With a horizontal swing of his staff, Jaco released an arc of air that cut through the next immediate wave of Spectres. From just that one attack, there was a flood of notifications for Experience gained. With how many had already been striking at Evelyn, a lot of them were already near the ground and within reach.

But even with all these smaller pop-ups, one golden screen remained at the forefront. And while it was still open, Jaco gave another glance to where it sat at the side of his vision.

General Info:

Species: Hell-Touched Human

Level: 44

Class: Druid

Evolution: True Shifter

Secondary Class: Blight Warlock

Level: 17

Stats:

Strength: 151

Agility: 98

Endurance: 140

Will: 128

Spell Power: 173

Unspent Points: 20

Class Abilities:

Passive: Animal Instincts

Passive: One With Nature

Passive: Permanent Aspect One

Passive: Wild Constitution

Active: Lesser Elemental Offense

Active: Minor Plant Control

Active: Lesser Beast Transformation

Active: Minor Primal Ferocity

Active: Lesser Shapeshift

Active: Lesser Manifestation of the Wild Elemental

Secondary Class Abilities:

Active: Lesser Pestilent Swarm

Active: Lesser Zone of Blight

Active: Lesser Rotting Summon

From the hundreds of Spectres that had targeted him just earlier, he’d already gotten quite the boon. Of them, many had simply been in the mid 20s for their Level. So while great in numbers, even their collective total of Experience Points hadn’t been worth too much. Not when it came to his increasing requirements for each Level Up, anyway.

But when it came to the who knew how many dozens whose Level were up to the mid 30s? Now, they had brought some real gains for EXP. Two whole Levels for his main Class. Which with the two Levels gained earlier, brought him to a total of 20 Unspent Points.

For the first 10, Jaco had originally intended to hang onto them. While getting Agility to triple digits would have been a nice mental checkmark, it wasn’t currently a necessity. After the battle with the Minotaur, having a sudden influx of Endurance thanks to Points invested had made the all the difference between life and death.

There was just something about getting a burst increase to the Stat that seemed to carry a bit of extra oomph. At least when loosely compared to the value of the Stat beforehand. As such, Jaco had decided that perhaps it’d be a good idea to keep around some Unspent Points for that very purpose. So that, should he ever need it, they could effectively be utilized as a second wind to his physical condition.

Though that had been his plan after he’d reached Level 42. Now with the gain of an additional couple of Levels, there was some wiggle room.

Jaco watched as the next wave of Spectres filled in the gap left by his wind attack. Then glancing back at the golden screen, he decided to just go ahead with something. He immediately went ahead and just added two Points to Agility. With it brought up to an even 100, all of his Stats had entered the realm of triple digits. And at the same time, that still left 18 whole Unspent Points to keep as an emergency reserve.

Though when it came to the next mental benchmark, one Stat in particular was ahead in that race. At a total of 173, it wouldn’t be too long until Spell Power became the first to break 200. And while there was a small whisper of temptation to use his Points to boost it even closer to that point, Jaco was able to ignore it. Largely because of the current reason for its latest jump in value.

With the Spectres being seemingly like ghosts, one had to wonder if they were susceptible to certain ailments. Ailments such as rot, for example. So when Jaco had earlier been fighting off his own swarm of undead, he had plenty of opportunity to answer that question. By testing it on the weaker ones whose Experience he could easily afford to split away from his main Class.

It’d been rather simple to maintain a Lesser Zone of Blight while fighting. And with how many undead there were, it was practically guaranteed to always have some cross into its area of effect. Which had very quickly provided an answer to the earlier question.

Yes, even these spectral undead were somehow susceptible to rot. They started off as just being mostly translucent beings. But after some time in the Zone of Blight, the Spectres under its effects actually became visually more concrete. Where concrete was very much a literal descriptor as well.

In that their forms had turned grey and increasingly opaque. And as they continued to remain in the area, their bodies only continued to show further signs of deterioration. After turning entirely grey, cracks had begun to form both across the surface and all throughout their bodies. Until eventually, they just crumbled apart and completely dissipated. Nothing more than a grey streak in the air that was then blown away by the wind and rain.

Through these kills, he’d increased his Secondary Class by 10 Levels. In turn, that had increased his Will and Spell Power by 10 Points each. Which when stacked with the amount gained by the two Levels from his Druid Class, had amounted to Spell Power creeping ever closer to that eventual 200 mark.

Yet there was also an issue there. Because while 10 Levels was a good amount to gain for his Secondary Class, it also didn’t feel like it was enough. Jaco could’t say for sure just how many Spectres he’d killed through the Zone of Blight. Either directly with the Ability alone or defeated them with something else while they were still at least damaged by its effect.

But with just how many he did effect with it and their average Level, it should have brought his Blight Warlock’s Level up to more than just 17, right? However, that clearly wasn’t the case. And since plenty of them were killed directly by its Ability, that seemed to indicate another theory Jaco had. One that he considered after initially testing and gaining his first few Levels with the Blight Warlock.

There did seem to be a limit on how quickly he could progress its Levels. One that was likely tied to his current Level as a Druid. Perhaps it was just how much Experience was split, even if a monster was solely defeated by his Secondary Class Abilities. Like even then, only so much at a time would be allocated to it versus his main Class.

It was either that, or simply just how much Experience it took per Level. So even though it was only Level 17, the amount required was equivalent to a higher Level for his Druid Class. Or who knew, perhaps it was actually a mix of both EXP gain speed and the amount required per Level.

In any case, Jaco could now confidently say that Leveling his Blight Warlock Class would be a slow endeavor. It would likely be a long while until it also reached the 40s. Since he was willing to bet that things were more likely to just get even slower as its Level got higher. When that did eventually happen, there was a chance that he might have already gotten into the 50s as a Druid. Or who knows, perhaps even higher than that.

But hey, who was going to look a gift horse in the mouth? Just the Stats already provided by his Secondary Class already boosted his Stats beyond what they would otherwise have been. If Jaco ever fought someone at the same Level who believed themselves his equal in Spell Power, they would be in for a rude awakening.

Jaco began to channel his Mana for Lesser Elemental Offense. But rather than send out another air-based attack, he had a different element in mind instead. After all, they were currently in the middle of a very heavy downpour. So save for being in a lake or such, this was the most water he’d have the chance to work with.

There was still a limited range to the water he could control, but that was fine. The recent increase to his Will only made that range grow out all the further anyway.

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As the swarm of Spectres rushed forward side by side, they entered his killing field. With a wave of his staff, hundreds of individual raindrops were taken under his control. Then in that same moment, their downward descent was changed into a sudden flurry of sideways motion.

The Druid had enforced his will upon every individual drop. That no matter what, they wouldn’t lose their shape. When facing resistance, they would just keep moving without breaking. And since they were all individually so light, he could throw them all around at high speeds. Through this, Jaco had effectively turned the raindrops into something akin to a bullet hell.

As a result, the Spectres became nothing but moving targets for these liquid bullets. Staff raised in the air, Jaco continuously swung it around in a circle. Mimicking the circular motion, the raindrops under his control decimated all the undead that had the misfortune of crossing their path. And as rain continued to pour down, more and more just kept entering his control.

Within this bullet hell sphere, there were only two safe havens. There was where Jaco himself stood at its very center, of course. But in addition, he was mindful to have the drops skip around where the redhead was. It was pretty easy to do as she wasn’t moving and had remained on her hands and knees. However, the current situation sadly was not very sustainable.

Hmm. This is pretty powerful, but not very Mana efficient. Keeping up each drop’s speed and stability already costs a bit. But as more keep getting added in, the cost rate is actually going up faster than I’d like. I suppose I could sacrifice the stability and let the drops get blasted apart on impact, Jaco thought to himself.

Though the Druid was being rather casual about it, the Mana drain was actually quite high. It was only thanks to his relatively monstrous Mana pool that he could even afford such a costly experiment. It was easily the highest costing thing he’s ever done with Elemental Offense in terms of Mana spent every second. Which told him that it was also likely the most inefficient too. Especially since his wind blasts were able to achieve effectively the same kill rate of slaying undead for a much lower overall cost.

Jaco looked back at the woman he was currently protecting. He wasn’t quite sure what happened to her. All the Druid knew was that she’d already been pummeled and thrown around by the swarm by the time he arrived. And while their numbers were great, it shouldn’t have been too much for Evelyn to handle. Not under normal circumstances, anyway.

The stronger a person got, the easier it was for them to deal with an army of weaker enemies. One’s rate of increased power simply outpaced the effectiveness of superior numbers if said army was relatively low Level.

Was her Class Evolution just not able to actually handle large hordes? No, that didn’t make sense. Even if it wasn’t, she would still have no problem by using the Slash Ability from being a Warrior. Jaco then noticed that she was currently unarmed. Yet from what he understood of how Slash worked, that also shouldn’t have been a major problem in this situation, right?

However, Evelyn did seem to not be in the best condition. Running down her face, he could see red being mixed into the rain. She must have taken a pretty bad hit directly to the head. But despite being hurt, she didn’t seem to have even an inkling of fighting spirit.

But that was part of the problem. All the Spectres were ultimately focused on her, not him. So unless Jaco maintained omnidirectional attacks, some would just ignore him and attack the redhead.

Yet he wouldn’t be able to maintain the bullet hell of rain, at least not before all the undead were defeated. And while he had led his swarm out of the camp’s wall, that wasn’t the case for this one. Which meant Jaco was effectively handicapped in terms of his big guns. Since he couldn’t risk hurting someone that happened to wander nearby.

In that case, I’ll just have to grab her and get us both out of the way. Then I’ll be able to finish taking care of these things without having to worry about anyone else.

Since Evelyn seemed to be out of it, it looked like she would have to manually be moved. That was fine. It would be easy enough to pick her up and quickly carry her outside the encampment. With that decided, he went ahead and began to make his move.

Jaco immediately ended his use of Elemental Offense. All the raindrops that had been under his control collectively fell down as gravity once again took over. He quickly made his way backwards toward Evelyn.

With her still being on her hands and knees, Jaco went ahead and grabbed her by the midsection with one arm. With how high his Strength was, carrying a fully grown human wearing chainmail was easy. Easy enough that if she didn’t move, it’d be no different than just holding onto some luggage.

“Don’t…” her voice was barely more than a whisper. Something that would have been drowned out by the heavy downpour, were it not for Jaco’s enhanced hearing. He looked down at her, his head slightly tilted to the side. Yet just as he was about to wonder what she meant, the redhead continued.

“Just don’t bother. Just let me die.”

Huh? Jaco asked himself. He hadn’t even been able to carry her out of the camp yet. But now he was just confused and completely thrown off by her words. Just what was this about? Had he somehow misheard her?

—--

“Just let me die!” Evelyn repeated with a cry. She had been willing to lay down her life in the face of the swarm of undead. To repent for her sins there and then through her own death.

As she cried that out, the Spectres showed that they weren’t willing to just wait around. So while Jaco was still holding onto her while standing there, the undead flew toward them. Apparently then realizing this, Jaco quickly swung his staff to shoot out a blast of wind. Many were cut down, but there continued to be even more to fill in the gap.

As the Druid fought them off, Evelyn’s mind was still a mess. Vivid memories of her time with the Chosen Few still swam across her vision. Jaco was trying to save her. But she wasn’t someone that deserved to be saved. If anything, what she truly deserved was the same fate as the other Chosen that the Druid had personally killed.

“Jaco, just put me down and stop! I was a member of the Chosen Few! You don’t know the things I’ve done! The people I’ve killed and things I did!” Evelyn yelled out. She had tried so hard to keep it under wraps. Just as much from herself as everyone else. But this was the only way that he’d be able to understand.

The Druid glanced down at her. He opened his mouth as if he was about to reply. However, he was just as quickly cut off by the swarm resurging and keeping him busy. At the same time, he did start to move and carry Evelyn toward the nearest section of wall.

Evelyn tightened her jaw. “Did you hear me?! I’ve killed people, Jaco! Innocent people! And when my team did the same thing, I was just as complacent by convincing myself otherwise! So just let the Spectres kill me, it’s the least I deserve after everything!”

“I already knew you were a former member of the Chosen,” Jaco said as he shook his head. “After what their leader said about you resigning, it was pretty obvious. I would have needed to be an idiot to not realize it.”

Still carrying her, the Druid turned back to unleash another attack against the undead. The Spectres were furious in their pursuit. But even while holding onto her, he still managed to solidly outrun them. As he ran, the former Chosen’s dry eyes had widened.

“Then why? If you already knew, then-” she began.

“Because it wouldn't have been right,” Jaco interrupted. “Maybe you do deserve to die like the other Chosen. But getting torn apart by undead isn’t it. If you do deserve to be executed, then that’d just be the easy way out. It wouldn’t be true justice. The guilty aren’t the ones that get to decide their own punishment.”

Evelyn looked up at Jaco. Even through the thick sheet of rain, she could see his grimace. Despite his words being confidently harsh, his expression was a much more complicated mix of emotions. His tone had been filled with confidence. But his face showed that there was a bigger divide of contradictory thoughts underneath.

The Druid then leapt over the wall with her in tow. With them out of the camp, the Spectres continued to follow and move away from everyone else.

Evelyn gritted her teeth. She stared down at the muddy ground, her own thoughts now thrown into even further disarray. She found herself about to say something else, but then suddenly thought against it. At this point, Jaco clearly couldn’t be convinced to stop.

A little bit later, Jaco came to a stop.

“I’m going to let go now,” he said. A second after that warning, he then did so. But Evelyn was quick to react.

Even in her disheveled state, her reflexes kicked in and allowed her to land on her feet and remain balanced. Though her mud-covered legs were still wobbly and just as quickly threatened to once again give out from under her. This time, however, she managed to maintain the will to stay standing.

Now that they were away from the camp, Jaco stopped holding back. While her swarm had started off with several hundred undead, its population had already been considerably cut down by the Druid. And when it came to the remaining couple hundred, he was quick to ruin them.

With Evelyn standing at his side, they were like moths uncontrollably attracted to a flame. But that flame also proved to be literal. As Jaco then rapidly spun his staff, creating a tunnel of wind that slammed into the undead. And just a moment later, breathed out a spew of fire that turned the tunnel into a searing inferno.

Evelyn watched the fire as it torched the Spectres. Standing so close to its source, she felt its heat prickle against her face’s skin. In the battle against the horde, she knew that Dick had been incinerated by Jaco. And within her mind, she likened this blaze as a damning flame that now destroyed the undead.

All he had to do was move the blaze by twisting his body. With that he was able to adjust his aim to always hit the closest Spectres. Though it wasn’t somethat that didn’t need to be done for long. As just a short while later, the last of them were burnt away into nothingness.