Not much time had passed since Jaco got up onto the rooftop. From this high point, he first made a cursory scan of the surrounding area. The horde of undead seemed to be long gone. The fortunate thing about dealing with them was the fact that they were mindless, meaning that it didn’t take much to throw them off and go one way while they continued to march in a different direction.

Though we should probably still keep away from that area, even after keeping our heads down for a while. With all the commotion from before, I’d be surprised if any Demidemons weren’t already there to check out what happened. Hard to know exactly how intelligent they are, though, especially the Taurlings, since I haven’t really interacted with them much. They could actually be smart enough to properly investigate. Or they might just check for any threats, and then simply leave and forget about it once they can’t find anything. They’d be kinda like video game NPCs if they did that, Jaco thought.

It was an amusing thought. But after taking some time to look around, Jaco took a seat, closed his eyes, and tried to relax a bit. Even while his eyes were shut, however, his hearing remained sharp to pick out anything trying to stealthily approach.

Yet Jaco’s mind soon lingered over to the major elephant in the room. Under normal circumstances, that undead horde shouldn’t have been a big threat. It shouldn’t even have made for a tough fight to deal with, much less something to run away from.

Even if Level 40 Revenants had been mixed in, Jaco wouldn’t have been too worried. Not when he out-Leveled them and now had prior experience in dealing with their powers. But once again, that would only have been true under normal circumstances. And what happened to him out of the blue certainly hadn’t been normal.

He played it back in his mind. Initially, everything had gone as it should have. He used his Abilities to tear through the army and racked up who even knew how many kill notifications. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, his instincts warned him of a profound wrongness. Yet that warning only came a second before what then occurred. The message had arrived too late, as it came while the Druid was still in the middle of using an Ability. He couldn’t stop himself in time.

First there had been a wave of vertigo that completely spun his world around, forcing Jaco onto his hands and knees. Then while he was still trying to process what had just happened, every fiber of his being was suddenly racked with agony. It was as if someone had decided to stab every pore across his skin at once with needles. The pain itself was immense, but he had still been lucid enough to, perhaps foolishly, attempt to fight through it.

Jaco’s first assumption had been that he was under attack. That either someone or something had hit him with one of their powers and caused what he experienced. So of course his first reaction was to then try and fight back with his own Abilities. He wasn’t sure what would even help, but trying everything he could was at least better than nothing.

At least that was what he told himself, before the agony just redoubled itself. He hadn’t even been given a chance to use any one of his Abilities. Instead, it was like someone reacted with a sledgehammer to his skull the instant he even tried to channel something. And with that time lag for channeling predictably interfering, nothing came of it except the double dose of pain.

Yet at the same time, it hadn’t taken too long for his body to start recovering from that affliction. It felt like half an hour passed with him being on the ground like that, though in reality, it likely didn’t even take thirty seconds for Sam to reach his side and begin helping him up.

Then as they made their escape through the horde, Jaco had steadily begun to recover. At first it was small, just the pain itself going numb. Then the massive headache faded, allowing him to think clearly again. Finally his body started to move as it should, and he was able to fully stand and run on his own.

However, even now, he hadn’t dared to actually draw upon his Abilities again. The only ones currently ongoing were his Passive Abilities, so at least they seemed to be fine. It was just the Active ones that required his activation to use that seemed to be a problem.

Jaco held out his hand, and for a moment was tempted to see what would happen now. A bit of time had already passed, so maybe…

No. Just as he was about to channel the Mana, he once again felt that pang of wrongness. It was somewhat fainter compared to before, but still there. Which meant that for the time being, he was still out of commission.

Jaco then sat there for a few minutes, still on the lookout. To keep his mind off his own worries, he decided to distract himself with something. For the first time since the battle with the Minotaur, the Druid opened a golden screen to take a close look at what had changed.

General Info:

Species: Hell-Touched Human

Level: 46

Class: Druid

Evolution: True Shifter

Secondary Class: Blight Warlock

Level: 17

Stats:

Strength: 157

Agility: 104

Endurance: 144

Will: 130

Spell Power: 177

Unspent Points: 28

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

With his last two Level Ups, Jaco had also made his own fair share of gains.

The main thing of note was his total pool of Unspent Points. With 28 to now spend as he pleased, Jaco would be lying if he said that he wasn’t tempted to just use them now. After all, doing so would allow him to make Spell Power the first Stat to cross the 200 mark in just one push. For the time being, however, the Druid reminded himself to remain patient and hold off on that.

Because in his mind, these Unspent Points were like a trump card that could always remain up his sleeve. Jaco’s original thinking was that he could use them to quickly bump up his Endurance and effectively give a jump-start boost to his body’s healing. But now he believed that it could be used for even more than that. The thought process was actually rather simple. Why not just go ahead and apply that same idea to the rest of his Stats?

Who knows when he could use a sudden surge to any one of them. A ton of Spell Power to give his Abilities more oomph if their current output wasn’t enough. Will for when it wasn’t raw power that was the issue, but range or finesse. Agility to give him a burst of speed to either escape or catch up to something. And Strength to win… well, a contest of Strength!

From down below, Jaco then picked up the noise of chatter. Inside the building he was currently sitting on top of, Sam and Evelyn had begun to talk about something. Now, if the Druid wanted to focus his hearing to listen in on their exact words, it would actually be fairly easy for him to do so. But as someone who would rather respect the privacy of others, he didn’t.

In fact, learning to tune out what others said around him was a practiced skill of its own at this point. During his days at the camp, it’d been something he very quickly learned to do. He had the angle of not wanting to invade others’ privacy, but also knew that having superhuman hearing to pick up everything around him could get overwhelming fast. So it’d been for his own sake just as much, if not more so, than for others.

Well, it’s been a good bit longer now. Might as well give it a test run and hope whatever’s wrong with me has fixed itself up. With that thought, Jaco lifted his hand off the ground and turned his palm upwards.

Jaco then deeply inhaled as he focused on the energy within his body. At this point, it was still so far so good. Then while channeling his Mana, Jaco intended to create a small and contained fire within his palm. The first stage went smoothly as the Mana inside was channeled throughout his being without any hiccups.

Then once the fuel reached its apex, it was ignited. A flame was born that stayed within the palm of his hand. The moment it sparked into existence, Jaco held his breath. For a second he remained tense while half expecting a nauseous backlash to suddenly scatter it into nothing. Fortunately for him, it didn’t come.

The Druid breathed out a sigh of relief. Just to be certain, he maintained the fire for several more seconds. After that bit of time passed, he then put a bit more power behind it and allowed the flames to flare for just a moment. Luckily for him, that didn’t lead to any negative reaction either.

Now, even with this test, he couldn’t be completely certain. That would only come upon ensuring that an actually big attack wouldn’t cause any sudden issues. But for the time being, he was just glad to see that there didn’t appear to be any permanent damage. That idea had honestly been a real fear that had planted itself in the back of his mind. However, at least now it looked like that idea could be thankfully dismissed as just him worrying too much.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Still, the fact that it happened at all is concerning. I’ll need to be careful about my usage of the Devil’s Essence. I can’t really stop myself from relying on it now that the Secondary Class seems to basically be a permanent feature, but at the end of the day, it’s a power whose origin isn’t actually me. It's too late to really do anything about it now, but I should try to be careful in the future.

He could still recall that moment of empowering the crossbow. How it felt like the Devil’s Essence that covered the environment itself was temporarily at his beck and call. Thanks to that, he’d been able to put all his energy and then some into the Hell Crossbow to charge it nearly instantly. But when considering how it impacted him shortly afterward, it was likely best, he figured, if he didn’t do that again.

Jaco glanced up at the sky and the clouds that still covered it. The darker ones that carried the sudden storm and Spectre swarm were gone now, leaving behind the usual orange-red. It was almost funny how much he’d gotten used to these clouds.

So much so that when he tried to picture the blue sky before the Apocalypse, he had to truly focus to prevent the image from slipping back into that orange-red. A couple of months logically weren’t that long, relatively speaking. But to him, it still felt like an entire lifetime had already passed.

In any case, that was enough time spent on just reminiscing. The three of them had been resting here for a little while by now. And even after the brief conversation downstairs wrapped up, he’d given them about an additional half an hour or so. At this point, however, it was probably best if they got back to it and kept moving.

When Jaco got back down to the ground floor and stepped into the building, Sam and Evelyn had already begun to get up, already understanding what his coming down meant. His gaze met those of the former, and he gave her a nod of approval.

“Congrats on your Class Evolution. One look’s all I needed to see what it’s already done you good,” he said.

And Jaco was being honest with his assessment. There was just something about the quality of her presence that seemed to be a full step up from before. Like anyone else, he assumed, who reached this stage, the current Sam stood on an entirely different level from her pre-evolution self in terms of what she would now be capable of.

“Thank you,” Sam replied.

With that, the three of them then made their way back out of their temporary shelter. They were in too deep now to simply back off without getting more results. The existence of a Demon was one thing learned, but it didn’t teach them much. It was little more than a warning. They desired more tangible, concrete information. Something that could actually prove to be useful, that might give them any kind of advantage.

Of course, after their last encounter, they did so much more cautiously now. The main change to their approach was that Jaco would always scout ahead before doubling back. That way nothing would take them by surprise by sneaking up on them quickly again.

While he was alone during these periods, Jaco ensured his own stealth through the use of One with Nature. Passive Abilities like this were even more interesting than he’d expected, now that he had more since obtaining his first. From a standard point of view, only Wild Constitution could be described as truly passive. It required absolutely no input from him, and simply built up its effect as he took more and more damage.

The same couldn’t be said for One with Nature and Permanent Aspect One, which both required at least some conscious input. The former needed to be flipped on like a switch. While the latter did work passively, ongoing in the background, it did need him to change out which aspect was currently being used.

But those idle thoughts were quickly put aside as Jaco spotted a group of Demidemons.

Taurling (Demidemon)

Level: 42

Taurling (Demidemon)

Level: 43

He spotted a few more, making seven of the creatures in total. All of them were in the low 40s, with the highest he saw being right at the halfway point of Level 45. If that was the upper limit of Taurlings, did that actually mean the weaker Minotaurs were Level 46? From what he’d seen so far, at least, that did seem to be a distinct possibility.

But rather than engage, Jaco just went back to Sam and Evelyn and led them to a different route. For now, it would be better to avoid fighting unless absolutely necessary. They were in the heart of the monster-filled city. It’d be all too easy for a fight to attract other things to their position until they were eventually overwhelmed.

The three of them continued to play the game of slow and steady wins the race. As they got deeper in, the undead they might have expected were more frequently replaced by Demidemons. These were Taurlings, for the most part. Which tended to remain in groups of between three and ten, and seemed to simply be patrolling the streets in a fairly predictable pattern.

Occasionally, they would instead avoid Minotaurs. These monsters maintained the behavioral pattern that Jaco had seen in the one he first fought. They were usually spotted just one at a time, either on their own or leading a group of the more powerful undead. However, there were those that broke from this convention. Every once in a while, Jaco had to take care not to grab the attention of a pair of Minotaurs that walked side by side.

It was in one such case that Jaco was forced to pause. Sam and Evelyn were following behind him from about a block away. A decent distance in that it’d let them stay out of sight while he scouted, but still remain close enough for his senses to pick up anything heading directly for the two of them. But now he’d come to a stop as he observed another pair of Minotaurs standing directly in the middle of the road.

What are they doing? Jaco asked himself after about half a minute had passed. In that time, there had been little to no movement from the monsters. It was only the occasional snort that reminded him that they were even alive, and hadn’t died on their feet.

And then it, or rather, he came. From a side street, a lone man approached the pair. His pace was brisk, but his expression was a casual smile. And as he walked over, Jaco’s nose crinkled. It didn’t take him long to recognize who it was.

Levi, the leader of the Chosen Few. The Minotaurs only snorted as he stopped in front of them. But rather than show any open hostility, they just lowered their heads. Jaco took a few cautious steps forward to get a bit closer. As he did so, he was able to overhear the low murmur of a hushed voice.

Are they actually able to understand him and have a conversation? Jaco wondered. He couldn’t make out any exact words, which was a little frustrating. For a second, the Druid was tempted to get even closer so that he could actually hear what was being said. But the idea was dispelled by his more cautious self.

The awareness of the Minotaurs was not to be wholly underestimated. And then there was Levi himself, whose true capabilities were still largely a question mark. However, perhaps that latter fact was something he could now see a bit more into. He should at least be close enough to see how the other man had progressed since their last encounter.

Spellblade (Human)

Evolved (Conditional Magus)

Level: 47

His eyes narrowed upon seeing the notification. The leader of the Chosen Few’s current Level was of course the thing he quickly focused on.

Hmm. He’s already a full Level higher than me, he thought. During their last encounter, Jaco had been ahead by two Levels. But now that gap was closed, and then some. Yet in retrospect, it wasn’t too surprising.

After the Chosen had attacked the camp with a horde of undead, Jaco’s fighting time had been rather minimal. He’d only really gotten three decent sources of Experience Points in total over the last couple of days, those being the Black Skeletons and Revenant that he encountered, then the swarm of Spectres from earlier that same day, and then, most recently, the Minotaur. And technically the undead he killed right before collapsing, but at this point, a bunch of weak Skeletons was likely no better than a rounding error in his EXP. So in his mind, those didn’t really count.

Between these encounters, Jaco had largely spent his time assisting with the encampment’s reconstruction. A worthwhile endeavor in general, but… just not when it came to the path of gaining Levels.

On the other hand, it’s not like Levi would be able to kill Minotaurs. Unless… maybe he can without it impacting whatever screwed-up alliance they’ve made? No way to really know, so not much point thinking about it. Anyway, with the Stats from my Secondary Class, I probably should have the advantage when it comes to total Stats. Assuming that his main Class and Class Evolution give the same amount, anyway.

However, Jaco was forced to recognize that this was a very big assumption to make. The only thing he knew for sure was that, at least according to Levi’s own claim, the man also had a Rare Class like himself. Exactly how strong was he? The System did seem to prefer a sort of Stat balance when it came to Classes within the same rarity tier, but Jaco honestly didn’t know if all Rare Classes were created equal.

Something else he didn’t know was if Levi’s Class Evolution had also been a Rare one. It was probably safer to assume so, in order not to underestimate him. Yet all the same, Jaco wished, not for the first time, that there was more information about how all this stuff worked. For the moment, though, all he and anyone else could do was guesswork, piecing together theories from what few scraps of info they did have.

But all this thinking led to one important question. Between his Class and Secondary Class, and everything they granted his overall repertoire, did Jaco feel confident in a fight? Assuming it was just a one-versus-one, did he believe that he could currently defeat the leader of the Chosen Few?

Truthfully, Jaco just wasn’t sure. He continued to stare at Levi with a deep frown. He tried to analyze the danger that a gut feeling was now warning him about.

Something about him is just… off. He’s not more powerful than me or anything, as far as I can tell. But I can’t help but feel that there’s just something inherently dangerous about him now. And whatever it is, it definitely wasn’t there last time, he thought.

As Jaco watched, their conversation seemed to wrap up. Yet rather than go their separate ways, the Minotaurs just started to go forward in one direction as Levi followed from close behind. Jaco’s brows were furrowed with suspicion.

Should his team also stick to them and continue to follow themselves? Would it lead to them gaining even more information on what exactly Levi’s plan was and why he was dealing with the Demidemons? Or was that perhaps what the Chosen Few’s leader wanted him to think? Maybe Jaco and the others had already been spotted by him, and now they were about to be led into a trap.

No, why would they need to rely on a trap? They would have the advantage in both numbers and overall Level. There’d be no reason to rely on trickery when you have superior power, right? Jaco asked himself.

Yet before he could make a decision to keep going or retreat, the Minotaurs came to a sudden stop. The Druid immediately tensed, worried that he had indeed already been spotted. As Jaco stared at them, he eventually had to blink. And the moment after he did, his eyes widened with fright.

For in that moment, the Demon from before had appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. It wasn’t even looking his way, instead just starting down at the human being escorted by the Minotaurs. But even so, Jaco still felt beads of sweat run down his back.

Even the slightest movement was no longer an option now. All he could do was pray that One with Nature would hold up with the current distance between him and them.