night. Bonus chapter 3 Kline''s point of view ¡°There it is! There it is!¡± Finally, weeks of travel with no cities or villages in between. It will be nice to speak with someone besides Silky or Leon. Wiping the sweat from my face, it seems to be getting hotter as we travel south. We heard rumors¡­ Rumors of an amazing healer who might be able to cure Leon and Tough. Swift approached us and told us about his brother. He has him locked up in a cave on their island but he isn''t responsive to anything. We need to find a cure to save him... To save both of them. After trying to convince Swift to tell Kite, he refused outright stating that Kite has enough problems already. I know that but 1 more thing isn''t going to drive Kite crazy¡­ Honestly, Kite would like the chance to cure his brother more than anything else¡­ But no one knows how to cure the ghoulification of someone. Not even Kite... I do see where Swift is coming from though, Kite is the leader but even so people continue to bring problems to him. We''ve seen him break already, we''ve all seen him cry when he couldn''t defeat Gold the first time¡­ Even so it has left the mission to find a cure to us. We enter the city and I can''t contain my happiness to be in a city. Silky is shy, hiding herself as wind for now. She isn''t a big fan of crowds or villages. I''ll have to tease her a little bit once we find an inn to stay at¡­ I hope Leon doesn''t get us thrown out of this city as well. The last we passed through someone said something about his eyes and it was all I could do to stop him from killing that person. He didn''t get away injury free¡­ Having 2 broken hands isn''t something I would ever want to deal with. After the incident I told him to wear a hood to cover his eyes while we''re in villages. We look around the city. Finding a secluded inn near a run down bar, we decide to stay there. Paying for our room we leave towards the bar. Leaving Silky inside while we head to the bar to discuss rumors we''ve been following about a potential healer. We''ve heard rumors of him already. That he can do all sorts of crazy things like bring the dead back to life or heal any wound instantly by just passing by the person. We''re hopeful but the rumors seem too unbelievable. We enter the bar, it stinks somewhat but considering the patrons it is to be expected. 2 burly men sit at the bar counter while another group of 4 sit at a table. A couple sitting at another table, finally the bartender cleaning a glass behind the counter. He is the only 1 who looks at us when we enter. Leon sits and orders a whiskey, I sit down beside him and order a beer then ask the bartender about the rumors. ¡°Not much to talk about really, I''ve heard the rumors myself but he didn''t pass through the village or anything. That''s the thing with these rumors, you can''t really tell what kind of truth there is to them. I do know someone with some merit to the rumors though. Someone who actually met the healer, goes by the name Shady. He comes to the bar after work so if you visit again in a few hours you might see him.¡± Alright! Finally a lead! We can get to the bottom of this mystery healer and we might find a cure for Leon. We still have hours to wait now, I leave while Leon stays and continues to drink. Making him promise not to start anything while I''m gone. I head back to my room and tell Silky what''s happened. Giving her a little kiss that she giggles at once I do it. I try to convince her to have sex to pass the time but she doesn''t want to since Leon could come back at any minute. I tease her a little more before we decide to look around the city to pass the time. Most of my time is spent showing Silky new things. She has only lived in the elemental plane of air until now. Peaking through the cracks to see snippets of what our reality is. So almost everything is new and interesting to her. I¡­ I''m starting to get close to her, I''ve never been emotionally attached to another person before. My job as a spy wouldn''t let me¡­ It feels nice at the same time it is terrifying¡­ She could die at a moments notice and I would feel terrible¡­ Many people could try to capture her and use her as a source of power if they had the chance¡­ It twists my stomach up just thinking that¡­ I guess that is what it means to be in love. The sylph race can merge with other races. Me and Silky have before. We''ve only done it once by accident but it was something I thought I''d never experience in my life. A feeling that is better than sex, I could read her emotions for only a few seconds before we split apart. Most sylph''s are the opposite of Silky with outgoing personalities that often get them captured or lead them into trouble. The 1 thing that Silky has in common with other sylph''s is her need to spy on people. It makes me and her somewhat similar in a way. Her becoming wind doesn''t make her invincible or anything. A strong wind or even a person rushing through her abruptly would remove her from her air form. We have to be careful that doesn''t happen, so she has to stay behind me while we go through crowded parts. We look at a few vendors out in the streets. I don''t see anything really valuable¡­ I buy a necklace with a green gem in it for Silky but otherwise we just walked around and looked over the goods of everyone. It starts to get late, with the sun setting we head back to the inn. Making sure Silky gets into the room safely, I head back to the bar. Entering it is nothing like it was before. The bar is completely packed now. Over 20 people are packed into the small bar like sardines. Leon hasn''t budged at all from his position. A half finished bottle is in front of him¡­ His ghoul form can still become drunk, it just takes more than a normal human to get drunk. I ask the bartender if the man we''re looking for has come in. ¡°Yea, he''s over there with a group of his friends from work. They''re a pretty nice bunch, shouldn''t cause any problems to go over and start a chat¡­ You should buy them a round first before you start asking questions though, just as a courtesy of course.¡± I do just that, ordering a round of drinks that each of the group likes. They see me approaching and I get a few cheers as I bring them free drinks. Asking which 1 of them is Shady, 1 grabs a beer off the tray and says. ¡°Who''s asking?¡± ¡°Just someone following a rumor. Word around town is that you''ve met the healer that everyone is talking about.¡± He doesn''t say a word. Only rolling up his pant leg, a huge scar is now visible. He finally speaks after he shows proof of his meeting with the healer. ¡°This might sound unbelievable but I didn''t always have this leg. I lost it in a construction accident a few years ago¡­ Forcing me to live with my parents back in Shienta until a healer came along. It was a tiny boy with red hair. He didn''t speak a single word, only had a line formed and healed the injured. He made a miracle happen! I know it is-.¡± SLAM! From behind me, I hear the sound of the counter being slammed extremely hard. I turn to look, the counter is destroyed now, smashed into splinters by Leon''s bare hands. I hear Leon speak now. ¡°DAMN! DAMN IT! THIS ENTIRE TIME WE''VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR KITE!¡± I knew as well¡­ During the conversation I had realized he was talking about Kite¡­ While it had only been a small deterrent to me it crushed the hopes of Leon. I can see how upset he is now visibly. The rowdy bar had become completely quiet from Leon''s abrupt action. I apologize for him and pay for the damages. I''m surprised we weren''t thrown out¡­ I honestly don''t know if I could have stopped Leon from killing everyone in there if they tried to throw him out. Leon was looking out the window of the room when I went to sleep¡­ When I woke up he was still looking out the window still... He hasn''t budged since we''ve found out who the real healer was. We''re going to have to start looking elsewhere for a cure¡­ The rumors of the healer will only lead us back to Kite. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Lance''s point of view ¡°Any other challengers!?¡± Dozens of challengers for leadership are now breathing heavily on the ground. I''m the only one who remains standing, I defeated them without even breaking a sweat... This isn''t even fair, no one stands a chance against me now¡­ It is honestly boring to not have any competition. I can hear the cheers of my men. Trice approaches me and speaks for the group. ¡°No, I doubt anyone wants to fight a monster like you. Let''s just get back to training since you''ve beaten all the challengers for leadership of the group¡­ All at once.¡± Me and Trice joined the main army forces at Merideth. Slowly the army is expanding. War is coming and both continents know this. With the expansion of the army, more generals are needed. This brings me to my current position as a general in the army. Right now I''m only leading 500 troops but as long as I keep winning the skirmishes, my numbers will keep expanding. I started as a member of a squad of troops only numbering 12. Being pitted against a group of 50. I smashed the group apart almost by myself with the leader of the army watching this. My position moved up quickly after that. Most leaders would never offer their position as the leader to anyone who could beat them in a fight but I have chosen to do this. If anyone is strong enough to beat me, they deserve to be leader is how I think of it. My right hand man handles all the strategy, I sometimes offer my help but she doesn''t need my help in that category. Some of my men didn''t think she could handle being my right hand man¡­ Some have challenged her for her position. While I know how to hold punches¡­ She does not, fighting unarmed and disarming some people while thoroughly embarrassing them by giving them no chance to win. Sometimes defeating them in mere seconds¡­ That is why she is my right hand man¡­ And also why I fell in love with her. Her calm, cool and collected attitude instantly breaks when I get affectionate with her. Having Trice beside me feels right, she makes up for all my mistakes. Where I would just have my men charge in and fight head on, she knows how to win big fights like this. While I make a good figurehead to the troops, she makes the actual decisions for fighting. The men who join my squad know they will be put through harder training than others. We''ve sort of become the linchpin of the army. I have no doubt that my troops will be called on for more daunting tasks¡­ It just doesn''t feel right to me¡­ I miss it already, I miss being part of an army that would constantly challenge me. I can feel myself becoming weaker, less focused on getting stronger without any competition. I miss that the most¡­ We finish the training for that day, everyday more of my men drop out from the intensity of the training¡­ I don''t see it, the training is nothing special to me... I could do the training another 20 times before I start to feel any effects. I''m starting to realize I don''t belong in this training, everything just seems so weak compared to me. I have to be especially careful when I fight against others. I''ve accidentally broken more bones than I would like to admit to. Constantly worrying about fighting too intensely isn''t good for me. I feel the mental strain of holding back. I breath a heavy sigh as we walk home from training. Trice notices this and gives me a little push. ¡°Why do you have to be so gloomy Lance¡­¡± ¡°I just miss the competition¡­ I know it sounds weird but¡­ I want someone to beat me for leadership, someone strong enough for me to challenge, to be forced to get stronger to beat.¡± ¡°You''re right, that does sound weird. It would if it was anyone else besides you that is. You know what, we can visit the old fortress if you want¡­ I know that will inspire you again. Seeing how much stronger everyone there is getting will help motivate you again.¡± ¡°Yea but¡­ What if they''re too much stronger? What if I get left behind because I''m not there?¡± She lets out a little laugh before she pushes me again. Speaking with a sarcastic tone. ¡°Knowing you, you''ll work twice as hard to catch up.¡± We make it home. Opening the door, Trice yells into the house. ¡°We''re home!¡± A little girl comes running down the steps and jumps towards Trice. Trice catches her but almost falls over in the process. The little girl happily yells. ¡°You''re back! You''re back!¡± Trice now rubs Duchess''s head. I think Trice see''s Duchess as a daughter now and Duchess see''s Trice as a mother figure¡­ We''re only a few years older than Duchess but this is just how it''s become. She puts her down and they continue to speak. Duchess going first. ¡°I read through that book you gave me. It has even more tactics than what Gold had taught me!¡± ¡°Yea, I''ve been working on battle tactics for troops for awhile. I''m glad you liked it.¡± ¡°I really liked reading the side notes, each gave several unique spins on all of your original strategies. The main question I have is, who is smart enough to understand let alone add to your ideas and formations?¡± ¡°Ahh, that would be Kite.¡± Duchess just looks at her shocked for a few seconds before she finally responds. ¡°No seriously, you don''t have to joke. I was just asking a question.¡± ¡°I''m being serious.¡± Trice returns her stare now. Duchess can''t respond, she is honestly shocked by what Trice said. Finally responding. ¡°I can''t believe red head is such a smart tactician¡­ I just thought you outsmarted Gold but it seems that he might have helped with the strategy as well.¡± ¡°Well, it wasn''t just Kite. It was all of his smart generals adding to the tactics. One thing he is good at is seeing the value of everyone. A unique perspective on a situation could give better results then just assuming that no one has anything they could add to the plan. Even dumb people might have a straight forward idea that is just better than a well laid out, highly intricate plan.¡± ¡°I guess¡­ So, I finished reading your book. Is there anything else you can teach me?¡± ¡°Sure, do you want to continue our unarmed training or I can teach you more about class combination tactics for war.¡± ¡°Teach me about tactics please!¡± Duchess is an eager learner while Trice is an eager teacher. They really compliment each other¡­ I feel that Trice is also becoming more sluggish without Kite around to challenge her ideas¡­ I just agree with her on almost everything, Kite had the ability to see holes in her brilliant strategies¡­ If we fight an enemy who can also find those holes, we''ll be in big trouble¡­ Perhaps becoming stronger isn''t what I should be focused on right now¡­ Maybe learning would suit me better as a leader than just being a muscle head. I stop them before they head upstairs. ¡°Can you teach me as well?¡± Bonus chapter 4 God of Rebirth''s point of view I have an odd visitor while I''m guiding a soul back to a body. It is the Greater god¡­ Why is he here? He almost always communicates telepathically with me. He hasn''t visited me in many years, the only time I see him is when something goes very wrong. He''ll come and help guide souls if we get too far backed up, like during catastrophic events. The last one I can think of is the dragon apocalypse that happened to the central continent. The dragons had used their power to kill all the humanoids they could find in the central continent. Forcing most races out while a few hid and took their chances continuing to live there. The losses on the dragons side weren''t small either. Sort of an all or nothing tactic the Death god had built up over thousands of years. It failed, he failed at killing all the humanoids¡­ The only thing he accomplished was the removal of most humanoids from the central continent. Almost a thousand years later and the area is still only houses a few humanoid races. He doesn''t give me a chance to ask why he''s here. ¡°Hello God of rebirth. How''s it going? Just here to check on a few things dealing with that special case you let through. You know the one...¡± I pull out the self-updating file that he wants to look at. Even I''m shocked at the size it has become already. This file is the size of someone who has lived a full life. Maybe even the size of a file of a king who dictates many actions that would get sited in the file. I think the person would be roughly 12 years old now¡­ I let out a little chuckle as I realize just how much of a special case this person is becoming. The Greater god flips through the file quickly. ¡°Ahh, it seems that the god of Chaos, Destruction, Death, Balance, Creation and Life have all tried to intervene again¡­ I thought as much. Even after giving all of you strict orders to leave him alone, you all continue to try and guide Kite. All but you that is. So, because of this. Because everyone is trying to influence him besides you. I''ve decided to let you interact with him, just once. I''ll even remove the cloaking I had placed on him so the gods would have a more difficult time interfering. Just for you of course, so you can watch him in your free time.¡± ¡°Really? All the gods besides myself have tried to lead this person already?¡­ Just how special is he?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I can only tell you what the world would have been without him in it to show you what he has changed so far.¡± He starts telling me the story of the world without Kite. The first thing that would have changed is, the wrath trait would have taken control of Kite without any hindrance. Now, the wrath trait doesn''t just make someone inherently evil or anything. Kite wouldn''t have noticed that Lance''s mother was trying to kill him either. Resulting in her living a few more years until she died to the disease that was effecting her brain¡­ Just long enough for Lance to become crushed by her death¡­ The go getter would have become far less outgoing, less likely to become someone great. I have to stop the story and ask who exactly Lance is. ¡°Ah, Kite doesn''t just have a big file. He''s influenced people to also have bigger files. Lance is one of them. His file wouldn''t even be half as big if Kite didn''t inspire him to be better than he would have been¡­ To help him¡­ Kite has pushed a lot of people towards being the best version of who they would become already.¡± He continues with the story. With Kite not taking a class that let him retain his memories. He wouldn''t be striving to become as strong as he would have normally. With taking the warrior class with berserker as his secondary class. He wouldn''t have tried to leave the village¡­ Even when the bandits attacked. Neither would have Kattie or Lance. All 3 of them would have got taken in and incorporated into the bandit army¡­ Kite would hold resentment to them because they had killed his parents¡­ Enough to start secretly planning to kill the bandit king. It would be over an entire year before Kite would finally spring his plan and kill the leader by poisoning his food¡­ With the leadership position open, it would go to the bandit''s wife, Gem. At least for awhile. Her beauty could only influence for so long though. Kite would have been fine with just killing the bandit king for his revenge. He would have started to become friends with the bandits. Eventually killing her for the leadership position as the bandit king. Almost everyone was fine with this, they didn''t need a weak leader like Gold and Kite was almost leading the bandits at that point anyways. With Kite becoming leader, he could have any women he wanted as his wife. Choosing to take Trice and Ashley to be his 2 wives. Ashley had slowly started becoming more of who she was before¡­ The previous bandit king had raped both sisters even under the watchful eye of his wife¡­ It effected Ashley far worse than her sister. Kite had comforted her during this time. Killing the previous leader only made her fall in love with him more¡­ Trice on the other hand was in love with Kite for years before that. Something to do with how strong he was¡­ Always fighting, never giving up¡­ Just like the heroes in the story books. As the new leader, one of his missions was to help burn Shienta to the ground for the upcoming war. With an assault force attacking from the front and back. Merideth would fall far more easily. So he mobilized the bandits for this mission. The past few years were spent recruiting more bandits and increasing their numbers. 200 men might not seem like much but every bit will help the 5000 pirates take Shienta. Traveling to Shienta to meet up with the pirates they passed through a village in the forest and burned it to the ground. Kite didn''t want any forces coming from this village to help Shienta if anyone managed to get away. Not leaving a single person alive to warn Shienta. When the small group of bandits met up with the pirates. The leader of the pirates would have killed Kite for killing her sister. She would have played it off as if Kite was a bad leader but that would be to not look weak in front of her troops. She would secretly mourn the loss of her sister while maintaining her emotionless face in front of her troops. The pirates would soon invade the city and slaughter almost everyone. Very few people would manage to make it away since there was no warning of the attack¡­ With the attack happening, the war between the north west and south west continents would commence¡­ He finishes the story up to this point in time¡­ I can''t believe how much Kite has changed in his short life so far¡­ He''s not even 15 years old yet and has already saved thousands of lives. On top of that, he managed to make the lives of many other people more easy to live¡­ It sort of doesn''t seem fair if you look at it that way. It isn''t fair to everyone else who hasn''t chosen master of learning¡­ I bring this up to the Greater god. ¡°I would normally agree with you¡­ If he didn''t have so many disadvantages to leveling. I mean, you''ve seen the amount of people who have tried picking the learning class¡­ It hasn''t worked like this in thousands of years, no. It has never worked like this, no one has ever lived to level 20 since the God of balanced changed the class. No¡­ It is different. Kite''s hard work is the only reason he is alive right now. A huge part of luck also went into his survival.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well. At any point he could have given up. He spent the first 7 years of his life doing nothing but training. He gathered all the classes that would help him get strong as he leveled. He realized he wasn''t strong enough to use a sword, so he switched to a weapon that dealt a set amount of damage because it attacked mechanically. He switched back and never gave up on getting better with a sword either. If he had ignored a single stat he would have no doubt died. Every obstacle put in his path, he would devise a gadget of some kind to make up for his weakness. I had predicted his death no less than 5 times and he has beaten the odds every single time. Most of the people alive around him should have also died¡­ He is like a walking miracle.¡± ¡°I don''t get it, doesn''t that annoy you? You can''t predict this person, he continues to break the limits you put on him.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Annoy me!? No, it excites me! For once I have someone to watch that wont bore me. That is the problem with being so good at predicting things. I know what is going to happen 99% of the time. Normally the 1% isn''t consequential. But sometimes the 1% changes everything¡­ Kite is the 1%. He is so fun to watch.¡± The Greater god smiles¡­ It honestly looks weird on him. He normally looks like a person going through the motions of life. This Kite person has given him something to enjoy again. Something that he doesn''t know what will happen to it even if he thinks he does. Kite will change the situation to be different than what the Greater god thinks it will be¡­ I think that might also be why the other gods have tried to interfere in his life. He is just that special¡­ The Greater god leaves¡­ I proceed to pick up the file on this person¡­ I guess while I wait for the next soul to come through, I''ll do a bit of reading. Unknown person''s point of view There he is. He''s finally shown himself. I continue to look through my self made spy glass to see further away. As an assassin, it is my job to know the most I possibly can about a target before I try and kill them. This target is special though. This is the first target I''ve ever been told to not approach under any circumstances. For a moment, I think he notices me¡­ That would be impossible though, I''m so far away hiding in the middle of a tree. I could barely see him with my spy glass. It would be impossible for him to notice me from that far away. That is before I start to feel a chill down my spine. Because of my work as an assassin, I''ve grown an almost sixth sense when it comes to sensing danger. Just looking at this person gives me this feeling¡­ I get it now¡­ Why I''m not supposed to engage this person. I wouldn''t live to make it back to report my findings. I continue to watch him¡­ From further away now, moving several trees back. Barely noticing him as he ducks between the walls of his base. He hasn''t shown himself in over 10 minutes¡­ I start to get worried, until I hear a voice underneath me. ¡°Hello there. Can I ask why you''re spying on me?¡± AHH!!! He scares me to the point where I fall out of the tree. I brace myself for a hard landing but it doesn''t happen. Instead, I''m caught by this person and placed on the ground before I can react. I''m now laying on the ground¡­ I look up at the person who caught me. The green of his skin barely puts off the attractiveness of his face. Light pierces through his hair, giving it an almost white tint. Why is he shirtless? He asks again. ¡°Can I ask why you''ve been looking at me from this forest?¡± I prepare a lie for if he had caught me. ¡°I¡­ I want to join your army!¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ¡­Really!? That''s it!? That is all I had to do in order to get closer to him? He picks me up and we head back towards the fortress. Training for a portion of the day. He keeps correcting my fighting style¡­ The person I am meant to spy on is now coaching me on fighting. How are all these people so skilled? The leader comes walking out¡­ I recognize him by his red hair, he is another avoid at all cost target but he isn''t the target I am supposed to learn about. The goblin waves him over¡­ His eyes notice and stop on me as he speaks. ¡°Who is this Gobber?¡± ¡°Oh, she wanted to join the army.¡± His eyes haven''t left me¡­ He now speaks to me. ¡°Why are you really here?¡± I can feel the intense scrutinizing eyes on me. I try to lie again. ¡°I came here to join your army...¡± He continues to look at me¡­ It is like he already knows why I am here and he is waiting for the real reason. I''m ready to try and make a run for it before he continues to speak. ¡°Fine. Don''t hurt anyone or I''ll kill you myself.¡± He turns away and heads back inside the fortress built into the mountain. I breath a sigh of relief and we continue to train for a few minutes¡­ Until the leader heads outside with a helmet¡­ I think I know what that helmet is for! I go to run but my arms and legs wont move. I don''t think I could get away anyways but it is like his eyes have me paralyzed in fear. I can''t move¡­ He walks up and places the helmet on my head. ¡°Now, why are you really here? If you lie you will be put through immense pain.¡± I¡­ Should I try to lie? I''ll try and see what happens. ¡°I came to join y-.¡± The feeling of 1000 needles piercing my skin crawls over me. The feeling doesn''t go away! It continues! AHH! Help! HELP ME! How do I stop this!? The truth! I need to tell the truth! ¡°Ah! The king! The king sent me to spy on your generals!¡± He looks at me confused. He speaks again. ¡°Why would the king want to know information about my generals?¡± ¡°You¡­ You have an army comprised almost entirely of non-humans. The king wants to know more about them in case you try to cause a rebellion before the war starts. I mean, you''ve already put Kline through mind control! He was a loyal spy to the king but you turned him into your own pawn.¡± I look up at the helmet. He sighs and takes the helmet off my head. ¡°Please go tell the king I have no plans on betraying the kingdom. Once the war starts, my men will play our part in it. If he wants me to come and speak with him myself¡­ Tell him to send you back here and I will head there to tell him the same exact thing myself.¡± He turns and begins to walk away... I start preparing to walk out the entrance of the base but before I leave, I am stopped by the goblin. He speaks to me before I leave. ¡°Hey, show master your thingy?¡± ¡°...What!?¡± ¡°Your thingy! The thingy you used to look at me!¡± ...Wow I misread that situation. The leader now looks at me with a curious look. The scrutinizing eyes look like that of a happy puppy with a new toy once I bring out my spyglass. He asks if he can hold it. I hear him muttering some things. ¡°Hmm¡­ I''ve seen these before but I couldn''t figure out how the image flips back over¡­ The one the bandit had was all unfocused but I still couldn''t figure it out¡­ Hmm¡­ Is it a spell or some sort of other thing that is flipping the image. Hmm¡­ Miss, do you know how this thing works?¡± ¡°Y-yea¡­ I made it.¡± ¡°Ah! So, how does the image get flipped again?¡± ¡°It uses 2 lenses to focus it.¡± ¡°Ah! Of course! If 1 flips the image, another will flip it back! It''s so simple! I couldn''t figure it out because I was over thinking it! Hmm¡­ Thinking that way¡­¡± He hands me my spyglass and rushes off¡­ What just happened? I''m shooed away by the goblin now¡­ Kite rushes back and stops me again. ¡°Wait! Wait! How much for that spyglass?¡± I''m not exactly sure how to price it... I mean, he could kill me if I say too low. He hands me a few gold pieces, silver and copper as well. What!? This is way too much! He looks at the spyglass happily and starts to rip it apart in front of me... WHY!? He continues to mutter to himself. ¡°Ah! If I look closely at the lenses, I can see that they are slightly curved... Is this perhaps to flip the image more easily? Perhaps this is why the bandits was blurry? I''ll have to do more research on this later..." He turns and faces me. Not realizing I was still standing there. He clumsily yells out. "Thank you!¡± Before he runs off again¡­ Leaving me even more confused than before¡­ He''s paid me over a years worth of completing contracts for a cheaply made spyglass... Ah! I Don''t understand! This group is too odd to make any sense! Update. New book has been started. The new book has been started as of right now there is a prologue and a chapter. Reading through the rules, I haven''t seen anything talking about links to other parts of this site. So, unless I am told otherwise here is a link to the new book. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7415 Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. If I am told to take this down by an admin or just someone in the comments saying it is against the rules I will. So this link might not be up for very long. Thank you for following the journey of this book and I hope you continue following my works from here on out :D.