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A festering world
Chapter 5- Kobolds and sanity

Chapter 5- Kobolds and sanity

I was woken up by my little sister, she was hungry and too afraid to buy food by herself, the shopkeeper (if it can be called a shop) was a big burly man, he got lucky, he was in a supermarket when it began and he obtained a skill called Item Box. It sort of works like a game inventory, anything in it is frozen in time, it allows him to have fresh food available at any time so he took advantage of that and sold food, I don't think the dollar will stay the main currency for long but hey, good for you man. I bought 4 portions of stew from him for 25 dollars, it's pricey but it's the only source of food available, I don't think people are ready to eat kobolds yet.

After finishing our meal ( the food is for me and my sister I will not buy food for those two) we went outside to train my sister because monsters are dangerous but humans are even more dangerous, and they are all around us so she must be able to defend herself. I asked her to tell me her stats to help her choose something appropriate. She has 7 points in Strength, 9 in Constitution, 9 in Dexterity, 10 in Intelligence which is quite good for her age, 9 in Wisdom and 13 in Charisma which is aberrant for her, I mean she is able to wear the same panty for a week because it's "more convenient this way and it's not like anyone but you will see them" ( When she says I see them it's because I do all the chores, which include the laundry, it's not like I want to see them or something). If I don't count the fraud on her charisma, her stats are pretty normal, I mean yes, 7 in Strength but she is 12 so it makes sense. If I follow my gamer instinct and the tutorial, it leaves necromancer which is a big no-no, monster tamer which is not a good idea either, she will let herself starve to death if I don't cook so having a pet is not the brightest idea so it's Enchantress or nothing.

The tutorial says that to unlock the enchantress class, she must induce a debuff to an enemy 10 times, so if I am right, she could potentially confuse someone by sending waves of mana to the brain, it will sort of cause a magic motion sickness? I then tried it on myself and after a few tries I succeeded... oh. fuck. I think the stew is going up, inspire, expire, don't waste 7.5$ like that. After this painful moment, I said to Audrey that it was safe to do the same thing on kobolds, when we saw a lone kobold, I immobilized him with mage hand and Audrey tried to confuse him, she was having difficulties at first, she may have a better charisma than me but I have 50 Intelligence so I'm much more efficient in controlling mana. After 20 minutes of unfruitful essays, she managed to confuse a kobold, It became a lot easier for her after that, I suppose she gained the skill, she confused a kobold and killed it with the knife I gave her (the one I cut my arm with).

And like the tutorial said she unlocked the Enchantress class after 10 kobolds, she apparently gained the spell Fear, by the way, it's quite funny to see an armed kobold flees before a little girl, I thought she would have gained the skill Charm but it's apparently forbidden magic because it's a form of mind control which can have long-term repercussions, the spell last only 1 minute but if you charm a king, in a minute you can make him sign a declaration of war so it's better this way furthermore I don't want to see a 12 years old girl seducing an old man or worst a monster just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine. Let's stay on the main subject, after my sister obtained her Enchantress class, we killed more kobolds to make her level up. After a few dozens of kobolds, it was more difficult, they are not some cheap NPC in a game, they were now in patrols of three to four kobolds so we decided to stop here, we didn't want a kobold raid on the community hall, not after the trial last night...but if there was a kobold raid while Alexandre was outside after an anonymous person told him to do so, there is nothing we could do about it right?

Nah, it would make me the bad guy and if somebody somehow discovered that it was me, Marie could say that she was right to quit me AND more importantly some people would want my death, I mean I'm the hero, the protector of the community blah blah blah but after a week or two, some religious zealots will think that I'm some hell-spawned demon, I'm sure my whole " I desecrate corpses to heal me and use some weird negative energy bolt" already gave me some points in the to-purge list.

By the of the training, Audrey was level 7 and my mage hand spell reached level ten when it did I received a popup saying I could use two mage hands at the same time, with this, we could have continued to kill kobolds but like said before we could do without an attack on our base this night.

While we were returning, we saw other persons do the same as us, training and it's understandable, after this night. The thing is, they are stupid, I mean they are human so obviously they are stupid but now it's like, really really stupid, I mean, no sane human will attack three kobolds without weapons...oh wait a minute, there is two of them, it's difficult to see with the twilight but I think I can discern their faces.....Of course, it's those two, they were probably too busy fucking in the bush to stay aware of their surroundings, the question is, do I save them? I mean, I loved Marie but she was not the woman of my life or anything, plus she cheated on me, and Alexandre is an asshole soo this is quite the dilemma...

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Ah, they saw me, I suppose I will have to save them now doesn't I? Ok let's save them, I will be some hero again and it will give me more time until they want to burn me alive for being evil. These guys were attacked by 5 kobolds, 2 warriors, 2 archers and one Elite. I rushed in and activated aura of corruption ( five enemies and 2 "allies", worth it) everybody in the radius ( which is approximatively 30 feet) writhed in pain, I cast two mage hands to drain the archers and slashed at the Elite kobold, the archers were weak so they died in less than 10s but it cost me 100 mana, it's okay since I now have 550 mana due to the intelligence and the bonus from not being in a party but man, casting spells from the mage hands sure cost more mana. when the two archers died, I sent the hands of the two warriors, who were trying to attack me, when Life Drain is cast from the mage hands I do not regain hp but it sure is handy.

Audrey arrived so I deactivated Aura of Corruption, the two others are okay but I don't want to hurt her, she cast confuse on the Elite Kobold seeing that, the two warriors tried to attack her but I finished them with two well-placed Mana Bolt in the neck, these little jewls now do 50 damage for only 15 mana, I Could kill the Elite kobold this way but it's more fun to kill him with a sword and every time I slash it looks like the sword is less rusted, shinier, must be due to the necrotic damage who restore durability. With the confusion spell and the pain from my necrotic damage, he was in a serious disadvantage but he still put up a good fight, he once managed to slash at my wrists, which disarmed me, at the end of the battle I had only half of my life left, before I delivered the final blow I sent an invitation to a party to my sister, I didn't do it until now because we were against small fry but now the exp she would lose is not negligible. She quickly accepted it, it looked like she wanted a lot to be in my party. Anyways, I dealt the final blow by thrusting my sword into his left eye and he died Instantly.

Announcement

A party consisting of Audrey and John have defeated the Elite kobold roaming near the city, the kobold tribe will be less aggressive until a new Elite kobold is born.

I leveled up three times and Audrey five. I spend ten points in constitution, for more hp and 6 in wisdom because I think I'm weak to mental attacks, I also leveled up mage hand one time but I wonder I didn't gain a sword skill, I stunned him during the fight but no skill gained

You can't gain a physical skill if you only have a magic class

Does it mean we can have multiple classes?

You can have five classes maximum, to gain another class, you need to have your current class at level 100 and you must have fulfilled the requirements for the new class.

It's great! I felt a bit sad to be limited to magical skills but no-

For being the 57th to kill an Elite monster, you gain the following reward:

Aura of the righteous: You are a slayer of monsters, a protector of humanity, all those around you will be awed by your prestige and good nature

Error: You can't possess Aura of the Righteous(good) while possessing Aura of Corruption(evil)

Aligning rewards....

Aura of Despair: You may be a slayer of monsters but you are a monster yourself, all those around you will be frightened by your presence.

Fusion possible: Aura of Corruption + Aura of Despair =

Aura of decaying hope: It is said that when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you, but the monster you are doesn't even need to look back, all living entities in your vicinity will feel the powerful gaze of the abyss.

Your aura now slowly erodes sanity as well, bigger effects on those with lower wisdom.

Do you want to merge the two skill Y/N? success chance:68% Should the merging fail, you will lose one the two skill

68%? I will take the risk, aura skills are awesome and you can only activate one at a time, I choose yes!

Merging....

Successful, Aura of Corruption and Aura of Despair lost, you gain Aura of Decaying hope

Sweet!  this was one damn lucky encounter I made. No, it was those two who encountered the mobs, I will be a kind guy and give them the weapon the boss dropped, its stats worse than my sword and Audrey is not the physical type anyways so I don't care. "Thanks, John I think we would have died without you, really thank you if there is anything we can just t-" "It's okay Marie it's normal, you may not love me anymore but that's not the case for me, of course, I would protect you." Oh my god, this face filled with guilt, it's beautiful I can't get enough "John I just want you to know the-" "No it's okay Marie, you are more happy with Alexandre, I only want your happiness, it's enough for me." And here it is, if it continues like this I think she will gain an aura or something, oh shit I can't stand it I have to go before I laugh "Let's go Audrey" "Hmm? Yes coming, big brother".

After leaving the place, I checked to see if I was far enough then I burst out laughing "It was mean big brother you know?" "Yeah I know Audrey but she cheated on me first so it's only justice" "You may be right but still, it's not good". After that we arrived at the community hall, we ate more stew and then we went to sleep.