Luke stood around the meadow’s most eastern point. He decided to trek on from this point. His primary motivation was to go in the opposite direction of the cave. He wanted nothing to do with that place. The dusk setting felt elongated, and he started to piece together this was the forest’s version of daylight.

“Sooty, fly up, pal, and tell me if you see an end to the forest in any direction,” Luke said.

His crow, Sooty, did as asked; she gracefully flew up, circled the cleared area, and landed back down. The ‘language’ she communicated through her demeanor and Reaver’s Link returned negatively. Sooty hadn’t seen an end but roughly expressed that the eastern direction they planned on going in did thin out.

“The east it is.”

“Finally, maybe I’ll get to chop stuff!” Xera said.

“The only thing you’ll be chopping at this rate are some trees,” Luke said.

Luke glanced over his status screen; his hit points by now were just shy of nine hundred. With each of the three primary stats over two-hundred. Certainly nothing to sneeze at. However, he felt the growth rate wouldn’t continue unless he worked for it.

Higher-tier monsters weren’t as common as cabbages, at least not in the area he found himself in. And it wasn’t like he gained stats through leveling. Before he got too sidetracked, Luke read the ‘active abilities’ line on his Interface status. He’d gained another skill slot, going up from 5 to 6; the heart likely did that.

He’d take the bonus, no sweat. Luke scanned the tooltip of his newest active ability [Frostfall Reave] over his vision and perused the information.

[Frostfall Reave] (Tier 0)

An aura of frost blasts out the Reaver within a close range. Allies within range receive a duplicated 10% of the Reaver’s stats. Amplified by Reaver’s Link for Companion. Enemies in the aura receive a 10% reduction in magical and physical power. Generates ambient frost. Essence regeneration halved during use, lasts ten seconds.

Evolves automatically through tier. Unable to upgrade through skill points.

Cooldown: 1 hour

“It’s extra strong on Sooty too? I wonder if Xera and Wayfinder count as ‘allies’ to this ability. Another card to play, I’ll take it,” Luke said.

“Stop acting mysterious! What do you see, Luke?” Xera asked; she knew her Reaver saw something through the Interface but couldn’t see what he did.

“Oh, sorry, I’m not used to this Interface screen being visible to only me. It’s nothing. I looked over the new skill the Spectral Heart came with. Thinking on it, Wayfinder, how do you tend to know what I’m talking about even when I don’t show you?” Luke said.

“Aye, you get enough masters over the millennia, and you tend to read them well. Young lassie Xera will pick it up soon enough, but neither of us read minds, lad,” Wayfinder said.

“What’s it do then?” Xera said.

“It’s a stat buff to allies in range and an attack debuff to enemies in the same range. Although, based on how the other abilities were, I doubt that’s all it can do.” Luke began to trek through the onyx forest, red leaves brushed by his face often, “Moving on, let’s get out of here.”

The faint light of dusk may have been pointless; once Luke took a few paces away from the meadow, the area became pitch black around the trees. The cave had more light than this, even when the roots weren’t around.

Twilight Vanguard came in clutch once more. Luke kept his roughly fifteen-foot radius of vision. He augmented his eyes with essence, as he’d done before. The field of vision increased, although not by a large margin, maybe five feet, if Luke had to guess.

Luke walked at a full pace; while he wasn’t particularly cautious of the noise he made through crushing leaves under his feet, he kept note not to be obnoxiously loud. Luke knew Sooty didn’t enjoy a vision stat as he did through Wayfinder, so he asked her, “Can you see well enough down here, pal? High pitch caw for yes, and low for no.”

The bird tilted her head, then cawed at a standard pitch.

“Able to see, but not particularly well? Looks like we’re in the same boat then. You keep a lookout over my back, and I’ll take responsibility for the front, ok?” Luke said.

Rattle.

“Wayfinder, know anything about this place? Or how was it when you came here all that time ago?”

Before Wayfinder answered, Luke hid behind a tree; he spotted a small tribe of gray-skinned humanoids gathered in a circle. He pulled up the Interface, but no information came back. The same issue occurred in the shadow cave. Luke did gain a sort of ‘sixth sense’ about the relative level of a being before him, but it wasn’t iron-set; he could tell most of them were level fifteen and above, and quite a few felt more substantial than that.

The entire tribe looked back at Luke. Despite his attempt to hide, their yellow eyes stood out in the lack of light, following his movement. The creatures seemed afraid of him; he didn’t relax, and his eyes darted, ensuring he wasn’t about to be surrounded.

Of course, with the lack of range in vision and several trees for cover, it was entirely possible he was.

The unknown yellow-eyed tribe had their hands on poorly made weapons but didn’t draw. Whatever they were, they were wary but not in the mood to attack him. Luke’s instincts split, one telling him to attack and ensure no threat to him remained alive, and another more reasonable, to not risk a fight he could avoid.

Luke's body took over with the two pieces of his consciousness split. He backed away and never showed his back. Luke strafed and gave the tribe plenty of space. The tension never left his body as he stepped out. Dozens of minutes later, the Reaver still had his senses straining, looking for anything new and if those creatures were following.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Luke took out Xera and stabbed her into a tree as high as he could while maintaining leverage. He swung himself up onto a high branch with both hands around the handle.

“Hey! Don’t leave me here,” Xera said.

“Shh, I’m watching and waiting. Relax, Xera, I’m not going to leave you.” Luke said.

“Pahah, Two-form lass, you did chop wood first. You’re a natural,” Wayfinder laughed.

Xera let the slight against her pass and ignored the compass. Luke waited patiently. After waiting for a couple of minutes, nothing followed or passed by. To be on the safe side, Luke asked Sooty and Wayfinder the same question,

“Notice anything, you two? We’re not being followed, are we?”

“Not to me needle, lad, the field is clear. You were too big a fish to fry for those creatures,” Wayfinder said.

Sooty didn’t let out a peep. Instead, she used Reaver’s Link to emote that she didn’t notice anything trailing them.

“Guess it was me being paranoid then.”

Luke hopped out of the onyx tree branch. With a firm posture, he slid Xera out the tree. The group crept around the forest. With the recent encounter, Luke intentionally slowed his pace. The smell of fresh leaves and wood covered his sense of smell.

A gray mist roiled out as the Reaver relaxed, with no forewarning. The gray mist lifted the vision restriction, which expanded to wherever the mist occupied. A lone figure walked in his direction, green eyes locked with his own. The unidentified individual walked with a delayed gait and lousy posture. Ripped black clothes covered its body.

But a scent Luke experienced before overplayed the previous wood and leaves around him.

“Undead.”

That same sixth sense played around Luke’s perception but felt interfered with. The taut sense Luke developed over the past three days wasn’t fooled completely. The undead was at least tier 1, although Luke couldn’t decode the level. The Interface failed again, and with precedent, he accepted it likely wouldn’t work in this forest.

The Undead walked toward him, and Luke could taste the hostility. He kept his eyes on the threat before him. Infusion split to Xera and Sooty. Luke paced faster toward the undead; his speed increased gradually before he broke into a full-fledged sprint.

Luke swung Xera, and Essence Bond left at his command, weakening the undead as the two clashed. A sharp clang of weapons rang out through the forest. Xera cut into the corroded weapon, but the undead’s strength nearly matched his own. Sooty jumped, and her nails glistened; the undead took a strike to the skull.

A dreadful aura exploded out, dark decay corrupted the area. The cracked weapon repaired, and a crimson black energy mix twirled around it.

“No avoiding this then.”

The undead pierced with lightning speed. Luke wasn’t one to back down in a contest of reflexes. He step-dodged, trusting himself with the thinnest of margins. Subconsciously, frost essence coated Xera. Luke struck out, the sword wand aimed at the undead’s neck. A skillful redirection was his answer. Luke righted his posture, then deflected the returned sword swing. Another clash rang throughout the onyx forest.

The undead sped up, but so had Luke; his shoulder’s passive now active. He kept up, no doubt about it; this creature was tier one and likely not at the beginning. The two swung repeatedly. Luke mixed in dodges to gain a solid strike, but the undead could easily read him. Luke then turned up the notch again; this time, Infusion went around his body and refreshed around Xera. The Reaver swung, and frost finally began to stack up over the undead. The slight slowdown gave Sooty enough margin to land a Reaver Beak with minimal risk.

Before the undead could defend itself from Sooty, Luke fell Xera toward its heart. The lone undead parried, the black-red aura it naturally emitted being eaten away by Luke’s frost. Moreover, throughout the battle the creature slightly weakened. Sooty’s Reaver Beak landed, but the undead intelligently shifted its body; instead of its back taking the blow, its left shoulder caved in.

The undead swordsmen switched to a one-handed posture, completely changing its stance. Luke jumped forward and slashed; the two swords sparked. The constant weakening through stat theft and frost worked to Luke’s advantage. The undead broke its posture; its sword swung backward, exposing the chest. The Reaver pierced Xera through and didn’t stop once his blade ripped out the undead’s back. He slammed his feet and turned his body. Xera glided through the undead’s torso and left out its neck, beheading it.

A faint ice misted out the sliced body, and the undead fell soundlessly to the red leaf-covered soil. Luke flicked Xera, and the rotten innards and blood of the undead flew off the blade.

“I need to be able to cast faster. I found no opening at that speed until it wouldn’t have mattered anymore,” Luke said.

“A problem all you spell swords run into, you’ll have to figure out how to cast just as fast with a sword in your hands as you do without,” Wayfinder said.

“Oh, the blade song was music to my ears, and the slicing through bones is so relaxing. Let’s do it again!” Xera said.

“I’d rather not, Xera. Let’s leave things above my tier alone for now, if possible. Sooty, thanks for the help. Reaver Beak sealed the fight painlessly.”

“Caw!” The corvid appeared happy with the praise and landed on Luke’s shoulder.

In truth, if Luke wanted to, he could’ve cast Essence Lance or Fissure at a distance, and the fight would’ve been significantly less dangerous. A desire to test himself up close won out, a short-sighted decision, but one that didn’t end up negatively. With Sooty by his side, the fight became two versus one, and at the slightest opening, the undead swordsmen couldn’t keep itself whole.

The battle produced plenty of sounds, so Luke ran off; once he felt reassured at the covered distance, he climbed a tree. This time, the particular specimen grew so that he didn’t need an additional hold to climb in; Xera instead became sheathed. Luke climbed up with an agile speed he didn’t recall having when rock climbing back on Earth for fun. He reached the top, and his body poked out the tree line. A few other taller trees hampered his vision, so he signaled Sooty to fly up and gather their location.

Sooty flew up several yards, and a creature shot out a tree, offended at Sooty’s display of aerial dominance. His corvid dived toward the challenger, an Iron Feather floated around her. She traded a blow from the scaled, long-bodied monster; her Iron Feather snapped, but her Talon Strike ripped right into the beast. It grew limp immediately. Caught up in the moment, Sooty screeched, being very un-crow-like. The bird casually dropped the beast in her talons, and its lifeless body sank into the sea of red leaves.

She flew back up and found a comfortable view. Without his prodding, the bird relayed what she saw. The forest ended in the eastern direction they were going; at their current pace, they’d reach it within an hour or less. Luke jumped back down. His body shook from the impact, but he landed well enough to brush off any blunt force. Sooty broke through the tree canopy. She perched on Luke’s upper back.

With an end to the forest near, Luke picked up the pace. From his limited experience in this forest, he wasn’t a small fish here but was far from invincible in the area. It would be best to leave and find safety. Not to mention, he couldn't forget his next goal. He’d remember what the First Reaver said, but something else occupied his priority.

“Dad, did you come here too?”

Forget some looming threat. He cared to find the answer to that question first. As Luke came closer to the end of the forest, he encountered fewer monsters, and none of them felt threatening in the least. All the creatures he encountered ran at the sight of him, except for a particularly bold, now dead, corrupted treant. Luke reached the forest's eastern edge a few minutes after that last hostile monster.

Luke stepped out of the dark embrace of the onyx trees. The glare of sunlight blinded him.

“What the? Daylight?” He said, with his arms shielding over his eyebrows.

Before he grew curious about the phenomena, he noticed a stark wooden tower watching over the forest. To Luke’s sharp vision, he saw several humans in armor on top. Each had a coat of arms embroidered on a tabard or etched into their breastplate.

“People.”